There are pros and cons for considering validation as business logic,
and Spring offers a design for validation (and data binding) that does not
exclude either one of them. Specifically validation should not be tied to
the web tier, should be easy to localize and it should be possible to plug
in any validator available. Considering the above, Spring has come up with
a Validator
interface that is both basic
ands eminently usable in every layer of an application.
Data binding is useful for allowing user input to be dynamically bound
to the domain model of an application (or whatever objects you use to
process user input). Spring provides the so-called
DataBinder
to do exactly that. The
Validator
and the
DataBinder
make up the
validation
package, which is primarily used in but not
limited to the MVC framework.
The BeanWrapper
is a fundamental
concept in the Spring Framework and is used in a lot of places. However,
you probably will not have the need to use the
BeanWrapper
directly. Because this is
reference documentation however, we felt that some explanation might be in
order. We will explain the BeanWrapper
in
this chapter since, if you were going to use it at all, you would most
likely do so when trying to bind data to objects.
Spring's DataBinder and the lower-level BeanWrapper both use
PropertyEditors to parse and format property values. The
PropertyEditor
concept is part of the
JavaBeans specification, and is also explained in this chapter. Spring 3
introduces a "core.convert" package that provides a general type
conversion facility, as well as a higher-level "format" package for
formatting UI field values. These new packages may be used as simpler
alternatives to PropertyEditors, and will also be discussed in this
chapter.
Spring features a Validator
interface
that you can use to validate objects. The
Validator
interface works using an
Errors
object so that while validating,
validators can report validation failures to the
Errors
object.
Let's consider a small data object:
public class Person { private String name; private int age; // the usual getters and setters... }
We're going to provide validation behavior for the
Person
class by implementing the following two
methods of the
org.springframework.validation.Validator
interface:
supports(Class)
- Can this
Validator
validate instances of the
supplied Class
?
validate(Object,
org.springframework.validation.Errors)
- validates the
given object and in case of validation errors, registers those with
the given Errors
object
Implementing a Validator
is fairly
straightforward, especially when you know of the
ValidationUtils
helper class that the Spring
Framework also provides.
public class PersonValidator implements Validator { /** * This Validator validates *just* Person instances */ public boolean supports(Class clazz) { return Person.class.equals(clazz); } public void validate(Object obj, Errors e) { ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmpty(e, "name", "name.empty"); Person p = (Person) obj; if (p.getAge() < 0) { e.rejectValue("age", "negativevalue"); } else if (p.getAge() > 110) { e.rejectValue("age", "too.darn.old"); } } }
As you can see, the static
rejectIfEmpty(..)
method on the
ValidationUtils
class is used to reject the
'name'
property if it is null
or the
empty string. Have a look at the Javadoc for the
ValidationUtils
class to see what functionality it
provides besides the example shown previously.
While it is certainly possible to implement a single
Validator
class to validate each of the
nested objects in a rich object, it may be better to encapsulate the
validation logic for each nested class of object in its own
Validator
implementation. A simple example
of a 'rich' object would be a
Customer
that is composed of two
String
properties (a first and second name) and a
complex Address
object.
Address
objects may be used independently of
Customer
objects, and so a distinct
AddressValidator
has been implemented. If you want
your CustomerValidator
to reuse the logic contained
within the AddressValidator
class without resorting
to copy-and-paste, you can dependency-inject or instantiate an
AddressValidator
within your
CustomerValidator
, and use it like so:
public class CustomerValidator implements Validator { private final Validator addressValidator; public CustomerValidator(Validator addressValidator) { if (addressValidator == null) { throw new IllegalArgumentException( "The supplied [Validator] is required and must not be null."); } if (!addressValidator.supports(Address.class)) { throw new IllegalArgumentException( "The supplied [Validator] must support the validation of [Address] instances."); } this.addressValidator = addressValidator; } /** * This Validator validates Customer instances, and any subclasses of Customer too */ public boolean supports(Class clazz) { return Customer.class.isAssignableFrom(clazz); } public void validate(Object target, Errors errors) { ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "firstName", "field.required"); ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmptyOrWhitespace(errors, "surname", "field.required"); Customer customer = (Customer) target; try { errors.pushNestedPath("address"); ValidationUtils.invokeValidator(this.addressValidator, customer.getAddress(), errors); } finally { errors.popNestedPath(); } } }
Validation errors are reported to the
Errors
object passed to the validator. In
case of Spring Web MVC you can use <spring:bind/>
tag to inspect the error messages, but of course you can also inspect the
errors object yourself. More information about the methods it offers can
be found from the Javadoc.
We've talked about databinding and validation. Outputting messages
corresponding to validation errors is the last thing we need to discuss.
