In my controller:

```
@Controller
public class UserController {

    @RequestMapping(value="/admin/user/id/{id}/update", method=RequestMethod.GET)
    public ModelAndView updateUserHandler(@ModelAttribute("userForm") UserForm userForm, @PathVariable String id) {

        Map<String, Object> model = new HashMap<String, Object>();
        userForm.setCompanyName("The Selected Company");
        model.put("userForm", userForm);

        List<String> companyNames = new ArrayList<String>();
        companyNames.add("First Company Name");
        companyNames.add("The Selected Company");
        companyNames.add("Last Company Name");

        model.put("companyNames", companyNames);

        Map<String, Map<String, Object>> modelForView = new HashMap<String, Map<String, Object>>();
        modelForView.put("vars", model);

        return new ModelAndView("/admin/user/update", modelForView);
    }
}

```

The select form field in my view:

```
<form:form method="post" action="/admin/user/update.html" modelAttribute="userForm">
<form:select path="companyName" id="companyName" items="${vars.companyNames}" itemValue="id" itemLabel="companyName" />
</form:form>

```

It was my understanding that the form backing bean would be mapped based upon the modelAttribute attribute in the form. I'm obviously missing something here.