Spring 3 MVC and JSR303 @Valid example

In Spring 3, you can enable “mvc:annotation-driven” to support JSR303 bean validation via @Valid annotation, if any JSR 303 validator framework on the classpath.

Note
Hibernate Validator is the reference implementation for JSR 303
In this tutorial, we show you how to integrate Hibernate validator with Spring MVC, via @Valid annotation, to perform bean validation in a HTML form.

Technologies used :

• Spring 3.0.5.RELEASE
• Hibernate Validator 4.2.0.Final
• JDK 1.6
• Eclipse 3.6
• Maven 3

1. Project Dependencies

Hibernate validator is available at JBoss public repository.

    <repositories>
        <repository>
            <id>JBoss repository</id>
            <url>http://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
        </repository>
    </repositories>

    <properties>
        <spring.version>3.0.5.RELEASE</spring.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>

        <!-- Spring 3 dependencies -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${spring.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Hibernate Validator -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
            <version>4.2.0.Final</version>
        </dependency>

    </dependencies>

2. JSR303 Bean Validation

A simple POJO, annotated with Hibernate validator annotation.

package com.mkyong.common.model;

import org.hibernate.validator.constraints.NotEmpty;
import org.hibernate.validator.constraints.Range;

public class Customer {

    @NotEmpty //make sure name is not empty
    String name;

    @Range(min = 1, max = 150) //age need between 1 and 150
    int age;

    //getter and setter methods

}

3. Controller + @Valid

For validation to work, just annotate the “JSR annotated model object” via @Valid. That’s all, other stuff is just a normal Spring MVC form handling.

package com.mkyong.common.controller;

import javax.validation.Valid;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.ui.ModelMap;
import org.springframework.validation.BindingResult;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import com.mkyong.common.model.Customer;

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/customer")
public class SignUpController {

    @RequestMapping(value = "/signup", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public String addCustomer(@Valid Customer customer, BindingResult result) {

        if (result.hasErrors()) {
            return "SignUpForm";
        } else {
            return "Done";
        }

    }

    @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public String displayCustomerForm(ModelMap model) {

        model.addAttribute("customer", new Customer());
        return "SignUpForm";

    }

}

4. Error Message

By default, if validation failed.

@NotEmpty will display “may not be empty”
@Range will display “must be between 1 and 150″
You can override it easily, create a properties with “key” and message. To know which @annotation bind to which key, just debug it and view value inside “BindingResult result“. Normally, the key is “@Annotation Name.object.fieldname“.

File : messages.properties

NotEmpty.customer.name = Name is required!
Range.customer.age = Age value must be between 1 and 150

5. mvc:annotation-driven

Enable “mvc:annotation-driven” to make Spring MVC supports JSR303 validator via @Valid, and also bind your properties file.

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc" 
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans     
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">

    <context:component-scan base-package="com.mkyong.common.controller" />

         <!-- support JSR303 annotation if JSR 303 validation present on classpath -->
    <mvc:annotation-driven />

    <bean id="viewResolver"
        class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
        <property name="prefix">
            <value>/WEB-INF/pages/</value>
        </property>
        <property name="suffix">
            <value>.jsp</value>
        </property>
    </bean>

        <!-- bind your messages.properties -->
    <bean class="org.springframework.context.support.ResourceBundleMessageSource"
        id="messageSource">
        <property name="basename" value="messages" />
    </bean>

</beans>

6. JSP Pages

Last one, normal JSP page with Spring form tag library.

File : SignUpForm.jsp

<%@ taglib prefix="form" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags/form"%>
<html>
<head>
<style>
.error {
    color: #ff0000;
}

.errorblock {
    color: #000;
    background-color: #ffEEEE;
    border: 3px solid #ff0000;
    padding: 8px;
    margin: 16px;
}
</style>
</head>

<body>
    <h2>Customer SignUp Form - JSR303 @Valid example</h2>

    <form:form method="POST" commandName="customer" action="customer/signup">
        <form:errors path="*" cssClass="errorblock" element="div" />
        <table>
            <tr>
                <td>Customer Name :</td>
                <td><form:input path="name" /></td>
                <td><form:errors path="name" cssClass="error" /></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Customer Age :</td>
                <td><form:input path="age" /></td>
                <td><form:errors path="age" cssClass="error" /></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="3"><input type="submit" /></td>
            </tr>
        </table>
    </form:form>

</body>
</html>

File : Done.jsp

<html>
<body>
    <h2>Done</h2>
</body>
</html>

6. Demo

URL : http://localhost:8080/SpringMVC/customer – Customer form page, with 2 text boxes for name and age.

URL : http://localhost:8080/SpringMVC/customer/signup – If you didn’t fill in the form and click on the “submit” button, your customized validation error messages will be displayed.