In the example we've shown above, we rejected the name
and the age
field. If we're going to output the error
messages by using a MessageSource
, we will
do so using the error code we've given when rejecting the field ('name'
and 'age' in this case). When you call (either directly, or indirectly,
using for example the ValidationUtils
class)
rejectValue
or one of the other
reject
methods from the
Errors
interface, the underlying
implementation will not only register the code you've passed in, but also
a number of additional error codes. What error codes it registers is
determined by the MessageCodesResolver
that
is used. By default, the
DefaultMessageCodesResolver
is used, which for
example not only registers a message with the code you gave, but also
messages that include the field name you passed to the reject method. So
in case you reject a field using rejectValue("age",
"too.darn.old")
, apart from the too.darn.old
code, Spring will also register too.darn.old.age
and
too.darn.old.age.int
(so the first will include the
field name and the second will include the type of the field); this is
done as a convenience to aid developers in targeting error messages and
suchlike.
More information on the
MessageCodesResolver
and the default
strategy can be found online with the Javadocs for MessageCodesResolver and DefaultMessageCodesResolver respectively.
The org.springframework.beans
package adheres to
the JavaBeans standard provided by Sun. A JavaBean is simply a class with
a default no-argument constructor, which follows a naming convention where
(by way of an example) a property named bingoMadness
would have a setter method setBingoMadness(..)
and a getter method getBingoMadness()
. For more
information about JavaBeans and the specification, please refer to Sun's
website ( java.sun.com/products/javabeans).
One quite important class in the beans package is the
BeanWrapper
interface and its corresponding
implementation (BeanWrapperImpl
). As quoted from
the Javadoc, the BeanWrapper
offers
functionality to set and get property values (individually or in bulk),
get property descriptors, and to query properties to determine if they are
readable or writable. Also, the BeanWrapper
offers support for nested properties, enabling the setting of properties
on sub-properties to an unlimited depth. Then, the
BeanWrapper
supports the ability to add
standard JavaBeans PropertyChangeListeners
and VetoableChangeListeners
, without the
need for supporting code in the target class. Last but not least, the
BeanWrapper
provides support for the
setting of indexed properties. The
BeanWrapper
usually isn't used by
application code directly, but by the
DataBinder
and the
BeanFactory
.
The way the BeanWrapper
works is partly
indicated by its name: it wraps a bean to perform
actions on that bean, like setting and retrieving properties.
Setting and getting properties is done using the
setPropertyValue(s)
and
getPropertyValue(s)
methods that both come with a
couple of overloaded variants. They're all described in more detail in
the Javadoc Spring comes with. What's important to know is that there
are a couple of conventions for indicating properties of an object. A
couple of examples:
Table 7.1. Examples of properties
Expression | Explanation |
---|---|
name | Indicates the property name
corresponding to the methods getName()
or isName() and
setName(..) |
account.name | Indicates the nested property name of
the property account corresponding e.g. to
the methods getAccount().setName() or
getAccount().getName() |
account[2] | Indicates the third element of the
indexed property account . Indexed properties
can be of type array , list
or other naturally ordered
collection |
account[COMPANYNAME] | Indicates the value of the map entry indexed by the key
COMPANYNAME of the Map property
account |
Below you'll find some examples of working with the
BeanWrapper
to get and set
properties.
(This next section is not vitally important to you if
you're not planning to work with the
BeanWrapper
directly. If you're just
using the DataBinder
and the
BeanFactory
and their out-of-the-box
implementation, you should skip ahead to the section about
PropertyEditors
.)
Consider the following two classes:
public class Company { private String name; private Employee managingDirector; public String getName() { return this.name; } public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } public Employee getManagingDirector() { return this.managingDirector; } public void setManagingDirector(Employee managingDirector) { this.managingDirector = managingDirector; } }
public class Employee { private String name; private float salary; public String getName() { return this.name; } public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } public float getSalary() { return salary; } public void setSalary(float salary) { this.salary = salary; } }
The following code snippets show some examples of how to retrieve
and manipulate some of the properties of instantiated
Companies
and Employees
:
BeanWrapper company = BeanWrapperImpl(new Company()); // setting the company name.. company.setPropertyValue("name", "Some Company Inc."); // ... can also be done like this: PropertyValue value = new PropertyValue("name", "Some Company Inc."); company.setPropertyValue(value); // ok, let's create the director and tie it to the company: BeanWrapper jim = BeanWrapperImpl(new Employee()); jim.setPropertyValue("name", "Jim Stravinsky"); company.setPropertyValue("managingDirector", jim.getWrappedInstance()); // retrieving the salary of the managingDirector through the company Float salary = (Float) company.getPropertyValue("managingDirector.salary");
Spring uses the concept of PropertyEditors
to
effect the conversion between an Object
and a
String
. If you think about it, it sometimes might
be handy to be able to represent properties in a different way than the
object itself. For example, a Date
can be
represented in a human readable way (as the
String
'2007-14-09
'), while
we're still able to convert the human readable form back to the original
date (or even better: convert any date entered in a human readable form,
back to Date
objects). This behavior can be
achieved by registering custom editors, of type
java.beans.PropertyEditor
. Registering
custom editors on a BeanWrapper
or
alternately in a specific IoC container as mentioned in the previous
chapter, gives it the knowledge of how to convert properties to the
desired type. Read more about
PropertyEditors
in the Javadoc of the
java.beans
package provided by Sun.
