Is there any way to create form with multiple submit buttons on Spring MVC using annotations?

Question

I'm trying to create simple add/remove form using annotation based Spring MVC. 'Add' functionality comes smoothly, but when I tried to add another button to form i've got stuck.

Here is my code:

Controller actions:

@RequestMapping(value = "/books/documentType.do", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String getDocType(
        @RequestParam(required = false, value = "id") Long id,
        ModelMap model) {

    DocTypeDTO docType = new DocTypeDTO();
    if (id != null)
        docType = docTypeConverter.getDTO(id);
    model.addAttribute("docType", docType);
    return "/books/documentType";
}

@RequestMapping(value = "/books/documentType.do", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String setDocType(
        @ModelAttribute("docType") DocTypeDTO docType,
        BindingResult result,
        SessionStatus sessionStatus
) {
    docTypeValidator.validate(docType, result);
    if (result.hasErrors())
        return "/books/documentType";
    else {
        docTypeConverter.saveDTO(docType);
        sessionStatus.setComplete();
        return "redirect:/books/documentTypes.do";
    }

}

Awfully markuped form:

<form:form method="post" commandName="docType" id="editForm">
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#dbdbdb">
    <tr>
        <td></td>
        <td>
            <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
                <tr>
                    <td class="spacer"><img src="/images/spacer.gif" width="116" height="1" border="0"/></td>
                    <td class="spacer"><img src="/images/spacer.gif" width="216" height="1" border="0"/></td>
                </tr>

                <tr>
                    <td class="form-cell-text-underlined">Отображать на сайте</td>
                    <td colspan="2">
                        <form:checkbox path="shownOnSite"/>
                    </td>
                </tr>

                <tr>
                    <td class="form-cell-text-underlined">Международный</td>
                    <td colspan="2">
                        <form:checkbox path="international"/>
                    </td>
                </tr>

                <tr>
                    <td class="form-cell-text-underlined">Внутренний код</td>
                    <td colspan="2">
                        <form:input path="internalCode"/>
                    </td>
                </tr>

                <tr>
                    <td class="form-cell-text-underlined">Код</td>
                    <td colspan="2">
                        <form:input path="code"/>
                        <form:errors path="code"/>
                    </td>
                </tr>

                <tr>
                    <td class="form-cell-text-underlined">Код IATA</td>
                    <td colspan="2">
                        <form:input path="codeIATA"/>
                    </td>
                </tr>

                <tr>
                    <td class="padded-underlined">Название</td>

                    <td colspan="2">
                        <form:input path="name"/>
                        <form:errors path="name"/>
                    </td>
                </tr>

                <tr>
                    <td class="padded-underlined">Название(Англ.)</td>

                    <td colspan="2">
                        <form:input path="nameEn"/>
                    </td>
                </tr>

                <tr>
                    <td colspan="3">
                        <input type="submit" value="Сохранить">
                    </td>
                </tr>

            </table>
        </td>
        <td></td>
    </tr>
</table>

Thanks!

Solution 1

With Spring MVC 3, this is reasonably straight-forward to do with just JSP and Controller. For example, these two submit buttons handle 'previous' and 'save' actions:

<input value="Save" name="save" type="submit" id="btnSave" class="submit_button">
<input value="Previous" name="previous" type="submit" id="btnPrevious" class="submit_button">

Then, in the controller, you accept the input name as a param in the request mapping, along with the controller 'address':

@RequestMapping(value="thisForm.form", params="save")
public String save() {
    // save
}

@RequestMapping(value="thisForm.form", params="previous")
public String doPreviousStuff() {
    // get mapping for previous page and return
} 

Solution 2

If you really want two submit buttons on your form, you can do it with Javascript like this (using jQuery in this example):

<SCRIPT language=JavaScript>
  function remove() {
    $('#editForm').attr("action", "documentTypeRemove.do");
    $("#editForm").submit();
  }
</SCRIPT>

...

<button type="button" onclick="remove();">Remove</button>

Then create another RequestMapping in your controller:

@RequestMapping(value = "/books/documentTypeRemove.do", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String removeDocType(...