Spring MVC: How to perform validation?

Question

With Spring MVC, there are 3 different ways to perform validation : using annotation, manually, or a mix of both. There is not a unique "cleanest and best way" to validate, but there is probably one that fits your project/problem/context better.

Let's have a User :

public class User {

    private String name;

    ...

}

Method 1 : If you have Spring 3.x+ and simple validation to do, use javax.validation.constraints annotations (also known as JSR-303 annotations).

public class User {

    @NotNull
    private String name;

    ...

}

You will need a JSR-303 provider in your libraries, like Hibernate Validator who is the reference implementation (this library has nothing to do with databases and relational mapping, it just does validation :-).

Then in your controller you would have something like :

@RequestMapping(value="/user", method=RequestMethod.POST)
public createUser(Model model, @Valid @ModelAttribute("user") User user, BindingResult result){
    if (result.hasErrors()){
      // do something
    }
    else {
      // do something else
    }
}

Notice the @Valid : if the user happens to have a null name, result.hasErrors() will be true.

Method 2 : If you have complex validation (like big business validation logic, conditional validation across multiple fields, etc.), or for some reason you cannot use method 1, use manual validation. It is a good practice to separate the controller’s code from the validation logic. Don't create your validation class(es) from scratch, Spring provides a handy org.springframework.validation.Validator interface (since Spring 2).

So let's say you have

public class User {

    private String name;

    private Integer birthYear;
    private User responsibleUser;
    ...

}

and you want to do some "complex" validation like : if the user's age is under 18, responsibleUser must not be null and responsibleUser's age must be over 21.

You will do something like this

public class UserValidator implements Validator {

    @Override
    public boolean supports(Class clazz) {
      return User.class.equals(clazz);
    }

    @Override
    public void validate(Object target, Errors errors) {
      User user = (User) target;

      if(user.getName() == null) {
          errors.rejectValue("name", "your_error_code");
      }

      // do "complex" validation here

    }

}

Then in your controller you would have :

@RequestMapping(value="/user", method=RequestMethod.POST)
    public createUser(Model model, @ModelAttribute("user") User user, BindingResult result){
        UserValidator userValidator = new UserValidator();
        userValidator.validate(user, result);

        if (result.hasErrors()){
          // do something
        }
        else {
          // do something else
        }
}

If there are validation errors, result.hasErrors() will be true.

Note : You can also set the validator in a @InitBinder method of the controller, with "binder.setValidator(...)" (in which case a mix use of method 1 and 2 would not be possible, because you replace the default validator). Or you could instantiate it in the default constructor of the controller. Or have a @Component/@Service UserValidator that you inject (@Autowired) in your controller : very useful, because most validators are singletons + unit test mocking becomes easier + your validator could call other Spring components.

Method 3 : Why not using a combination of both methods? Validate the simple stuff, like the "name" attribute, with annotations (it is quick to do, concise and more readable). Keep the heavy validations for validators (when it would take hours to code custom complex validation annotations, or just when it is not possible to use annotations). I did this on a former project, it worked like a charm, quick & easy.

Warning : you must not mistake validation handling for exception handling. Read this post to know when to use them.

References :

• A very interesting blog post about bean validation (Original link is dead)
• Another good blog post about validation (Original link is dead)
• Latest Spring documentation about validation

There are two ways to validate user input: annotations and by inheriting Spring's Validator class. For simple cases, the annotations are nice. If you need complex validations (like cross-field validation, eg. "verify email address" field), or if your model is validated in multiple places in your application with different rules, or if you don't have the ability to modify your model object by placing annotations on it, Spring's inheritance-based Validator is the way to go. I'll show examples of both.

The actual validation part is the same regardless of which type of validation you're using:

RequestMapping(value="fooPage", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String processSubmit(@Valid @ModelAttribute("foo") Foo foo, BindingResult result, ModelMap m) {
    if(result.hasErrors()) {
        return "fooPage";
    }
    ...
    return "successPage";
}

If you are using annotations, your Foo class might look like:

public class Foo {

    @NotNull
    @Size(min = 1, max = 20)
    private String name;

    @NotNull
    @Min(1)
    @Max(110)
    private Integer age;

    // getters, setters
}

Annotations above are javax.validation.constraints annotations. You can also use Hibernate's org.hibernate.validator.constraints, but it doesn't look like you are using Hibernate.

Alternatively, if you implement Spring's Validator, you would create a class as follows:

public class FooValidator implements Validator {

    @Override
    public boolean supports(Class<?> clazz) {
        return Foo.class.equals(clazz);
    }

    @Override
    public void validate(Object target, Errors errors) {

        Foo foo = (Foo) target;

        if(foo.getName() == null) {
            errors.rejectValue("name", "name[emptyMessage]");
        }
        else if(foo.getName().length() < 1 || foo.getName().length() > 20){
            errors.rejectValue("name", "name[invalidLength]");
        }

        if(foo.getAge() == null) {
            errors.rejectValue("age", "age[emptyMessage]");
        }
        else if(foo.getAge() < 1 || foo.getAge() > 110){
            errors.rejectValue("age", "age[invalidAge]");
        }
    }
}

If using the above validator, you also have to bind the validator to the Spring controller (not necessary if using annotations):

@InitBinder("foo")
protected void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) {
    binder.setValidator(new FooValidator());
}

Also see Spring docs.

Hope that helps.

I would like to extend nice answer of Jerome Dalbert. I found very easy to write your own annotation validators in JSR-303 way. You are not limited to have "one field" validation. You can create your own annotation on type level and have complex validation (see examples below). I prefer this way because I don't need mix different types of validation (Spring and JSR-303) like Jerome do. Also this validators are "Spring aware" so you can use @Inject/@Autowire out of box.