A couple of examples where property editing is used in Spring:
setting properties on beans is done using
PropertyEditors
. When mentioning
java.lang.String
as the value of a property of
some bean you're declaring in XML file, Spring will (if the setter
of the corresponding property has a
Class
-parameter) use the
ClassEditor
to try to resolve the parameter
to a Class
object.
parsing HTTP request parameters in Spring's
MVC framework is done using all kinds of
PropertyEditors
that you can manually bind in all
subclasses of the CommandController
.
Spring has a number of built-in PropertyEditors
to make life easy. Each of those is listed below and they are all
located in the
org.springframework.beans.propertyeditors
package.
Most, but not all (as indicated below), are registered by default by
BeanWrapperImpl
. Where the property editor is
configurable in some fashion, you can of course still register your own
variant to override the default one:
Table 7.2. Built-in PropertyEditors
Class | Explanation |
---|---|
ByteArrayPropertyEditor | Editor for byte arrays. Strings will simply be converted to
their corresponding byte representations. Registered by default
by BeanWrapperImpl . |
ClassEditor | Parses Strings representing classes to actual classes and
the other way around. When a class is not found, an
IllegalArgumentException is thrown.
Registered by default by
BeanWrapperImpl . |
CustomBooleanEditor | Customizable property editor for
Boolean properties. Registered by default
by BeanWrapperImpl , but, can be
overridden by registering custom instance of it as custom
editor. |
CustomCollectionEditor | Property editor for Collections, converting any source
Collection to a given target
Collection type. |
CustomDateEditor | Customizable property editor for java.util.Date, supporting a custom DateFormat. NOT registered by default. Must be user registered as needed with appropriate format. |
CustomNumberEditor | Customizable property editor for any Number subclass like
Integer , Long ,
Float , Double .
Registered by default by BeanWrapperImpl ,
but can be overridden by registering custom instance of it as a
custom editor. |
FileEditor | Capable of resolving Strings to
java.io.File objects. Registered by
default by BeanWrapperImpl . |
InputStreamEditor | One-way property editor, capable of taking a text string
and producing (via an intermediate
ResourceEditor and
Resource ) an
InputStream , so
InputStream properties may be
directly set as Strings. Note that the default usage will not
close the InputStream for you!
Registered by default by
BeanWrapperImpl . |
LocaleEditor | Capable of resolving Strings to
Locale objects and vice versa (the String
format is [language]_[country]_[variant], which is the same
thing the toString() method of Locale provides). Registered by
default by BeanWrapperImpl . |
PatternEditor | Capable of resolving Strings to JDK 1.5
Pattern objects and vice versa. |
PropertiesEditor | Capable of converting Strings (formatted using the format
as defined in the Javadoc for the java.lang.Properties class) to
Properties objects. Registered by default
by BeanWrapperImpl . |
StringTrimmerEditor | Property editor that trims Strings. Optionally allows
transforming an empty string into a null
value. NOT registered by default; must be user registered as
needed. |
URLEditor | Capable of resolving a String representation of a URL to an
actual URL object. Registered by default
by BeanWrapperImpl . |
Spring uses the
java.beans.PropertyEditorManager
to set
the search path for property editors that might be needed. The search
path also includes sun.bean.editors
, which includes
PropertyEditor
implementations for types
such as Font
, Color
, and
most of the primitive types. Note also that the standard JavaBeans
infrastructure will automatically discover
PropertyEditor
classes (without you
having to register them explicitly) if they are in the same package as
the class they handle, and have the same name as that class, with
'Editor'
appended; for example, one could have the
following class and package structure, which would be sufficient for the
FooEditor
class to be recognized and used as the
PropertyEditor
for
Foo
-typed properties.
com
chank
pop
Foo
FooEditor // the PropertyEditor for the Foo class
Note that you can also use the standard
BeanInfo
JavaBeans mechanism here as well
(described in not-amazing-detail here). Find below an example of using the
BeanInfo
mechanism for explicitly
registering one or more PropertyEditor
instances with the properties of an associated class.
com
chank
pop
Foo
FooBeanInfo // the BeanInfo for the Foo class
Here is the Java source code for the referenced
FooBeanInfo
class. This would associate a
CustomNumberEditor
with the
age
property of the Foo
class.
