struts2 validation invoking xml - validation

i have a login-validation.xml which define some basic field validation rules.
however that's not enough for me.
i need to do some more database lookup and i consider this as part of my validation logic.
how can i do both xml validation and my database lookup in one go?
i suppose i will write something like
public void validate() {
1) struts2-validation.xml validation();
2) myDatabaseLookup() and addFieldError() or addActionError();
}
my problem is, what is the api i can use for (1)?
or, how can i look at the code of this xml validation filter class? in fact i would also make the definitions in validation.xml available to javascript usage... i guess i would need to do some translation from xml to javascript logic, but first of all, how can i access the validation.xml api in java code?

Your best choice is to create a validator... Take a look here for some information -
Custom Validator
There are a few things to keep in mind... I don't know if the ObjectFactory will instantiate and inject your validator, so you might not have all the features of dependency injection. If your custom validator isn't injected, file a bug, I'll take a look at it.
After you create your validator and register it in your app, you can add it to the validation.xml file.
(side note, I know that I am pointing to the XWork docs, but Struts2 uses XWork internally for most of it's validation capabilities)

Related

Java Bean Validation - Intercepting Validations

I have the following scenario: I am trying to process a form and the model attribute is a bean with String and Long properties. As you all guys know, bean validation offers a lot of annotation to help us determine the validity of the data.
What I am facing is that, for the case of the Long attributes, I can only use #NotNull and another annotation (I dont recall its name) to force the user to enter positive numbers. If the user enters for instance "sdf", the application throws a BIG exception. So what I would like to know is If I can intercept the form processing and validate by my own if the user entered a numeric thing before it explodes (because I cant use #Pattern)... and I cant switch that attribute to String...
Was it clear ?.
Use Spring Custom validation. That is Annotation-based validation and you have the ability to create your own custom validation logic. Spring Custom Validation In this link you can find out more examples and how to use it.

How to add a custom ContentHander for JAXB2 support in Spring 3 (MVC)?

Scenario: I have a web application that uses Spring 3 MVC. Using the powerful new annotations in Spring 3 (#Controller, #ResponseBody etc), I have written some domain objects with #XML annotations for marhalling ajax calls to web clients. Everything works great. I declared my Controller class to have a return type #ResponseBody with root XML object - the payload gets marshalled correctly and sent to Client.
The problem is that some data in the content is breaking the XML compliance. I need to wrap this with CDATA when necessary. I saw a POST here How to generate CDATA block using JAXB? that recommends using a custom Content Handler. Ok, fantastic!
public class CDataContentHandler extends (SAXHandler|XMLSerializer|Other...) {
// see http://www.w3.org/TR/xml/#syntax
private static final Pattern XML_CHARS = Pattern.compile("[<>&]");
public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length) throws SAXException {
boolean useCData = XML_CHARS.matcher(new String(c,start,length)).find();
if (useCData) super.startCDATA();
super.characters(ch, start, length);
if (useCData) super.endCDATA();
}
}
Using Spring MVC 3, how do I achieve this? Everything was "auto-magically" done for me with regards to the JAXB aspects of setup, Spring read the return type of the method, saw the annotations of the return type and picked up JAXB2 off the classpath to do the marshalling (Object to XML conversion). So where on earth is the "hook" that permits a user to register a custom Content Handler to the config?
Using EclipseLink JAXB implementation it is as easy as adding #XmlCDATA to the Object attribute concerned. Is there some smart way Spring can help out here / abstract this problem away into a minor configuration detail?
I know Spring isn't tied to any particular implementation but for the sake of this question, please can we assume I am using whatever the default implementation is. I tried the Docs here http://static.springsource.org/spring-ws/site/reference/html/oxm.html but it barely helped at all with this question from what I could understand.
Thanks all for any replies, be really appreciated.
Update:
Thanks for the suggested answer below Akshay. It was sufficient to put me on right tracks. Investigating further, I see there is a bit of history with this one between Spring version 3.05 and 3.2. In Spring 3.05 it used to be quite difficult to register a custom MessageConverter (this is really the goal here).
This conversation pretty much explains the thinking behind the development changes requested:
https://jira.springsource.org/browse/SPR-7504
Here is a link to the typically required class override to build a cusom solution:
http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.1.0.M1/javadoc-api/org/springframework/http/converter/AbstractHttpMessageConverter.html
And the following Question on stack overflow is very similar to what I was asking for (except the #ResponseBody discussion relates to JSON and jackson) - the goal is basically the same.
Spring 3.2 and Jackson 2: add custom object mapper
So it looks like usage of , and overriding MarshallingHttpMessageConverter is needed, registering to AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter. There is a recommended solution in link above to also get clever with this stuff and wrap the whole thing behind a custom defined Annotation.
I haven't yet developed a working solution but since I asked the questions, wanted to at least post something that may help others with the same sort of question, to get started. With all due respect, although this has all improved in Spring 3.2, it's still bit of a dogs dinner to get a little customization working... I really was expecting a one liner config change etc.
Rather than twist and bend Spring, perhaps the easiest answer for my particular issue is just to change JAXB2 implementation and use something like Eclipse Link JAXB that can do this out of the box.
Basically you need to create a custom HttpMessageConverter. Instead of relying on the Jaxb2RootElementHttpMessageConverter that spring uses by default.
Unfortunately, customizing one converter means you are telling spring that you will take care of loading all the converters you need! Which is fairly involved and can get complicated, based on whether you use annotations, component scanning, Spring 3.1 or earlier, etc.. The issue of how to add a custom converter is addressed here: Custom HttpMessageConverter with #ResponseBody to do Json things
In your custom message converter you are free to use any custom JAXB2 content handlers.
Another, simpler approach to solve your original problem would be to use a custom XmlJavaTypeAdapter. Create a custom implementation of javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter to handle CDATA, in the marshal method wrap the return value with the cdata braces. Then in your mapped pojo, use the XmlAdapter annotation, pass it the class of your custom adapter and you should be done.
I have not myself implemented the adapter approach, so couldn't provide sample code. But it should work, and won't be a lot of work.
Hope this helps.

