Spring MVC validation ignored - spring

Question

I have Spring MVC app on Tomcat. I'm trying to add validation in it.
For some reason my validation is ignored and not checked.
Here is my POJO
import org.hibernate.validator.constraints.Range;
public class Goal {
#Range(min = 1, max = 15)
private int minutes;
public int getMinutes() {
return minutes;
}
public void setMinutes(int minutes) {
this.minutes = minutes;
}
}
And controller
import org.springframework.validation.BindingResult;
import javax.validation.Valid;
#Controller
#SessionAttributes("goal")
public class GoalController {
#RequestMapping(value = "addGoal", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String updGoal(#ModelAttribute("goal") #Valid Goal goal, BindingResult result) {
System.out.println(goal.getMinutes());
System.out.println(result.hasErrors());
if(result.hasErrors()) {
return "addGoal";
}
return "redirect:addMinutes.html";
}
}
But even if I try to put any negative values as "minutes" there no errors produced.
Added configuration
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd">
<mvc:annotation-driven/>
<context:component-scan base-package="com.xlab.ice.mvc.controller"/>
<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver"
p:prefix="/WEB-INF/jsp/" p:suffix=".jsp" />
<mvc:resources mapping="/pdfs/**" location="pdf"/>
<bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ResourceBundleMessageSource" p:basename="messages"/>
<bean id="localeResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.SessionLocaleResolver" p:defaultLocale="en"/>
<mvc:interceptors>
<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.LocaleChangeInterceptor" p:paramName="lang"/>
</mvc:interceptors>
<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.BeanNameViewResolver" p:order="0"/>
</beans>

Answer 1

Can you please also confirm that you have a JSR 303 implementation in your classpath - say hibernate-validator jar files.
You need <mvc:annotation-driven /> to enable jsr-303 validation, This is needed for the #Valid annotation to actually do anything.
try adding <mvc:annotation-driven/> in servlet context XML if not done.
schemaLocation the mvc entry should contain these two:
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd

Answer 2

Solution is simple.
Validation libraries must be placed into classpath.

Answer 3

DISCLAIMER : In the absence of complete relevant controller code and the suspicion that Validator library might be missing in classpath, here is a small test to just check the configuration. You can use this very quickly to find if all configurations are in place with just removing the session attribute part.
Let's give it a try. To simplify testing with a REST Client and also incomplete code I have not used SessionAttributes. Also there is Hibernate validator library on my runtime classpath. Also I have used ResponseBody annotation to let the Spring automatically convert the String to response text without making use of alternate view technology (like jsp).
import org.hibernate.validator.constraints.Range;
public class Goal {
#Range(min = 1, max = 15)
private int minutes;
public int getMinutes() {
return minutes;
}
public void setMinutes(int minutes) {
this.minutes = minutes;
}
}
Then my controller
#Controller
public class GoalController {
#RequestMapping(value = "/addGoal", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public #ResponseBody String updGoal(#ModelAttribute("goal") #Valid Goal goal, BindingResult result) {
System.out.println(goal.getMinutes());
System.out.println(result.hasErrors());
if(result.hasErrors()) {
return "Errors !";
}
return "No Errors !";
}
}
Hitting the application with a rest client on http://localhost:8080/testApp/addGoal with POST parameters as minutes=1 gives me response as No Errors ! while with minutes=-1 gives me Errors !