public class FooBeanInfo extends SimpleBeanInfo { public PropertyDescriptor[] getPropertyDescriptors() { try { final PropertyEditor numberPE = new CustomNumberEditor(Integer.class, true); PropertyDescriptor ageDescriptor = new PropertyDescriptor("age", Foo.class) { public PropertyEditor createPropertyEditor(Object bean) { return numberPE; }; }; return new PropertyDescriptor[] { ageDescriptor }; } catch (IntrospectionException ex) { throw new Error(ex.toString()); } } }
When setting bean properties as a string value, a Spring IoC
container ultimately uses standard JavaBeans
PropertyEditors
to convert these Strings to the
complex type of the property. Spring pre-registers a number of custom
PropertyEditors
(for example, to convert a
classname expressed as a string into a real
Class
object). Additionally, Java's standard
JavaBeans PropertyEditor
lookup
mechanism allows a PropertyEditor
for a class
simply to be named appropriately and placed in the same package as the
class it provides support for, to be found automatically.
If there is a need to register other custom
PropertyEditors
, there are several mechanisms
available. The most manual approach, which is not normally convenient
or recommended, is to simply use the
registerCustomEditor()
method of the
ConfigurableBeanFactory
interface,
assuming you have a BeanFactory
reference. Another, slightly more convenient, mechanism is to use a
special bean factory post-processor called
CustomEditorConfigurer
. Although bean factory
post-processors can be used with
BeanFactory
implementations, the
CustomEditorConfigurer
has a nested property
setup, so it is strongly recommended that it is used with the
ApplicationContext
, where it may be
deployed in similar fashion to any other bean, and automatically
detected and applied.
Note that all bean factories and application contexts
automatically use a number of built-in property editors, through their
use of something called a BeanWrapper
to handle property conversions. The standard property editors that the
BeanWrapper
registers are listed in
the previous section.
Additionally, ApplicationContexts
also override or
add an additional number of editors to handle resource lookups in a
manner appropriate to the specific application context type.
Standard JavaBeans PropertyEditor
instances are used to convert property values expressed as strings to
the actual complex type of the property.
CustomEditorConfigurer
, a bean factory
post-processor, may be used to conveniently add support for additional
PropertyEditor
instances to an
ApplicationContext
.
Consider a user class ExoticType
, and
another class DependsOnExoticType
which needs
ExoticType
set as a property:
package example; public class ExoticType { private String name; public ExoticType(String name) { this.name = name; } } public class DependsOnExoticType { private ExoticType type; public void setType(ExoticType type) { this.type = type; } }
When things are properly set up, we want to be able to assign the
type property as a string, which a
PropertyEditor
will behind the scenes
convert into an actual ExoticType
instance:
<bean id="sample" class="example.DependsOnExoticType"> <property name="type" value="aNameForExoticType"/> </bean>
The PropertyEditor
implementation
could look similar to this:
// converts string representation to ExoticType object package example; public class ExoticTypeEditor extends PropertyEditorSupport { public void setAsText(String text) { setValue(new ExoticType(text.toUpperCase())); } }
Finally, we use CustomEditorConfigurer
to
register the new PropertyEditor
with
the ApplicationContext
, which will then
be able to use it as needed:
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.CustomEditorConfigurer"> <property name="customEditors"> <map> <entry key="example.ExoticType" value="example.ExoticTypeEditor"/> </map> </property> </bean>
Another mechanism for registering property editors with the
Spring container is to create and use a
PropertyEditorRegistrar
. This
interface is particularly useful when you need to use the same set
of property editors in several different situations: write a
corresponding registrar and reuse that in each case.
PropertyEditorRegistrars
work in conjunction with
an interface called
PropertyEditorRegistry
, an interface
that is implemented by the Spring
BeanWrapper
(and
DataBinder
).
PropertyEditorRegistrars
are particularly
convenient when used in conjunction with the
CustomEditorConfigurer
(introduced here), which exposes a property called
setPropertyEditorRegistrars(..)
:
PropertyEditorRegistrars
added to a
CustomEditorConfigurer
in this fashion can
easily be shared with DataBinder
and
Spring MVC Controllers
. Furthermore,
it avoids the need for synchronization on custom editors: a
PropertyEditorRegistrar
is expected
to create fresh PropertyEditor
instances for each bean creation attempt.
Using a PropertyEditorRegistrar
is perhaps best illustrated with an example. First off, you need to
create your own
PropertyEditorRegistrar
implementation:
package com.foo.editors.spring; public final class CustomPropertyEditorRegistrar implements PropertyEditorRegistrar { public void registerCustomEditors(PropertyEditorRegistry registry) { // it is expected that new PropertyEditor instances are created registry.registerCustomEditor(ExoticType.class, new ExoticTypeEditor()); // you could register as many custom property editors as are required here... } }
See also the
org.springframework.beans.support.ResourceEditorRegistrar
for an example
PropertyEditorRegistrar
implementation. Notice how in its implementation of the
registerCustomEditors(..)
method it creates
new instances of each property editor.
