#Valid not working for spring rest controller - spring-boot

I have defined a rest endpoint method as:
#GetMapping("/get")
public ResponseEntity getObject(#Valid MyObject myObject){....}
This maps request parameters to MyObject.
MyObject is defined as(with lombok, javax.validation annotations):
#Value
#AllArgsConstructor
public class MyObject {
#Min(-180) #Max(180)
private double x;
#Min(-90) #Max(90)
private double y;
}
But validations are not working. Even with values out of prescribed range, request doesn't throw error and goes well.

If you on a version of Spring Boot > 2.3 it now states
Validation Starter no longer included in web starters
... you’ll need to add the starter yourself.
i.e.
For Maven builds, you can do that with the following:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-validation</artifactId>
</dependency>
For Gradle, you will need to add something like this:
dependencies {
...
implementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-validation'
}
Please refer to https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/wiki/Spring-Boot-2.3-Release-Notes#validation-starter-no-longer-included-in-web-starters

Annotate your controller with org.springframework.validation.annotation.Validated

I see a couple of things here that you should fix. Let's start talking about the REST standard, the first rule is to think in endpoints as representation of resources, not operations, for example, in your code, I presume the MyObject class represents a Point (you should refactor the class to have a proper name), then the path value for the getObject can be "/point". The operations are mapped on the HTTP method, accordingly:
GET: Obtain info about a resource.
POST: Create a resource.
PUT: Update a resource.
DELETE: Delete a resource.
In getObject you're expecting to receive an object. The get method according to the REST standards means you want to retrieve some data, and usually you send some data included in the url like ../app-context/get/{id}, here the id is a parameter that tells your controller you want some info belonging to an id, so if you would invoke the endpoint like as ../app-context/get/1 to get info of some domain object identified by the number 1.
If you want to send data to the server, the most common HTTP method is a POST.
According to this, at design level you should:
Give a meaningful name to the MyObject class.
Check the operation you want to make in the getObject.
Assign a path to getObject representing a resource.
At code level, with the above comments, you could change this as:
#Data
#AllArgsConstructor
#NoArgsConstructor
public class MyObject {
#Min(-180) #Max(180)
private double x;
#Min(-90) #Max(90)
private double y;
}
#PostMapping("/point")
public ResponseEntity savePoint(#RequestBody #Valid MyObject myObject) {...}
I will explain the changes:
Add #PostMapping to fulfill the REST standard.
Add #RequestBody, this annotation take the info sent to the server and use it to create a MyObject object.
Add #NoArgsConstructor to MyObject, by default, the deserialisation use a default constructor (with no arguments). You could write some specialised code to make the things work without the default constructor, but thats up to you.

I just had to add the following dependency to get the validations working.
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-validation</artifactId>
</dependency>

Related

Spring inject component into non-spring managed interface/abstract class and its subclasses

