Hibernate Validator 5.1.1 is not working in Web application - spring

Question

I am using Spring 4.0 and latest Spring Security in my Web application. I want to use the Hibernate validation 5.1.1 Final. But It's not working. The same code works in my JUNIT but not in the web application.
The code which works:
#Test
public void testUserAuthenticationRequestValidation(){
try{
UserAuthenticationRequest req=new UserAuthenticationRequest().addUserName("bla").addPasswd("passw");
Validator validation=Validation.buildDefaultValidatorFactory().getValidator();
Set<ConstraintViolation<UserAuthenticationRequest>> constraintViolations= validation.validate(req);
Assert.assertTrue("There are some errors", constraintViolations.size()>0);
System.out.println(constraintViolations);
}catch(Exception ex){
ex.printStackTrace();
Assert.fail();
}
But if I try to use the same code in my web application, it doesn't work, In the below code, I am expecting contraintViolation set not to be empty because I intentionally left both the username & password empty but I always find it empty.
#Override
public UserDetails retrieveUser(String username,
UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken authentication)
throws AuthenticationException {
LOGGER.debug("About to check authentication for username: {}", username);
final UserAuthenticationRequest userData = new UserAuthenticationRequest()
.addUserName(username).addPasswd(
authentication.getCredentials().toString());
Validator validation = Validation.buildDefaultValidatorFactory()
.getValidator();
Set<ConstraintViolation<UserAuthenticationRequest>> constraintViolations = validation
.validate(userData);
LOGGER.info("Constraints Violations: {}", constraintViolations);
LOGGER.info("Obejct: username: {} password: {}",
userData.getUsername(), userData.getPasswd());
UserDetailVO userDetailVO = new UserDetailVO(
userInfoService.authenticate(userData));
return userDetailVO;
}
So far I have also tried in vain initializing the validation bean as shown below and injecting in my Class as well as shown below:
#Configuration
#ComponentScan({ "com.sell.mystuff.web.security",
"com.sell.mystuff.web.service" })
#ImportResource({ "classpath*:spring/common-context.xml" })
public class CommonAppContext {
#Bean(name = "javaxValidator")
public Validator getValidator() {
return Validation.buildDefaultValidatorFactory().getValidator();
}
}
I have even tried to explicitly initialized in the validation bean as shown above but nothing seems to be working.
Below is my partial POM.xml file related to validation api:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
<version>5.1.1.Final</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.el</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.el-api</artifactId>
<version>2.2.4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.glassfish.web</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.el</artifactId>
<version>2.2.4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-validator-annotation-processor</artifactId>
<version>5.1.1.Final</version>
</dependency>

Answer 1

Do you have the validator bean configured?
<bean id="validator"
class="org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean"/>
This will bootstrap Bean Validation 1.0 or 1.1, depending on which version of Hibernate Validator you have on the classpath. See also http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/html/validation.html
Even if you plan to manually call the validation, you should do it by retrieving the configured factory bean, since this will guarantee proper caching of the factory.

Answer 2

I got this working by adding a later version of javax.el
e.g.
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.el</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.el-api</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
</dependency>
BTW I didn't need to define a LocalValidatorFactoryBean in my spring mvc config.