Nested validation of an List

[rognox]

Hi,

I have Problems with validating an List of SubObjects.

I have an Customer with a List of addresses (one to many-relationship):
Later on the user should be able to add as much address objects as wanted by javascript.

After sending my webform I want to check if the street property (e.g.) of each address but all my tries failed.

My question is how to do a nested validation of an List.

Thank you for all help and advices.

These are my classes:

Customer.java

@Entity
@Table(name = "customer")
public class Customer {

	private Integer id;
	private String name;
	
	public List<Address> addresses = new AutoPopulatingList(new AddressFactory());

	@Id
	@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
	public Integer getId() {
		return id;
	}
	public void setId(Integer id) {
		this.id = id;
	}
	
	public String getName() {
		return name;
	}
	public void setName(String name) {
		this.name = name;
	}
	
	@OneToMany(fetch = FetchType.EAGER, cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
	public List<Address> getAddresses() {
		return addresses;
	}
	public void setAddresses(List<Address> addresses) {
		this.addresses = addresses;
	}
	
	public void addAddress(Address address) {
        this.addresses.add(address);
    }

}

Address.java

@Entity
@Table(name = "address")
public class Address implements IAddress,Serializable {

	/**
	 * 
	 */
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
	
	private Integer id;
	private String addressname;
	private String street;

	
	@Id
	@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
	public Integer getId() {
		return id;
	}
	public void setId(Integer id) {
		this.id = id;
	}
	public String getAddressname() {
		return addressname;
	}
	public void setAddressname(String addressname) {
		this.addressname = addressname;
	}
	
	public String getStreet() {
		return street;
	}
	public void setStreet(String street) {
		this.street = street;
	}	
}

CustomerValidator.java

public class CustomerValidator implements Validator {

	public boolean supports(Class clazz) {
		return clazz.equals(Customer.class);
	}

	public void validate(Object obj, Errors errors) {
		Customer customer = (Customer) obj;
		ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "name", "required.name", "Name muss gesetzt sein");
		errors.setNestedPath("addresses");
		try {
			
			for (Address address : customer.getAddresses()) {
				AddressValidator addressValidator = new AddressValidator();
				ValidationUtils.invokeValidator(addressValidator, address, errors);
		
			}
		} finally {
			errors.popNestedPath();
		}
	}

}

AddressValidator .java

public class AddressValidator implements Validator {
	
	
	public boolean supports(Class clazz) {
		return true;//clazz.equals(Address.class);
	}

	public void validate(Object obj, Errors errors) {
		Address address = (Address)obj;
		ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "street", "required.street", "Strasse muss gesetzt sein");
	
	}

}

CustomerCreateController.java

@Controller
public class CustomerCreateController extends CustomerBasicController {

	@Override
	protected Object formBackingObject(HttpServletRequest request) throws Exception {
		Customer customer = new Customer();
		Address address = new Address();
		address.setAddressname("Firmenaddresse");
		customer.getAddresses().add(address);
		return customer;
	}
	
	protected void doSubmitAction(Object command) throws Exception {
		Customer customer = (Customer) command;
		customer = customerDao.save(customer);
		logger.debug("Customer saved");
	}
	

}

customerCreate.jsp

<%@ include file="header.jspf"%>

	<form:form commandName="customer" method="POST" action="create.do">
		<fieldset style="width: 500px;">
			<legend>Kundendaten</legend>
			<spring:hasBindErrors name="customer">
				<font color="red"> <c:forEach items="${errors.allErrors}"
					var="error">
					<p><spring:message code="${error.code}" text="${error.defaultMessage}" /></p>
				</c:forEach> 
				</font>
			</spring:hasBindErrors> 
			
			<form:input path="name" /> 
			
			<c:forEach items="${customer.addresses}" var="address" varStatus="itemRow">
				<fieldset>
				<legend>${address.addressname}</legend> 
					<label for="addresses[${itemRow.index}].street">Strasse <br />
					<input type="text" name="addresses[${itemRow.index}].street" id="addresses[${itemRow.index}].street" value="${address.street}" />
					</label>
				</fieldset>
			</c:forEach>
		</fieldset>
		<br />
		<input type="submit" value="Kunde anlegen" />
	</form:form>
	
<%@ include file="footer.jspf"%>

Thank you.

[rognox]

Hi,

I think I solved the problem.

