CrudEditorForm and CrudCreationForm

When using Crud directly, the Editor and CreationForm type parameters must implement these two interfaces. They are the contract between the form object and the framework’s save/create actions.

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CrudEditorForm<IdType>

The edit form interface. Mateu calls save() when the user submits the edit form, and uses id() to navigate back to the detail view after saving.

public interface CrudEditorForm<IdType> {
    void save(HttpRequest httpRequest);
    IdType id();
}

Method	Called when	Must do
save(httpRequest)	User clicks Save in the edit form	Persist the current field values
id()	After save, to redirect to the detail view	Return the entity’s identifier

Example

public class ProductEditor implements CrudEditorForm<String> {

    public String id;

    @NotEmpty
    public String name;

    @NotNull
    public BigDecimal price;

    public ProductStatus status;

    private final ProductService service;

    public ProductEditor(ProductService service) {
        this.service = service;
    }

    @Override
    public String id() {
        return id;
    }

    @Override
    public void save(HttpRequest httpRequest) {
        service.update(id, name, price, status);
    }
}

Reading hydrated state in save()

When save() is called, the form fields have already been hydrated from the browser state — you can read them directly:

@Override
public void save(HttpRequest httpRequest) {
    // 'name', 'price', 'status' already contain the values the user edited
    var entity = new Product(id, name, price, status);
    repository.save(entity);
}

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CrudCreationForm<IdType>

The creation form interface. Mateu calls create() when the user submits the create form. It returns the id of the newly created entity, which the framework uses to navigate to the detail view.

public interface CrudCreationForm<IdType> {
    IdType create(HttpRequest httpRequest);
}

Method	Called when	Must do
create(httpRequest)	User clicks Save in the create form	Persist the new entity and return its id

Example

public class ProductCreationForm implements CrudCreationForm<String> {

    @NotEmpty
    public String name;

    @NotNull
    public BigDecimal price;

    private final ProductService service;

    public ProductCreationForm(ProductService service) {
        this.service = service;
    }

    @Override
    public String create(HttpRequest httpRequest) {
        return service.create(name, price);
    }
}

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Implementing both on the same class

A common shortcut is implementing both interfaces on a single class, using a nullable id field to distinguish create from edit:

public class ProductForm
        implements Identifiable, CrudEditorForm<String>, CrudCreationForm<String> {

    @EditableOnlyWhenCreating
    public String id;

    @NotEmpty
    public String name;

    @NotNull
    public BigDecimal price;

    public ProductStatus status;

    @Override
    public String id() { return id; }

    @Override
    public void save(HttpRequest httpRequest) {
        service.update(id, name, price, status);
    }

    @Override
    public String create(HttpRequest httpRequest) {
        return service.create(name, price, status);
    }
}

The orchestrator then uses this class for both Editor and CreationForm:

public class ProductOrchestrator
    extends Crud<ProductView, ProductForm, ProductForm, ProductFilters, ProductRow, String> {
    ...
    @Override public Class<ProductForm> editorClass()       { return ProductForm.class; }
    @Override public Class<ProductForm> creationFormClass() { return ProductForm.class; }
}

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Using AutoNamedView instead

When the entity itself is the form (no separate editor class), use AutoNamedView<T> in the adapter rather than creating a dedicated form class. AutoNamedView implements both CrudEditorForm and CrudCreationForm automatically via its save() and create() methods, which delegate to the CrudRepository.

This is what AutoCrud does internally — it wraps the entity in AutoNamedView so you never have to write the form interfaces yourself.

This is handled automatically by AutoCrud and FilteredAutoCrud — you only need these interfaces when using Crud directly with separate types for view, editor, and creation form.

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Next

• Full control with Crud — how these interfaces fit into the six-type-parameter orchestrator
• CrudAdapter — where getEditor() and getCreationForm() return instances of these interfaces