title: When is @RequestParam annotation not needed in Spring MVC?
body: <p>I'm looking through some Spring 3 MVC controller code and I see that @RequestParam is used for some parameters and not for others. Example where it is not being used:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@RequestMapping(value = "/experiments", method = RequestMethod.GET)
  public String getExperimentsPage(ExperimentSearchCriteria criteria, Map&lt;String, Object&gt; model) {
      // method body here
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When is @RequestParam (or similar parameter-specifying annotation) not needed?</p>