I modified the CustomerValidator.java

public class CustomerValidator implements Validator {

	private AddressValidator addressValidator;
	
	public AddressValidator getAddressValidator() {
		return addressValidator;
	}

	public void setAddressValidator(AddressValidator addressValidator) {
		this.addressValidator = addressValidator;
	}

	public boolean supports(Class clazz) {
		return clazz.equals(Customer.class);
	}

	public void validate(Object obj, Errors errors) {
		Customer customer = (Customer) obj;
		ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "name", "required.name", "Name muss gesetzt sein");
		int i=0;
		for (Address address : customer.getAddresses()) {
			errors.pushNestedPath("addresses["+i+"]");
			ValidationUtils.invokeValidator(this.addressValidator, address, errors);
			errors.popNestedPath();
			i++;
		}		
	}

}

I hope this is correct and it helps.

[alpha88]

I have spend a lot of time trying find out it. Very thank you

[bkrawczuk]

Hi,
I have implemented this as well (and nearly exact, but in an airline demo).
My addressValidator seems to be null, though, because I receive the error
"Validator must not be null".

Any advice on this?
Thank you
~ b

[alpha88]

I will hope your code.

[bkrawczuk]

Hi, here's my code

BookingValidator.java

package org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.web;
import java.util.List;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.validation.Errors;
import org.springframework.validation.ValidationUtils;
import org.springframework.validation.Validator;
import org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.domain.Passenger;
import org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.web.beans.Booking;

class BookingValidator implements Validator{
	
	private PassengerValidator passengerValidator;
	
	public PassengerValidator gePassengerValidator() {
		return passengerValidator;
	}

	public void setPassengerValidator(PassengerValidator passengerValidator) {
		this.passengerValidator = passengerValidator;
	}
	
	@Override
	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
	public boolean supports(Class clazz) {
        return Booking.class.equals(clazz);
	}
	
	@Override
	public void validate(Object obj, Errors errors) {
        ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "departureDateAsString", "required", "Departure date is required.");
        ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "flightNumber", "required", "FlightNumber is required.");
        Booking b = (Booking)obj;
        
        int i=0;
		for (Passenger passenger : b.getPassengers()) {
			errors.pushNestedPath("passengers["+i+"]");
			ValidationUtils.invokeValidator(this.passengerValidator, passenger, errors);
			errors.popNestedPath();
			i++;
		}
	}
}

PassengerValidator.java

import org.springframework.validation.Errors;
import org.springframework.validation.ValidationUtils;
import org.springframework.validation.Validator;
import org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.domain.Passenger;

class PassengerValidator implements Validator{
	@Override
	public boolean supports(Class clazz) {
        return Passenger.class.equals(clazz);
	}
	
	@Override
	public void validate(Object obj, Errors errors) {
        Passenger p = (Passenger)obj;
        ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "first", "required", "First name is required.");
        ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "last", "required", "Last name is required.");
	}

}

the applicable stuff from
FlightsController.java

@RequestMapping(value="/bookFlight" )
    public String bookFlight(@ModelAttribute("booking") Booking booking, Errors errors,
                             ModelMap model) {
    	    new BookingValidator().validate(booking, errors);
    	    if (errors.hasErrors()){
    	    	return "booking";
    	    }
    	log.debug("Flight number in Booking is: " + booking.getFlightNumber());
    	log.debug("Departure Date in Booking is: " + booking.getDepartureDateAsString());
    		
    	if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
        	log.debug("Passengers in Booking:");
			for (Passenger passenger : booking.getPassengers()) {
				log.debug("Passenger First Name:" + passenger.getFirst());
				log.debug("Passenger Last Name:" + passenger.getLast());
			}
    	}
		
        try {
    		Date departureDate = getDateFormat().parse(booking.getDepartureDateAsString());
    		
			model.addAttribute("ticket",airlineServiceAdapter.bookFlight(booking.getFlightNumber(), new DateTime(departureDate.getTime()),booking.getPassengers()));
		} catch (DatatypeConfigurationException e) {
			log.error("DatatypeConfigurationException when booking flight", e);
		} catch (ParseException e) {
			log.error("ParseException when booking flight", e);
		}
    	
        return "bookingConfirmed";
    }

This results in the error message "Validator must not be null"
Thank you for your help :-)
~ b

[alpha88]

You have said:

Validator must be not null

ValidationUtils.invokeValidator API says:

must be not null

So i think your PassengerValidator is null when you pass it as argument to ValidationUtils.invokeValidator method. Before calling invokeValidator method, check whether PassengerValidator is really not null.

regards,

[bkrawczuk]

Thanks for your response.

I missed the obvious. I simply had to create a new passengerValidator in my BookingValidator so that it wasn't null.
:-)