title: Spring 3 MVC: form backing object has to be in session? How can I avoid this?
body: <p>I read a few tutorials about forms and submission in Spring 3 MVC. All these examples indicate that storing the backing object in the session the following way:</p>
  
  <p>@SessionAttributes({"command"})</p>
  
  <p>I used old versions of Spring in which there is a formBacking method if a controller inherits SimpleFormController. </p>
  
  <p>protected Object formBackingObject(HttpServletRequest request)</p>
  
  <p>If my understanding is right, the old version approach loads the form backing object on the fly when the form submits and there is no need of storing this object in session.</p>
  
  <p>If my understanding about Spring 3 MVC is right, then I don't like the session approach because it consumes lot of memory in case of large users and the object stored in session might be outdated at the time of form submission.</p>
  
  <p>Can I avoid storing the form backing object in session in Spring 3's MVC? Any pointer?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any input and please correct me if I am wrong.</p>
  
  <p>Regards.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>Anyone else knows whether my understanding is right?</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <blockquote>
      <p>the GET controller adding the object to the model equates to adding it to session. How can Spring remember the object as the backing object when a form is submitted? Cheers.</p>
    </blockquote>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>How can the form backing object added to the model in the GET controller survive a round trip between the server and client when a form is submitted? Does Spring serialize it on disk? I am guessing...</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any input!</p>