14.5. Exercises: Edit Model Classes

Add functionality to edit event objects in your coding-events application. These exercises assume that you have added all of the code from this section of the book and your application resembles the model-binding branch of coding-events-demo.

Create a new branch from here with a descriptive name, such as edit-events. The edit form will resemble the form used to create an event.

Tip

As you work through these steps, test your code along the way! With each change you apply to your code, ask yourself what you expect to see when the application is run. You may not find that all of the steps result in observable changes, though. Use IntelliJ’s debugger and read your error messages if you run into issues after applying any of the changes.

  1. Create the two handler methods listed below in EventController. We’ll add code to these in a moment, so just put the method outline in place for now.

    1. Create a method to display an edit form with this signature:

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      public String displayEditForm(Model model, @PathVariable int eventId) {
   // controller code will go here
}

    2. Create a method to process the form with this signature:

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      public String processEditForm(int eventId, String name, String description) {
   // controller code will go here
}

    Check your solution

  2. Add the necessary annotations to these methods for them to both live at the path /events/edit.

    1. Judging by the names of the handlers, which should handle GET requests and which should handle POST requests?

    2. Remember, we’ve configured @RequestMapping with a URL segment on the controller class already.

    3. You’ll need to configure the route for displayEditForm to include the path variable eventId, so that paths like /events/edit/3 will work.

  3. Create an edit.html view template in resources/templates/events.

  4. Copy the code from create.html into edit.html.

    1. You’ll want to update the text of the submit button to reflect the edit functionality.

  5. Back in the displayEditForm handler, round out the controller method.

    1. Use an EventData method to find the event object with the given eventId.

    2. Put the event object in the model with .addAttribute().

    3. Return the appropriate template string.

    Check your solution

  6. Within the form fields in edit.html,

    1. Get the name and description from the event that was passed in via the model and set them as the values of the form fields.

    2. Add th:action="@{/events/edit}" to the form tag.

  7. Add another input to hold the id of the event being edited. This should be hidden from the user:

    <input type="hidden" th:value="${event.id}" name="eventId" />

  8. Back in the displayEditForm handler, add a title to model that reads “Edit Event NAME (id=ID)” where NAME and ID are replaced by the values for the given event.

  9. In processEditForm,

    1. Query EventData for the event being edited with the given id parameter.

    2. Update the name and description of the event with the appropriate model setter methods.

    3. Redirect the user to /events (the event listing page).

    Check your solution

  10. To access event editing, the user will need an edit option in the list of event data.

    1. In resources/templates/events/index.html, add a link in a new table column to edit the event:

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      <td>
   <a th:href="@{/events/edit/{id}(id=${event.id})}">Edit</a>
</td>