Spring controller with #RequestBody and #ModelAttribute for the same parameter - spring-mvc

Question

I want to create a controller method that can be called from html form or from a standalone client using resttemplate.
The method has this signature:
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
public ModelAndView save(#RequestBody #ModelAttribute(value = "itemCreateRequest")
ItemCreateRequest request, Model model) throws NoSuchMethodException,
SecurityException, InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException,
IllegalArgumentException, InvocationTargetException {
...
}
The problem is, that if I use the HTML form, everything works fine, but when I try to use the standalone client the values in the request parameter come in null.
ItemCreateRequest icr = new ItemCreateRequest();
icr.setItem(new ItemDTO(null, "23", "bla", "bla bla"));
restTemplate.postForLocation("http://localhost:8080/ims_ui/items.xml", icr);
If I try the method without the #ModelAttribute the standalone client works but the HTML form not.
This is the configuration of my servlet-context.xml
<beans:bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping"/>
<beans:bean id="handlerAdapter" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter">
<beans:property name="messageConverters">
<beans:list>
<beans:bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.xml.MarshallingHttpMessageConverter">
<beans:property name="marshaller" ref="marshaller"/>
<beans:property name="unmarshaller" ref="marshaller"/>
</beans:bean>
<beans:bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.StringHttpMessageConverter"/>
<beans:bean class="org.springframework.http.converter.FormHttpMessageConverter"/>
</beans:list>
</beans:property>
</beans:bean>
<beans:bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ContentNegotiatingViewResolver">
<beans:property name="order" value="0" />
<beans:property name="mediaTypes">
<beans:map>
<beans:entry key="jsp" value="application/html" />
<beans:entry key="xml" value="application/xml" />
</beans:map>
</beans:property>
<beans:property name="defaultViews">
<beans:list>
<!-- XML View -->
<beans:bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.xml.MarshallingView">
<beans:constructor-arg ref="marshaller" />
</beans:bean>
</beans:list>
</beans:property>
</beans:bean>
<beans:bean id="marshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller">
<beans:property name="contextPaths">
<beans:array>
<beans:value>net.franciscovillegas.summa.ims.dto</beans:value>
<beans:value>net.franciscovillegas.summa.ims.service.requests</beans:value>
</beans:array>
</beans:property>
</beans:bean>
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The answer is in you're post:
If I try the method without the #ModelAttribute the standalone client
works but the HTML form not.
I think that, when you use the html application you send a request to the server with a map where all keys starts with itemCreateRequest.VARIABLE_NAME , but when you use stand alone application you send that request without the declared #ModelAttribute.
The declared ModelAttribute, in you case "itemCreateRequest", should stand in front of each information sent to that controller.
You can try something like this:
restTemplate.postForLocation("http://localhost:8080/ims_ui/items.xml", new HashMap<String, Object>(){
{
put("itemCreateRequest", icr);
}
});