How to pass a List<> in REST POST method using spring mvc

Question

I'm trying to pass a List of similar values in the request body of a REST post method using spring mvc. Below is my sample code. Please let me know what is correct way to send the List in requestbody.

@RequestMapping(value = "/userlogin/details", method = RequestMethod.POST, produces = MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE, consumes = MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)
@ResponseBody
public ResponseEntity<String> insertLoginDetails(
        @RequestParam("username") String userName,
        @RequestBody List<String> listOfID) {
    return eventAnalyzerHelper.insertUserLoginDetails(userName,
            listOfID);
}

Thanks

Solution

This example might help you

Each text input has the same name fruits:

<form method="post">
  Fruit 1: <input type="text" name="fruits"/><br/>
  Fruit 2: <input type="text" name="fruits"/><br/>
  Fruit 3: <input type="text" name="fruits"/><br/>
  <input type="submit"/>
</form>

On your controller’s handler method, you can obtain the list of all fruit names by binding it like this:

@RequestMapping(value = "/", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String addFruits(@RequestParam("fruits") List<String> fruits) {
  // ...
}

Basically Spring handles on its own, if you have multiple fields with same path/name, it automatically tries to cast it into Array or List.

Comments

[Sotirios Delimanolis]

You don't send anything in a request body, you receive from the request body. What's wrong with what you have?

[Matt]

I usually make a dedicated FooList class that holds a List<Foo> field. That way the JSON ends up being something like: {"foos": [ {"a":1}, {"b":2}, ... ] }.

[Serge Ballesta]

Even if ankur-singhal answer is form related, a controller does not care about how the request was constructed, and you can still construct it with javascript or any other scripting language.

[S.K. Venkat]

Can you plz share a example for ListWrapper class to construct the list of fruits?