TLDR: I need an interface/abstract class and all classes implementing it to have access to a Spring managed bean. Can Spring inject a bean into an interface/abstract-class and its subclasses simply via #Autowired ?
I am working on an API built with Spring Webflux + Cloud Gateway that depending on the cookie JWT authorized party, identifies the User's policy group and assign an Attribute ENUM "InterfaceID" to the ServerWebExchange via exchange.getAttribute().put("InterfaceID",InterfaceID.A) after the JWT is validated, and currently uses "InterfaceID" to represent the different groups of users/different interface the user entered from.
JWTValidationFilter.java [Current]
switch(JWTValidator.validate(jwt).get("AZP")){
//if user is from company A or its partners
case "a":
case "aa":
exchange.getAttribute().put(InterfaceID.COMPANY_A_ACCESS);
break;
case "b":
exchange.getAttribute().put(InterfaceID.NORMAL_ACCESS);
...
}
For certain API endpoints (say /api/getSessionDocument), different "InterfaceID" fetches data from different DB/apis, as well as have different permission checking on top of that.
RequestController.java [Current]
#Autowired
APICallerUtil apiCallerUtil;
switch(exchange.getAttribute.get(InterfaceID)){
case "NORMAL_ACCESS":
apiCallerUtil.getDataFromApiA();
break;
case "COMPANY_A_ACCESS":
// call api B but check for permission from api D first
...
}
The endpoint's controller now has another switch statement, and to many code analyzers this have been a code smell. I have been trying to refactor this entire bit of code to use polymorphism to handle the different "getSessionDocument" flows, but i run into issues regarding the injection of util classes that calls specific APIs.
APICallerUtil.java class, exisiting class from the project, would prefer not to refactor this.
#Component
public class APICallerUtil{
#Value("${some uri to some API}") //different by environment and therefore cant be static final
private String uri1;
#Value("${some auth to some API}") //confidential
private String uri1AuthHeader;
//...
public JSONObject getDataFromApiA(String somekey){ //cant be static since uri1 is not static
//Some code that uses uri1 and apache httpclient
return data;
}
...
}
IBaseAccess.java
interface IBaseAccess{
default Mono<JSONObject> getSesssionDocument(ServerWebExchange e){return Mono.error("not implemented");}
}
RequestController.java [new]
#Autowired
APICallerUtil apiCallerUtil;
return exchange.getAttribute.get(InterfaceID).getSessionDocument(exchange);
NormalAccess.java
public class NormalAccess implements IBaseAccess{
//can i autowire APICallerUtil here?
//use constructor to pass the Util class reference here?
Mono<JSONObject> getSesssionDocument(ServerWebExchange e){
//need to call ApiA here
//need to call ApiC here
}
}
NormalAccess needs to call APICaller.getDataFromApiA(), but it needs a reference to the Spring managed instance of APICaller. What would be the "correct" way to pass the reference/autowire API caller into NormalAccess, or even better IBaseAccess (so that the implementing classes can use the Util bean)?
JWTValidationFilter.java [new]
switch(JWTValidator.validate(jwt).get("AZP")){
//if user is from company A or its partners
case "a":
case "aa":
exchange.getAttribute().put("InterfaceID",new CompanyAAccess(/*pass the util class here?*/));
break;
case "b":
exchange.getAttribute().put("InterfaceID",new NormalAccess(/*pass the util class here?*/));
...
}
I have tried several methods, but either I lack the knowledge on the specific Spring feature, or that method is deeemed a bad design choice by some, including:
Making the methods and fields in APICallerUtil static, via suggestions from Spring: How to inject a value to static field? and Assigning private static final field member using spring injection , then the Access classes can call the static methods.
Creating a contructor for IBaseAccess that consumes the APICallerUtil reference and store it inside. The JWTfilter would hold an autowired APICallerUtil and pass it in when the attribute is assigned.
Create a static class that provides the application context and Access classes use applicationContext.getBean("APICallerUtil"); to obtain the bean.
Use the #Configurable annotation? I could not find much documentation on how this works for interfaces/abstract-class.
I understand that there might not exist an absolute answer for this question, but regardless I'd like suggestion/feedback on which of these approaches are viable/good. Especailly concerning whether the APIUtil class should be static or not.

