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Spring MVC - Handling HTTP PATCH Request

[Last Updated: Feb 23, 2018]

This example shows how to handle HTTP PATCH request in Spring MVC

PUT vs PATCH vs POST

PUT method creates/replaces the resource at the requested URI.

PATCH method modifies the existing resource (partially) at the requested URI.

POST method creates/modifies the resource without targeting an URI. After modification, how user can make use of the same resource, that's entirely dependent on the web application logic.

Example

The controller

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/articles")
public class ArticleController {

  @Autowired
  private ArticleService articleService;

  @PatchMapping("/{id}")
  @ResponseBody
  public String patchArticle(@RequestBody MultiValueMap<String, String> formParams) {
      System.out.println(formParams);
      long id = Long.parseLong(formParams.getFirst("id"));
      String content = formParams.getFirst("content");
      articleService.updateArticle(id, content);
      return "Article updated.";
  }

  @GetMapping("/{id}")
  public String getArticle(@PathVariable("id") long id, Model model) {
      Article article = articleService.getArticleById(id);
      model.addAttribute("article", article);
      return "article-form";
  }
}
public class Article {
  private long id;
  private String content;

  public Article(long id, String content) {
      this.id = id;
      this.content = content;
  }
    .............
}

src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/views/article-form.jsp

<html>
<head>
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>

<h3>Article Form</h3>
<form id="article-form">
    <pre>
         id: <input type="text" name="id" value="${article.id}" readonly>
    content: <input type="text" name="content" value="${article.content}">
                  <input type="submit" value="Submit">
    </pre>
</form>
<br/>
<script>
 $("#article-form").submit(function(event){
            event.preventDefault();
            var form = $(this);
            var id = form.find('input[name="id"]').val();
            var url = 'http://localhost:8080/articles/'+id;
            var content = form.find('input[name="content"]').val();
            $.ajax({
                type : 'PATCH',
                url : url,
                contentType: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
                data : "id=" + id + "&content=" + content,
                success : function(data, status, xhr){
                  //refresh the current page
                   location.reload();
                },
                error: function(xhr, status, error){
                  alert(error);
                }
            });
        });

</script>
</body>
</html>

Java Config

@EnableWebMvc
@Configuration
@ComponentScan
public class MyWebConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {

  @Override
  public void configureViewResolvers(ViewResolverRegistry registry) {
      registry.jsp("/WEB-INF/views/", ".jsp");
  }
}

Output

To try examples, run embedded tomcat (configured in pom.xml of example project below):

mvn tomcat7:run-war

Accessing http://localhost:8080/articles/1 :

Editing the content form field and submitting the form will refresh the form with updated content:

Example Project

Dependencies and Technologies Used:

  • spring-webmvc 5.0.3.RELEASE: Spring Web MVC.
  • javax.servlet-api 3.0.1 Java Servlet API
  • jstl 1.2 javax.servlet:jstl
  • JDK 1.8
  • Maven 3.3.9

PATCH Request Example Select All Download
  • spring-patch-example
    • src
      • main
        • java
          • com
            • logicbig
              • example
                • ArticleController.java
          • webapp
            • WEB-INF
              • views

    See Also