JSR 303 set custom validator for cascade #valid - spring

Question

I want to validate a form object which is contained in another form object. I have something like this:
#Controller
public class FormController {
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
public void process(#ModelAttribute("form") #Valid FormObject formObject,
BindingResult result) {
...
#InitBinder("form")
protected void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) {
binder.setValidator(customFormValidator);
}
}
public class FormObject {
#Valid
private FormObject2 formObject2;
}
// This is the class that needs to be validated.
public class FormObject2 {
#NotEmpty
private String name;
}
}
The problem I'm having is that I want the object formObject2 to be validated by another custom validator (e.g. "customFormValidator2"), but I can't find how to register it. If I let it like this, the spring validator will validate the second form.
I have tried inside customFormValidator to validate the second form, but then the paths for the errors in the second form are not relative to the first form and I can't display the errors in the jsp page.
I have structured my form object like this, because I might need the second form inside other forms and by doing this I make it more modularized.
Is it possible what I'm trying to do? Do you have better suggestions?

Answer 1

You can use custom validator to validate form Object2 like
public void process(#ModelAttribute("form") #Valid FormObject formObject,
BindingResult result) {
customFormValidator2.validate(formObject.getFormObject2(), result);
}
And remove #Valid to remove JSR validation
public class FormObject {
// #Valid REMOVE THIS
private FormObject2 formObject2;
}
Also you can use path attribute for nested classes like
<form:input path="formObject2.any_property_name">
You can also use same path for errors without any problem.
Check this link for more details.