can #Email and spring custom validation coexists? - spring

Question

I need to validate Email and password while creating an account using web services. I am using Spring REST controller and plan to use #Email(hibernate validator) annotation for email id validation.For Password validation I have to write custom validator by implementing Validator interface.
#XmlRootElement
public class Account implements Serializable {
#Email(message =AccountErrorCodes.ACCOUNT_EMAIL_VALIDATION)
private String emailId;
private String password;
For password writing the own validator
#Autowired
private PasswordValidator passwordValidator;
#InitBinder
private void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) {
binder.setValidator(passwordValidator);
}
It looks like both cant coexist. When I try to validate EmailId spring calls passwordValidator but fails to validate Email. I expect the failure due to incorrect Email id. When I disable the custom validator I get the required error message.
Looks like I am missing something. Do I need to do something to make it work? or it is not supported? If not supported Can I call Hibernate validator directly from spring custom validator to avoid writing my own validation for email?

Answer 1

Instead of injecting your custom validator in your controller, make a special #Password annotation for it that uses this as a validator. Remove any constraint logic from controller and do it all on your DTO class. Something like this:
#Target({ METHOD, FIELD, ANNOTATION_TYPE })
#Retention(RUNTIME)
#Constraint(validatedBy = PasswordValidator.class)
public #interface Password {
String message() default "{Invalid password}";
Class<?>[] groups() default {};
Class<? extends Payload>[] payload() default {};
}
You will find loads of tutorials for custom annotations that use your own made validators. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

You asked :
By Writing our own custom annotations can I still use Binding Result object that Spring provides which returns multiple error messages?
Yes .
You can make your own custom annotations for any type .
For example :
Phone Number
#Phone
#NotEmpty
private String phone;
Now make a java file :
Phone.java
import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import javax.validation.Constraint;
import javax.validation.Payload;
#Documented
#Constraint(validatedBy = PhoneValidator.class)
#Target( { ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.FIELD })
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public #interface Phone {
String message() default "{Phone}";
Class<?>[] groups() default {};
Class<? extends Payload>[] payload() default {};
}
And a class to provide validations measures :
PhoneValidator.java
import javax.validation.ConstraintValidator;
import javax.validation.ConstraintValidatorContext;
public class PhoneValidator implements ConstraintValidator<Phone, String> {
#Override
public void initialize(Phone paramA) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}
#Override
public boolean isValid(String phoneNo, ConstraintValidatorContext ctx) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
if(phoneNo == null) {
return false;
}
//Validate phone numbers of format "1234567890"
if (phoneNo.matches("\\d{10}")) return true;
//validating phone number with -, . or spaces
else if(phoneNo.matches("\\d{3}[-\\.\\s]\\d{3}[-\\.\\s]\\d{4}")) return true;
//validating phone number with extension length from 3 to 5
else if(phoneNo.matches("\\d{3}-\\d{3}-\\d{4}\\s(x|(ext))\\d{3,5}")) return true;
//validating phone number where area code is in braces ()
else if(phoneNo.matches("\\(\\d{3}\\)-\\d{3}-\\d{4}")) return true;
//return false if nothing matches the input
else return false;
}
}
Now in :
message_en.properties
Include :
#Custom validation annotation
Phone=Invalid format, valid formats are 1234567890, 123-456-7890 x1234
By this way , you will succesfully get a custom validator .
BindingResult
will catch the error and get the message from the properties file .
Hope this helps .