Grail validate data already saved to database - validation

Question

I have this really complicated form. All the fields must be filled, but the process of filling can be saved and leter continued. So what i need s that when finally confirm is pressed, all the data get validated. But because it is already saved to database calling validate() wont work. I save the data by douing save(validate:false), because i dont need validation when the work is still in progremm.
How can i validate data that has already been saved to database ? Do i have to do it manually?

Answer 1

What happens when you validate an already persisted object?
Is there a way to make it appear dirty after retrieving and before validating?

Answer 2

I have edited the answer to explain form encapsulation in more detail, typically maybe from a tier step process of form input or more complex iterated objects that needs to be elsewhere. To begin if all you need is a one step that captures a variety of information and you are happy to then process all that manually and store in different classes on mass params dump then look into jquery-ui tabs. If you choose to use the dynamic feature of tabs i.e. <li><a href="someurl">click</li> which then loads content dynamically to a given tab then that would also cover single forms that are outside or maybe if you prefer more complex within DOM.
Anyhow the reason for my edit wasn't above it is for something a little more complex that captures multi tier forms.
So you had step 1 that sent params through to a controller that then passed those params to a new gsp or maybe even an iteration of something that belongs to another totally different object within the form.
Typically you would end up with:
<g:form action=myDomain" action="doThis">
<!-- this is some iteration that belongs to some other class outside of what i am actually trying to do: -->
<g:each in="someObject" var="p">
<g:hiddenField name="form1.firstName" value="${p.firstName}"/>
<!-- in this case hidden -->
<g:hiddenField name="form1.surName" value="${p.surName}"/>
</g:each>
<!-- this is my actual form -->
<g:textField name="username" />
</g:form>
When form is submitted to a controller
Class MyDomainController {
def doThis(MyBean bean) {
save(bean)
}
}
//this be in src/main/groovy
import grails.validation.Validateable
//important for some reason it needs entire collections
// have had issues initialising it without .*
import org.apache.commons.collections.*
Class MyBean implements Validateable {
//this is capturing the current form fields
String username
//This is now collecting our form1 fields
List<MyDetailsBean> form1 = ListUtils.lazyList([], { new MyDetailsBean() } as Factory)
//if that had been 1 instance of it or like as mentioned passed from pervious form and called form2
MyDetailsBean form2
static constraints={
username(nullable:false) //, validator: checkSomething)
}
}
This is again in src/main/groovy and was used to originally collect each iteration of an object:
import grails.validation.Validateable
Class MyDetailsBean implements Validateable {
String firstName
String surName
}
I have updated the answer since i suggested encapsulating the object in a bean without any details of how one would go about doing such a thing. I hope above is clear. It is all on the fly but if tested hope it all works as explained above.
TO add after next update explained form2 example. to finally validate both sets you call
if (bean.validate() && bean.form2.validate()) {
//all good
}
Because you are binding it to another validation class the rules of that class can now be applied as part of validation process.
Old answer
Quite simply put it is on the db why on earth would you want to validate a validated input. Anyhow the work around is a validation bean in Grails 2 src/groovy/package which is #Validateable or
Grails 3 : src/main/groovy/package which implements Validateable
class MyDmainBean {
// must declare id
def id
// Then each object in your real domain class
static constraints = {
id (nullable:true,bindable:true)
importFrom MyDomainClass//, exclude: ['field1']
//field 1 is not included but if field 1 was integer
// in actual domain class and BigDecimal in bean
//then exlude it since it won't bind
}
def formatObject(MyDomainClass domain) {
id=domain.id
..
}
}
Now you can call
MyDomain record = MyDomain.get(0L)
MyDmainBean bean = new MyDmainBean().formatObject(record)
bean.validate()