Next we configure a
CustomEditorConfigurer
and inject an instance
of our CustomPropertyEditorRegistrar
into
it:
<bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.CustomEditorConfigurer"> <property name="propertyEditorRegistrars"> <list> <ref bean="customPropertyEditorRegistrar"/> </list> </property> </bean> <bean id="customPropertyEditorRegistrar" class="com.foo.editors.spring.CustomPropertyEditorRegistrar"/>
Finally, and in a bit of a departure from the focus of this
chapter, for those of you using Spring's MVC web
framework, using
PropertyEditorRegistrars
in
conjunction with data-binding
Controllers
(such as
SimpleFormController
) can be very convenient.
Find below an example of using a
PropertyEditorRegistrar
in the
implementation of an initBinder(..)
method:
public final class RegisterUserController extends SimpleFormController { private final PropertyEditorRegistrar customPropertyEditorRegistrar; public RegisterUserController(PropertyEditorRegistrar propertyEditorRegistrar) { this.customPropertyEditorRegistrar = propertyEditorRegistrar; } protected void initBinder(HttpServletRequest request, ServletRequestDataBinder binder) throws Exception { this.customPropertyEditorRegistrar.registerCustomEditors(binder); } // other methods to do with registering a User }
This style of PropertyEditor
registration can lead to concise code (the implementation of
initBinder(..)
is just one line long!), and
allows common PropertyEditor
registration code to be encapsulated in a class and then shared
amongst as many Controllers
as
needed.
Spring 3 introduces a core.convert
package that
provides a general type conversion system. The system defines an SPI to
implement type conversion logic, as well as an API to execute type
conversions at runtime. Within a Spring container, this system can be used
as an alternative to PropertyEditors to convert externalized bean property
value strings to required property types. The public API may also be used
anywhere in your application where type conversion is needed.
The SPI to implement type conversion logic is simple and strongly typed:
package org.springframework.core.convert.converter; public interface Converter<S, T> { T convert(S source); }
To create your own Converter, simply implement the interface above. Parameterize S as the type you are converting from, and T as the type you are converting to. For each call to convert(S), the source argument is guaranteed to be NOT null. Your Converter may throw any Exception if conversion fails. An IllegalArgumentException should be thrown to report an invalid source value. Take care to ensure your Converter implementation is thread-safe.
Several converter implementations are provided in the
core.convert.support
package as a convenience.
These include converters from Strings to Numbers and other common types.
Consider StringToInteger
as an example Converter
implementation:
package org.springframework.core.convert.support; final class StringToInteger implements Converter<String, Integer> { public Integer convert(String source) { return Integer.valueOf(source); } }
When you need to centralize the conversion logic for an entire
class hierarchy, for example, when converting from String to
java.lang.Enum objects, implement
ConverterFactory
:
package org.springframework.core.convert.converter; public interface ConverterFactory<S, R> { <T extends R> Converter<S, T> getConverter(Class<T> targetType); }
Parameterize S to be the type you are converting from and R to be the base type defining the range of classes you can convert to. Then implement getConverter(Class<T>), where T is a subclass of R.
Consider the StringToEnum
ConverterFactory
as an example:
package org.springframework.core.convert.support; final class StringToEnumConverterFactory implements ConverterFactory<String, Enum> { public <T extends Enum> Converter<String, T> getConverter(Class<T> targetType) { return new StringToEnumConverter(targetType); } private final class StringToEnumConverter<T extends Enum> implements Converter<String, T> { private Class<T> enumType; public StringToEnumConverter(Class<T> enumType) { this.enumType = enumType; } public T convert(String source) { return (T) Enum.valueOf(this.enumType, source.trim()); } } }
When you require a sophisticated Converter implementation, consider the GenericConverter interface. With a more flexible but less strongly typed signature, a GenericConverter supports converting between multiple source and target types. In addition, a GenericConverter makes available source and target field context you can use when implementing your conversion logic. Such context allows a type conversion to be driven by a field annotation, or generic information declared on a field signature.
package org.springframework.core.convert.converter; public interface GenericConverter { public Set<ConvertiblePair> getConvertibleTypes(); Object convert(Object source, TypeDescriptor sourceType, TypeDescriptor targetType); }
To implement a GenericConverter, have getConvertibleTypes() return the supported source->target type pairs. Then implement convert(Object, TypeDescriptor, TypeDescriptor) to implement your conversion logic. The source TypeDescriptor provides access to the source field holding the value being converted. The target TypeDescriptor provides access to the target field where the converted value will be set.