Jersey JAX-RS and OpenaAPI deepObject = true deserialization problem

We have problems deserializing a query parameter with square bracket notation (?paging[offset]=3) in Jersey.
We're using Jersey JAX-RS and annotating our endpoints and beans with swagger OpenAPI, and have tooling to generate our documentation automatically. We want to follow the JSON:API standard for describing a new API. JSON:API specifies that to implement paging, the API must accept a query parameter in the format : ?paging[offset]=0&paging[limit]=10
Our swagger annotations support this out of the box, allowing us to specify
#Parameter(
description = "paging",
style = ParameterStyle.DEEPOBJECT,
explode = Explode.TRUE)
Which is compatible with the square bracket notation paging[offset] and so on. And it generates the correct documentation for our paging parameter. All is good and great and dandy.
JAX-RS is the problem. There's a #QueryParam annotation in JAX-RS. But, to use a complex object with the #QueryParam annotation, that type must have a constructor with a single String parameter. No problem. Let's add a constructor to our paging bean.
public class PagingBean {
public PagingBean(String stringValue){...}
#XmlElement
public getOffset(){...}
public setOffset(int offset){...}
#XmlElement
public getLimit(){...}
public setLimit(int limit){....}
}
So our endpoint now looks like
#Get("/path")
public Response someEndpoint(
#Parameter(description = "paging",style = ParameterStyle.DEEPOBJECT,explode = Explode.TRUE) #QueryParam("paging") PagingBean paging
){
...
}
But if we hit our api with
GET /rest/path?paging[limit]=10&paging[offset]=5
We can see that the paging request parameter is null. It seems like Jersey didn't even recognize that the paging[... is part of the paging QueryParam. Probably that it expects exactly the paging key, and not a paging\[?-like key.
We can confirm this by injecting a #Context UriInfo ui and checking the request parameters. Their key are paging[offset] and paging[limit]
One solution to this is to flatten our parameters in the endpoint like so
#QueryParam("paging[limit]") pagingLimit,
#QueryParam("paging[offset]") pagingOffset
But this is not very nice to look at.
Ideas on how to deserialize this in Jersey ?

Spring data rest and business rules validation

I want to seek a best practice for applying business rules when working with spring data rest.
Lets consider following scenario:
I have a Customer and Order in #OneToMany relationship.
I have a business rule saying that Customer needs to have verified flag set to be able to make orders
So I need to make sure that whenever someone POSTs to /orders the Customer making the call is verified.
I'm considering using beforeSave Validators autowiring other service/repositories into the Validator and check whatever needs to be checked.
Is there better way of achieving the same?
There are several ways to solve this. As far as my knowledge goes:
Usage of spring security annotations like #PreAuthorize. The intended use of these annotations is however for security purposes and you are mentioning business rules. I would use these for user authorization rules Spring data rest security chapter
The use of validators as you mentioned yourself. Spring data rest Validators
Use spring data rest events Spring data rest events. You can create global event handlers, however here you need to determine the entity type. I would go with Annotated event handlers to perform business logic Spring data rest annotated event handler
So just for the sake of world piece I'm adding my solution. Went with #2.
The documentation is pretty clear on how to proceed so just sharing few tips which may save you time.
You need to assign validators manually, auto-discovery doesn't work
Manually spelling event type is error prone, some helper Enum could be handy.
Like:
/**
* "beforeSave" gets called on PATCH/PUT methods
* "beforeCreate" on POST
* "beforeDelete" on DELETE
*/
enum Event {
ON_CREATE("beforeCreate"), ON_UPDATE("beforeSave"),
ON_DELETE("beforeDelete");
private String name;
Event(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
}
...
private static void addValidatorForEvents(ValidatingRepositoryEventListener eventListener, Validator validator, Event... events) {
Arrays.asList(events).forEach(event -> eventListener.addValidator(event.name, validator));
}
One out of the box solution you can use to solve your Business rules related problems, is using Spring AOP. What you can do, is define an Annotation (say #X) and place that annotation on top of your POST call.
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Target(ElementType.METHOD)
public #interface X{}
Next what you need to do is, create an aspect, and run your custom validation logic in this aspect as follows,
#Aspect
#Component
public class CustomAspect {
//You can autowire beans here
#Around("#annotation(qualified name of X)")
public Object customMethod(ProceedingJoinPoint joinPoint) throws Throwable {
flag = customLogic();
if (flag){
return joinPoint.proceed(); //return if logic passes, otherwise
}else{
throw new BusinessRuleException("Business rule violated");
}
}
private boolean customLogic(){
//your custom logic goes here
}
}
And finally apply this annotation on top of any method in controller layer like:
#X
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST, value = "do-something")
public void callSomething(HttpServletRequest request) throws Exception {
// your business logic goes here
}
Only thing to note above is that you need to pass HttpServletRequest request explicitly to your controller method in order to AOP aspect get the same context for manipulation of user session related attributes like session_id, etc.
Above solution will help you add business rules on top of your Business Logic and help you with all kinds of pre validations you want to build in your web application. It is a pretty handy application of Spring AOP. Do reach out in case of any

