Bean Validation + JPA 2 with conditional validation support?

albert_kam · **Posted:** Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:11 pm

I have a dummy JPA Entity to demonstrate my need:

Code:

@Entity
    public class User {
      private boolean referenced;
      private String referencedBy;
      private Date referenceTime;
      ...
    }

As i understand it, i can annotate those fields with bean validation annotations. Also, with BV integration with JPA, i can make groups that belong to one of the three lifecycle validation groups (pre-persist, pre-update and pre-remove).

In my above example, my need is :

1. If the referenced == true
2. Then referencedBy and referenceTime must not be null on pre-persist and pre-update

Obviously this example below wont work, as the validation would be done for referencedBy and referenceTime on pre-persist and pre-update :

Code:

    @Entity
    public class User {
      private boolean referenced;
    
      @NotNull
      private String referencedBy;
    
      @NotNull
      private Date referenceTime;
      ...
    }

Any idea on how to solve this ? Or this kind of validation should belong not in the bean validation, but as a code somewhere like in @PrePersist method ?

Thank you !

kevinpollet · **Posted:** Tue Mar 22, 2011 12:20 pm

Hi,

I've looked at the JPA2 specification and, by default, on pre-persist and pre-update, the validated group is the Default one. I think you could adress your problem in different ways. First of all, you can define a custom validator for the User class (this approach is portable across BV implementations). Inside of your custom validator you could check that, if the referenced property is true, then the properties referencedBy and referenceTime are not null (remember to remove the @NotNull annotation on your fields).

You also could use specific Hibernate Validator solutions:

As of version 4.1 you could use @ScriptAssert annotation to validate the same thing (you have to remove the @NotNull annotation on your fields). See http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/stable/ ... ssert.html.
As of version 4.2.0.Beta2 you could use a dynamic default group sequence provider. With that provider you can dynamically compose the Default group sequence of your bean (sequence used when the Default group is validated). So you can add a group (in which your @NotNull constraints belongs) depending on the state of the referenced property. See http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/validat ... roup-class.

Hope this help.

--
Kevin

albert_kam · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2011 12:13 am

Thank you for your research and suggestions .. Appreciate it ..! :-)