Spring MVC #Valid not working when form is binded to a list - spring

Question

I am trying to do form validations on a Spring MVC form binded to a list of objects. The validations are not working. Please let me know if I am missing something
#Component
public class Customer{
#NotEmpty private int custId;
#NotEmpty private List<Order> orders;
//Getters & Setters...
}
#Component
public class Order{
#NotEmpty private String id;
#NotEmpty private String orderName;
//Getters & Setters...
}
//JSP - custFormBean is set as a model attribute
<form:form method="post" action="/submitOrder.htm" modelAttribute="custFormBean">
<table class="activity" width="600px" bgcolor="#FCF4DE">
<c:forEach items="${custForm.orders}" var="order" varStatus="status">
<tr>
<td>
<c:out value="${order.id}" />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<form:password path="orders[${status.index}].orderName" name="name" />
</td>
<td><form:errors path="orders[${status.index}].orderName" cssClass="errorMessage" /></td>
</tr>
</c:forEach>
<tr></tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" colspan="2">
<input type="submit" id="orderSubmit" class="formButton" value="OK" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form:form>
//Controller
#Controller
#SessionAttributes("custFormBean")
public class CustomerController {
#RequestMapping(value = "/order.htm", method=RequestMethod.GET)
public String getOrder(ModelMap model, HttpServletRequest request) {
nextPage = "order"
try {
Customer custBean = custService.getCustOrders(...);
model.addAttribute("custFormBean", custBean);
} catch (ServiceException e) {
log.error("ServiceException when calling getChallengeQuestionLists", e);
}
return nextPage;
}
#RequestMapping(value = "/submitOrder.htm", method=RequestMethod.POST)
public String submitOrder(#Valid #ModelAttribute("custFormBean") Customer custBean, BindingResult result, Model model, HttpServletRequest request){
String nextPage = "success";
if(result.hasErrors()) {
//This is not working - The custBean is populated with the values entered in the form but if I leave the fields empty the validation is not kicking in.
log.debug("Validation errors...");
nextPage = "error";
}
return nextPage;
}
}
Please let me know if I am missing something

Answer 1

From Hibernate Validator javadoc of #NotEmpty:
Check that a String is not empty (not null and length > 0) or that a
Collection (or array) is not empty (not null and length > 0)
I think your list is not null and has length > 0 although all of them are blanks. So according to this the validator probably kicked it and yielded correct result.
You may need to write custom validator that checks there's at least a non-blank element in the list?