A good example of a GenericConverter is a converter that converts between a Java Array and a Collection. Such an ArrayToCollectionConverter introspects the field that declares the target Collection type to resolve the Collection's element type. This allows each element in the source array to be converted to the Collection element type before the Collection is set on the target field.
Note | |
---|---|
Because GenericConverter is a more complex SPI interface, only use it when you need it. Favor Converter or ConverterFactory for basic type conversion needs. |
Sometimes you only want a Converter to execute if a specific condition holds true. For example, you might only want to execute a Converter if a specific annotation is present on the target field. Or you might only want to execute a Converter if a specific method, such as static valueOf method, is defined on the target class. ConditionalGenericConverter is an subinterface of GenericConverter that allows you to define such custom matching criteria:
public interface ConditionalGenericConverter extends GenericConverter { boolean matches(TypeDescriptor sourceType, TypeDescriptor targetType); }
A good example of a ConditionalGenericConverter is an EntityConverter that converts between an persistent entity identifier and an entity reference. Such a EntityConverter might only match if the target entity type declares a static finder method e.g. findAccount(Long). You would perform such a finder method check in the implementation of matches(TypeDescriptor, TypeDescriptor).
The ConversionService defines a unified API for executing type conversion logic at runtime. Converters are often executed behind this facade interface:
package org.springframework.core.convert; public interface ConversionService { boolean canConvert(Class<?> sourceType, Class<?> targetType); <T> T convert(Object source, Class<T> targetType); boolean canConvert(TypeDescriptor sourceType, TypeDescriptor targetType); Object convert(Object source, TypeDescriptor sourceType, TypeDescriptor targetType); }
Most ConversionService implementations also implement
ConverterRegistry
, which provides an SPI for
registering converters. Internally, a ConversionService implementation
delegates to its registered converters to carry out type conversion
logic.
A robust ConversionService implementation is provided in the
core.convert.support
package.
GenericConversionService
is the general-purpose
implementation suitable for use in most environments.
ConversionServiceFactory
provides a convenient
factory for creating common ConversionService configurations.
A ConversionService is a stateless object designed to be instantiated at application startup, then shared between multiple threads. In a Spring application, you typically configure a ConversionService instance per Spring container (or ApplicationContext). That ConversionService will be picked up by Spring and then used whenever a type conversion needs to be performed by the framework. You may also inject this ConversionService into any of your beans and invoke it directly.
Note | |
---|---|
If no ConversionService is registered with Spring, the original PropertyEditor-based system is used. |
To register a default ConversionService with Spring, add the
following bean definition with id conversionService
:
<bean id="conversionService" class="org.springframework.context.support.ConversionServiceFactoryBean"/>
A default ConversionService can convert between strings, numbers,
enums, collections, maps, and other common types. To supplement or
override the default converters with your own custom converter(s), set
the converters
property. Property values may implement
either of the Converter, ConverterFactory, or GenericConverter
interfaces.
<bean id="conversionService" class="org.springframework.context.support.ConversionServiceFactoryBean"> <property name="converters"> <list> <bean class="example.MyCustomConverter"/> </list> </property> </bean>
It is also common to use a ConversionService within a Spring MVC
application. See Section 7.6.5, “Configuring Formatting in Spring MVC”
for details on use with
<mvc:annotation-driven/>
.
In certain situations you may wish to apply formatting during
conversion. See Section 7.6.3, “FormatterRegistry SPI” for
details on using
FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean
.
To work with a ConversionService instance programmatically, simply inject a reference to it like you would for any other bean:
@Service public class MyService { @Autowired public MyService(ConversionService conversionService) { this.conversionService = conversionService; } public void doIt() { this.conversionService.convert(...) } }
As discussed in the previous section, core.convert
is a general-purpose type
conversion system. It provides a unified ConversionService API as well as
a strongly-typed Converter SPI for implementing conversion logic from one
type to another. A Spring Container uses this system to bind bean property
values. In addition, both the Spring Expression Language (SpEL) and
DataBinder use this system to bind field values. For example, when SpEL
needs to coerce a Short
to a
Long
to complete an
expression.setValue(Object bean, Object value)
attempt, the core.convert system performs the coercion.
Now consider the type conversion requirements of a typical client environment such as a web or desktop application. In such environments, you typically convert from String to support the client postback process, as well as back to String to support the view rendering process. In addition, you often need to localize String values. The more general core.convert Converter SPI does not address such formatting requirements directly. To directly address them, Spring 3 introduces a convenient Formatter SPI that provides a simple and robust alternative to PropertyEditors for client environments.
In general, use the Converter SPI when you need to implement general-purpose type conversion logic; for example, for converting between a java.util.Date and and java.lang.Long. Use the Formatter SPI when you're working in a client environment, such as a web application, and need to parse and print localized field values. The ConversionService provides a unified type conversion API for both SPIs.