Example of custom object validation:

@Target({ TYPE, ANNOTATION_TYPE })
@Retention(RUNTIME)
@Constraint(validatedBy = { YourCustomObjectValidator.class })
public @interface YourCustomObjectValid {

    String message() default "{YourCustomObjectValid.message}";

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

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

public class YourCustomObjectValidator implements ConstraintValidator<YourCustomObjectValid, YourCustomObject> {

    @Override
    public void initialize(YourCustomObjectValid constraintAnnotation) { }

    @Override
    public boolean isValid(YourCustomObject value, ConstraintValidatorContext context) {

        // Validate your complex logic 

        // Mark field with error
        ConstraintViolationBuilder cvb = context.buildConstraintViolationWithTemplate(context.getDefaultConstraintMessageTemplate());
        cvb.addNode(someField).addConstraintViolation();

        return true;
    }
}

@YourCustomObjectValid
public YourCustomObject {
}

Example of generic fields equality:

import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.TYPE;
import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;

import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

import javax.validation.Constraint;
import javax.validation.Payload;

@Target({ TYPE, ANNOTATION_TYPE })
@Retention(RUNTIME)
@Constraint(validatedBy = { FieldsEqualityValidator.class })
public @interface FieldsEquality {

    String message() default "{FieldsEquality.message}";

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

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

    /**
     * Name of the first field that will be compared.
     * 
     * @return name
     */
    String firstFieldName();

    /**
     * Name of the second field that will be compared.
     * 
     * @return name
     */
    String secondFieldName();

    @Target({ TYPE, ANNOTATION_TYPE })
    @Retention(RUNTIME)
    public @interface List {
        FieldsEquality[] value();
    }
}




import java.lang.reflect.Field;

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

import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.util.ReflectionUtils;

public class FieldsEqualityValidator implements ConstraintValidator<FieldsEquality, Object> {

    private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(FieldsEqualityValidator.class);

    private String firstFieldName;
    private String secondFieldName;

    @Override
    public void initialize(FieldsEquality constraintAnnotation) {
        firstFieldName = constraintAnnotation.firstFieldName();
        secondFieldName = constraintAnnotation.secondFieldName();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean isValid(Object value, ConstraintValidatorContext context) {
        if (value == null)
            return true;

        try {
            Class<?> clazz = value.getClass();

            Field firstField = ReflectionUtils.findField(clazz, firstFieldName);
            firstField.setAccessible(true);
            Object first = firstField.get(value);

            Field secondField = ReflectionUtils.findField(clazz, secondFieldName);
            secondField.setAccessible(true);
            Object second = secondField.get(value);

            if (first != null && second != null && !first.equals(second)) {
                    ConstraintViolationBuilder cvb = context.buildConstraintViolationWithTemplate(context.getDefaultConstraintMessageTemplate());
          cvb.addNode(firstFieldName).addConstraintViolation();

          ConstraintViolationBuilder cvb = context.buildConstraintViolationWithTemplate(context.getDefaultConstraintMessageTemplate());
          cvb.addNode(someField).addConstraintViolation(secondFieldName);

                return false;
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            log.error("Cannot validate fileds equality in '" + value + "'!", e);
            return false;
        }

        return true;
    }
}

@FieldsEquality(firstFieldName = "password", secondFieldName = "confirmPassword")
public class NewUserForm {

    private String password;

    private String confirmPassword;

}

If you have same error handling logic for different method handlers, then you would end up with lots of handlers with following code pattern:

if (validation.hasErrors()) {
  // do error handling
}
else {
  // do the actual business logic
}

Suppose you're creating RESTful services and want to return 400 Bad Request along with error messages for every validation error case. Then, the error handling part would be same for every single REST endpoint that requires validation. Repeating that very same logic in every single handler is not so DRYish!

One way to solve this problem is to drop the immediate BindingResult after each To-Be-Validated bean. Now, your handler would be like this:

@RequestMapping(...)
public Something doStuff(@Valid Somebean bean) { 
    // do the actual business logic
    // Just the else part!
}

This way, if the bound bean was not valid, a MethodArgumentNotValidException will be thrown by Spring. You can define a ControllerAdvice that handles this exception with that same error handling logic:

@ControllerAdvice
public class ErrorHandlingControllerAdvice {
    @ExceptionHandler(MethodArgumentNotValidException.class)
    public SomeErrorBean handleValidationError(MethodArgumentNotValidException ex) {
        // do error handling
        // Just the if part!
    }
}

You still can examine the underlying BindingResult using getBindingResult method of MethodArgumentNotValidException.

Find complete example of Spring Mvc Validation

import org.springframework.validation.Errors;
import org.springframework.validation.ValidationUtils;
import org.springframework.validation.Validator;
import com.technicalkeeda.bean.Login;

public class LoginValidator implements Validator {
    public boolean supports(Class aClass) {
        return Login.class.equals(aClass);
    }

    public void validate(Object obj, Errors errors) {
        Login login = (Login) obj;
        ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "userName",
                "username.required", "Required field");
        ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "userPassword",
                "userpassword.required", "Required field");
    }
}


public class LoginController extends SimpleFormController {
    private LoginService loginService;

    public LoginController() {
        setCommandClass(Login.class);
        setCommandName("login");
    }

    public void setLoginService(LoginService loginService) {
        this.loginService = loginService;
    }

    @Override
    protected ModelAndView onSubmit(Object command) throws Exception {
        Login login = (Login) command;
        loginService.add(login);
        return new ModelAndView("loginsucess", "login", login);
    }
}