POST / GET Request Param Validation in Spring Boot

I am using spring boot. I want to validated the POST request params. So I have gine through #Validated annotation but this require creating a different class for Every API. How should I write my code?
As for example, this is my api
#RequestMapping("/tags/{tagId}/{tagParentId}")
public Response<Demo> a(#PathVariable int tagId, #PathVariable int tagParentId){
... code
}
#RequestMapping("/data/{courseId}/{instId}")
public Response<Demo> b(#PathVariable int courseId, #PathVariable int instId){
... code
}
How should I change my code to add params validation for there API's such that I do not need to create two different validation class? Just one class and then I can add different functions for different API's.
#Validated should be used, to check that a parameter is syntactical correct.
As you are using int values, this is already done by spring.
If tagId is not a valid int, the client will already receive a Http error code.
The validation, whether there is a tag with the given tagId is implicitly done in your code, you do not need an additional validator for that.
If you read tags for example from the database, and you cannot find a tag for the tagId, you should
return new ResponseEntity(HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND);
from your controller method.
You may need to change the return type of your controller method to a common superclass or just to Object, to allow returning the ResponseEntity.
Its also possible to throw exceptions in the controller methods and to configure spring to return a regarding HttpStatus.
See exception-handling-for-rest-with-spring

Spring Framework validate request parameter or path variable

I know I can validate forms in Spring, but can I apply similar validate to URL parameters? For example, I have a method in my controller as follows:
public String edit(#PathVariable("system") String system,
#RequestParam(value="group") String group,
ModelMap model) throws DAOException {
Can I validate the values of system and group before the method is called, to ensure they are of a certain value or match a certain regex?
Thanks
You may be able to use Spring Asserts for this. The Assert api (http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/2.5.x/api/org/springframework/util/Assert.html) runs a supplied expression against the specified parameters and if the expression equates to false then it throws an exception.
Ex:
Assert.isTrue(system.equals("ValidSystemName"), "You must supply a valid system");
It also contains functions to check that parameters are not null or are not empty strings, etc.
Create an annotation that marks parameters that should be validated. This annotation needs a #Retention of RUNTIME and a #Target of ElementType.PARAMETER.
Create a validator implemented as an AspectJ Aspect.
Wrap calls to controllers with this validator.
A sample annotation:
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Target(ElementType.PARAMETER)
#Documented
public #interface ValidSystemParameter {
}
A sample validator:
#Aspect
public class ValidSystemParameterValidator {
#Pointcut("TODO: write your pointcut expression")
public void controllerMethodWithValidSystemParameter();
#Before(pointcut = "controllerMethodWithValidSystemParameter()")
public void validateSystemParameter(String systemParameter) {
// validate the parameter (throwing an exception)
}
}
To learn about the AspectJ pointcut expression language see: http://www.eclipse.org/aspectj/doc/released/progguide/language-joinPoints.html
To learn about AspectJ integration in Spring see: http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/html/aop.html#aop-ataspectj
I might be a little late, but with Spring 3.0 you have the option of using JSR-303 validation with the #Valid annotation. There are also some more specific annotations as #DateTimeFormat and #NumberFormat. More details here: http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.5.RELEASE/reference/validation.html#validation-mvc
As I see it you have two options:
Define your request parameters as objects and user JSR-303
validation.
Use the Assert api as mentioned above.
If you just want to make a simple validation on a single value, I would go with the latter (that's what I did when I had simple int values to check for max value).

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