The Formatter SPI to implement field formatting logic is simple and strongly typed:
package org.springframework.format; public interface Formatter<T> extends Printer<T>, Parser<T> { }
Where Formatter extends from the Printer and Parser building-block interfaces:
public interface Printer<T> { String print(T fieldValue, Locale locale); }
import java.text.ParseException; public interface Parser<T> { T parse(String clientValue, Locale locale) throws ParseException; }
To create your own Formatter, simply implement the Formatter
interface above. Parameterize T to be the type of object you wish to
format, for example, java.util.Date
. Implement
the print()
operation to print an instance of T
for display in the client locale. Implement the
parse()
operation to parse an instance of T from
the formatted representation returned from the client locale. Your
Formatter should throw a ParseException or IllegalArgumentException if a
parse attempt fails. Take care to ensure your Formatter implementation
is thread-safe.
Several Formatter implementations are provided in
format
subpackages as a convenience. The
number
package provides a NumberFormatter,
CurrencyFormatter, and PercentFormatter to format java.lang.Number
objects using a java.text.NumberFormat. The
datetime
package provides a DateFormatter to format
java.util.Date objects with a java.text.DateFormat. The
datetime.joda
package provides comprehensive
datetime formatting support based on the Joda Time library.
Consider DateFormatter
as an example
Formatter
implementation:
package org.springframework.format.datetime; public final class DateFormatter implements Formatter<Date> { private String pattern; public DateFormatter(String pattern) { this.pattern = pattern; } public String print(Date date, Locale locale) { if (date == null) { return ""; } return getDateFormat(locale).format(date); } public Date parse(String formatted, Locale locale) throws ParseException { if (formatted.length() == 0) { return null; } return getDateFormat(locale).parse(formatted); } protected DateFormat getDateFormat(Locale locale) { DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(this.pattern, locale); dateFormat.setLenient(false); return dateFormat; } }
The Spring team welcomes community-driven Formatter contributions; see http://jira.springframework.org to contribute.
As you will see, field formatting can be configured by field type or annotation. To bind an Annotation to a formatter, implement AnnotationFormatterFactory:
package org.springframework.format; public interface AnnotationFormatterFactory<A extends Annotation> { Set<Class<?>> getFieldTypes(); Printer<?> getPrinter(A annotation, Class<?> fieldType); Parser<?> getParser(A annotation, Class<?> fieldType); }
Parameterize A to be the field annotationType you wish to associate
formatting logic with, for example
org.springframework.format.annotation.DateTimeFormat
. Have
getFieldTypes()
return the types of fields the
annotation may be used on. Have getPrinter()
return a Printer to print the value of an annotated field. Have
getParser()
return a Parser to parse a
clientValue for an annotated field.
The example AnnotationFormatterFactory implementation below binds the @NumberFormat Annotation to a formatter. This annotation allows either a number style or pattern to be specified:
public final class NumberFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory implements AnnotationFormatterFactory<NumberFormat> { public Set<Class<?>> getFieldTypes() { return new HashSet<Class<?>>(asList(new Class<?>[] { Short.class, Integer.class, Long.class, Float.class, Double.class, BigDecimal.class, BigInteger.class })); } public Printer<Number> getPrinter(NumberFormat annotation, Class<?> fieldType) { return configureFormatterFrom(annotation, fieldType); } public Parser<Number> getParser(NumberFormat annotation, Class<?> fieldType) { return configureFormatterFrom(annotation, fieldType); } private Formatter<Number> configureFormatterFrom(NumberFormat annotation, Class<?> fieldType) { if (!annotation.pattern().isEmpty()) { return new NumberFormatter(annotation.pattern()); } else { Style style = annotation.style(); if (style == Style.PERCENT) { return new PercentFormatter(); } else if (style == Style.CURRENCY) { return new CurrencyFormatter(); } else { return new NumberFormatter(); } } } }
To trigger formatting, simply annotate fields with @NumberFormat:
public class MyModel { @NumberFormat(style=Style.CURRENCY) private BigDecimal decimal; }
A portable format annotation API exists in the
org.springframework.format.annotation
package.
Use @NumberFormat to format java.lang.Number fields. Use
@DateTimeFormat to format java.util.Date, java.util.Calendar,
java.util.Long, or Joda Time fields.
The example below uses @DateTimeFormat to format a java.util.Date as a ISO Date (yyyy-MM-dd):
public class MyModel { @DateTimeFormat(iso=ISO.DATE) private Date date; }
The FormatterRegistry is an SPI for registering formatters and
converters. FormattingConversionService
is
an implementation of FormatterRegistry suitable for most environments.
This implementation may be configured programmatically or declaratively
as a Spring bean using
FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean
.