JSF 2 and manual validation with JSR 303 - how to track fields?

I want to use JSR 303 (Hibernate Validator) in my JSF 2 project. However, I have complicated forms and field-level validation is not sufficient. I need to use many #ScriptAssert annotations at class-level of my model and its child beans.
So I want to validate form models manually (inside bean action method for example). But I could not understand how I can preserve which validation message should be shown at which field (as it works automatically when field-level validation is on and processed by JSF).
Also I'll need to specify for some of class-level annotations that their messages are to be shown at specific fields. I do not see a straight way to manage it...
Could you please provide a link to explanations of these questions (or tell me that I am doing something wrong?). I think I fail in googling it because internet is bloating with keywords JSF and validation, sorry.
The most idiomatic way to do that is to create custom Bean Validation validator for your class.
You need to create validation annotiation that you would put at the class level (not field level) and associated with that class validator class.
See for instance:
http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/validator/4.1/reference/en-US/html/validator-usingvalidator.html (Example "Class level constraint")
How can I validate two or more fields in combination?
Validation inside managed bean is also possible, you can throw in your action methods proper validation exception, but usually it is cumbersome, hard to reuse and mixes business logic code with validation.

Validation on an external model object using play framework 1.2.5

I have a model object which is defined outside of my play application, it is an auto-generated entity produced from wsdl. This means that I can't reliably add validation annotations to its fields. I thought about extending the class and in fact that's what I've done, and I wonder if its possible to add validation tags to the extended version? An immediate problem that I see with that however is that it also has children who's members would also need validation tags added, and if i were to extend them, they would not be used by play's binder. I guess what I need is some kind of custom validator, but from what I can see they are aimed at validation single properties, not entire object models.
Any pointers or suggestions would be great
Cheers!
NFV
You could write custom validator for your class and use:
public static void myController(#CheckWith(MyValidator.class) myParameter)
in controller to test if objects are valid. Then just manually validate them inside MyValidator (it has to extend play.data.validation.Check).
Check play documentation for more info about custom validators.

Spring - data validation

I'm just wondering about data validation in Spring. Spring is offering two (maybe more) validation options. First option is to use Validator interface and create whole validation on my own. Second option is to use annotation validation (JSR 303).
And now I'm really confused :) which validation I should chose. What I need is to check if recieved Data Object is correct (by correct i mean all required fields are filled) and this can be done by JSR 303 validation or by my own validator with "Validator instance". But I also need to check if is this Data Object valid against some database constraints (validator is required to check some data in database, eq. is user with this ID registered or not ...) and this can be done only by my own validator.
I don't know which way should be the best. Combine both or create my own validator ?
I will be thankful for any advice ...
Update (relocated from comments)
Ok, I followed Ryan's example and I think I was successful. I created my own implementation of spring Validator and in this Validator I #Autowire-d javax JSR 303 instance. But there was problem with that injection. I had in my configuration and this piece of code caused some exceptions, because spring did not know which Validator I want to inject. So I removed that code.
At the end I also removed the spring Validator implementation, because I dont know where I can get Errors property, which is required as second parameter in "validate" method :). I'm triggering that validation manually from service layer and I really don't know, where I can obtain that Error object.
BTW Well, I found another solution how to implement that validation. I'm thinking about to extend my validator class by LocalValidatorFactoryBean. LocalValidatorFactoryBean class implementing both Validator interfaces (Spring Validator + JSR 303). But i'm not sure if is this good approach. This approach also require Error object, which I don't know where to find/get.
Update
The Error object is coming from "BindException".
FooObjectVO myObject = new FooObjectVO();
BindException errors = new BindException("fooObject", myObject);
They're not really separate options--more like two available implementations of validation. Since Spring's JSR 303 support also implements its own Validator interface, you don't really have to pick one or the other. You can mix and match the implementations in whatever way makes it easiest to get the job done.
In cases such as this I prefer to combine both. I like to use JSR 303 validation for whatever I can. I supplement it with my own validators.

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