Java – Bean validation group sequence not working

bean-validationhibernate-validatorjavaspring-mvc

I'm using spring 4.1, hibernate validator 5.1.3 for my project. I've been trying to get the GroupSequence to work from last 2 days. I've referred the validation doc, blogs and a few questions posted on stackoverflow.

Please see the below class. When I remove the GroupSequence and groups from the annotations, all the validation messages come up together, i.e, all the checks on name and other fields are fired together.
Lets say for name field – I want @NotBlank and @Size to be validated first, then the name should be matched with the Pattern and at last it should be checked for @UniqueName because of the database calls.

For that, I created the GroupSequence, as suggested in the docs and answers. But when the validations are fired, only @NotBlank and @Size are fired for name. When I remove the groups value from the remaining annotations, they start working but all the error messages are shown at once, which I don't want.

I want the annotation specified with groups First.class are fired together and before Second.class validations. I don't get why the validations specified with groups aren't getting fired.

Can someone please guide me.

@GroupSequence({MyForm.class, OrderedChecks.class})
public class MyForm {

  @NotBlank
  @Size(min = 2, max = 40)
  @Pattern(regexp = "^[\\p{Alnum} ]+$", groups = First.class)
  @UniqueName(groups = Second.class)//Custom validation
  private String name;

  @NotBlank
  @Size(min = 2, max = 40)
  private String url;

  @NotBlank
  @Size(max = 100)
  private String imagePath;

  //Custom Validation
  @CheckContent(acceptedType = <someString>, allowedSize=<someval>, dimensions=<someval> groups = Second.class)
  private MultipartFile image

...
}

@GroupSequence(value = {Default.class, First.class, Second.class})
public interface OrderedChecks {}

@Controller
@RequestMapping(value = "/myForm")
public class MyFormController {

    @RequestMapping(method = POST)
    public String completeSignUp(@Valid @ModelAttribute("myForm") final MyForm myForm,
                            BindingResult result, RedirectAttributes redirectAttributes, Model model) {

        if(result.hasErrors()) {
            model.addAttribute(companyDetailsForm);
            //ERROR_VIEW="myForm";
            return ERROR_VIEW;
        }
       // Doing something else.
      return <success view>;
   }
}

Best Answer

Use Spring's @Validated instead of @Valid. This will allow you specify the group and control the sequence.

Change your controller method to:

@RequestMapping(method = POST)
public String completeSignUp(@Validated(OrderedChecks.class) @ModelAttribute("myForm") final MyForm myForm,
                        BindingResult result, RedirectAttributes redirectAttributes, Model model) {
...
}

Note that you don't need @GroupSequence({MyForm.class, OrderedChecks.class}) on top of MyForm bean.

Related Solutions

Cross field validation with Hibernate Validator (JSR 303)

Each field constraint should be handled by a distinct validator annotation, or in other words it's not suggested practice to have one field's validation annotation checking against other fields; cross-field validation should be done at the class level. Additionally, the JSR-303 Section 2.2 preferred way to express multiple validations of the same type is via a list of annotations. This allows the error message to be specified per match.

For example, validating a common form:

@FieldMatch.List({
        @FieldMatch(first = "password", second = "confirmPassword", message = "The password fields must match"),
        @FieldMatch(first = "email", second = "confirmEmail", message = "The email fields must match")
})
public class UserRegistrationForm  {
    @NotNull
    @Size(min=8, max=25)
    private String password;

    @NotNull
    @Size(min=8, max=25)
    private String confirmPassword;

    @NotNull
    @Email
    private String email;

    @NotNull
    @Email
    private String confirmEmail;
}

The Annotation:

package constraints;

import constraints.impl.FieldMatchValidator;

import javax.validation.Constraint;
import javax.validation.Payload;
import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.TYPE;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**
 * Validation annotation to validate that 2 fields have the same value.
 * An array of fields and their matching confirmation fields can be supplied.
 *
 * Example, compare 1 pair of fields:
 * @FieldMatch(first = "password", second = "confirmPassword", message = "The password fields must match")
 * 
 * Example, compare more than 1 pair of fields:
 * @FieldMatch.List({
 *   @FieldMatch(first = "password", second = "confirmPassword", message = "The password fields must match"),
 *   @FieldMatch(first = "email", second = "confirmEmail", message = "The email fields must match")})
 */
@Target({TYPE, ANNOTATION_TYPE})
@Retention(RUNTIME)
@Constraint(validatedBy = FieldMatchValidator.class)
@Documented
public @interface FieldMatch
{
    String message() default "{constraints.fieldmatch}";

    Class<?>[] groups() default {};

    Class<? extends Payload>[] payload() default {};

    /**
     * @return The first field
     */
    String first();

    /**
     * @return The second field
     */
    String second();

    /**
     * Defines several <code>@FieldMatch</code> annotations on the same element
     *
     * @see FieldMatch
     */
    @Target({TYPE, ANNOTATION_TYPE})
    @Retention(RUNTIME)
    @Documented
            @interface List
    {
        FieldMatch[] value();
    }
}

The Validator:

package constraints.impl;

import constraints.FieldMatch;
import org.apache.commons.beanutils.BeanUtils;

import javax.validation.ConstraintValidator;
import javax.validation.ConstraintValidatorContext;

public class FieldMatchValidator implements ConstraintValidator<FieldMatch, Object>
{
    private String firstFieldName;
    private String secondFieldName;

    @Override
    public void initialize(final FieldMatch constraintAnnotation)
    {
        firstFieldName = constraintAnnotation.first();
        secondFieldName = constraintAnnotation.second();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isValid(final Object value, final ConstraintValidatorContext context)
    {
        try
        {
            final Object firstObj = BeanUtils.getProperty(value, firstFieldName);
            final Object secondObj = BeanUtils.getProperty(value, secondFieldName);

            return firstObj == null && secondObj == null || firstObj != null && firstObj.equals(secondObj);
        }
        catch (final Exception ignore)
        {
            // ignore
        }
        return true;
    }
}

Java – How to get the current working directory in Java

Code :

public class JavaApplication {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("Working Directory = " + System.getProperty("user.dir"));
  }
}

This will print the absolute path of the current directory from where your application was initialized.

Explanation:

From the documentation:

java.io package resolve relative pathnames using current user directory. The current directory is represented as system property, that is, user.dir and is the directory from where the JVM was invoked.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Cross field validation with Hibernate Validator (JSR 303)

Java – How to get the current working directory in Java

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