Because this implementation also implements
ConversionService
, it can be directly
configured for use with Spring's DataBinder and the Spring Expression
Language (SpEL).
Review the FormatterRegistry SPI below:
package org.springframework.format; public interface FormatterRegistry extends ConverterRegistry { void addFormatterForFieldType(Class<?> fieldType, Printer<?> printer, Parser<?> parser); void addFormatterForFieldType(Class<?> fieldType, Formatter<?> formatter); void addFormatterForFieldType(Formatter<?> formatter); void addFormatterForAnnotation(AnnotationFormatterFactory<?, ?> factory); }
As shown above, Formatters can be registered by fieldType or annotation.
The FormatterRegistry SPI allows you to configure Formatting rules centrally, instead of duplicating such configuration across your Controllers. For example, you might want to enforce that all Date fields are formatted a certain way, or fields with a specific annotation are formatted in a certain way. With a shared FormatterRegistry, you define these rules once and they are applied whenever formatting is needed.
The FormatterRegistrar is an SPI for registering formatters and converters through the FormatterRegistry:
package org.springframework.format; public interface FormatterRegistrar { void registerFormatters(FormatterRegistry registry); }
A FormatterRegistrar is useful when registering multiple related converters and formatters for a given formatting category, such as Date formatting. It can also be useful where declarative registration is insufficient. For example when a formatter needs to be indexed under a specific field type different from its own <T> or when registering a Printer/Parser pair. The next section provides more information on converter and formatter registration.
In a Spring MVC application, you may configure a custom
ConversionService instance explicitly as an attribute of the
annotation-driven
element of the MVC namespace. This
ConversionService will then be used anytime a type conversion is
required during Controller model binding. If not configured explicitly,
Spring MVC will automatically register default formatters and converters
for common types such as numbers and dates.
To rely on default formatting rules, no custom configuration is required in your Spring MVC config XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation=" http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd"> <mvc:annotation-driven/> </beans>
With this one-line of configuration, default formatters for Numbers and Date types will be installed, including support for the @NumberFormat and @DateTimeFormat annotations. Full support for the Joda Time formatting library is also installed if Joda Time is present on the classpath.
To inject a ConversionService instance with custom formatters and converters registered, set the conversion-service attribute and then specify custom converters, formatters, or FormatterRegistrars as properties of the FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation=" http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd"> <mvc:annotation-driven conversion-service="conversionService"/> <bean id="conversionService" class="org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean"> <property name="converters"> <set> <bean class="org.example.MyConverter"/> </set> </property> <property name="formatters"> <set> <bean class="org.example.MyFormatter"/> <bean class="org.example.MyAnnotationFormatterFactory"/> </set> </property> <property name="formatterRegistrars"> <set> <bean class="org.example.MyFormatterRegistrar"/> </set> </property> </bean> </beans>
Note | |
---|---|
See Section 7.6.4, “FormatterRegistrar SPI” and
the |
By default, date and time fields that are not annotated with
@DateTimeFormat
are converted from strings
using the the DateFormat.SHORT
style. If you prefer,
you can change this by defining your own global format.
You will need to ensure that Spring does not register default
formatters, and instead you should register all formatters manually. Use the
org.springframework.format.datetime.joda.JodaTimeFormatterRegistrar
or org.springframework.format.datetime.DateFormatterRegistrar
class depending on whether you use the Joda Time library.
For example, the following Java configuration will register a global
'yyyyMMdd
' format. This example does not depend on the
Joda Time library:
@Configuration public class AppConfig { @Bean public FormattingConversionService conversionService() { // Use the DefaultFormattingConversionService but do not register defaults DefaultFormattingConversionService conversionService = new DefaultFormattingConversionService(false); // Ensure @NumberFormat is still supported conversionService.addFormatterForFieldAnnotation(new NumberFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory()); // Register date conversion with a specific global format DateFormatterRegistrar registrar = new DateFormatterRegistrar(); registrar.setFormatter(new DateFormatter("yyyyMMdd")); registrar.registerFormatters(conversionService); return conversionService; } }
If you prefer XML based configuration you can use a
FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean
. Here is the same
example, this time using Joda Time:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation=" http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd> <bean id="conversionService" class="org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean"> <property name="registerDefaultFormatters" value="false" /> <property name="formatters"> <set> <bean class="org.springframework.format.number.NumberFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory" /> </set> </property> <property name="formatterRegistrars"> <set> <bean class="org.springframework.format.datetime.joda.JodaTimeFormatterRegistrar"> <property name="dateFormatter"> <bean class="org.springframework.format.datetime.joda.DateTimeFormatterFactoryBean"> <property name="pattern" value="yyyyMMdd"/> </bean> </property> </bean> </set> </property> </bean> </beans>
Note | |
---|---|
Joda Time provides separate distinct types to represent
|
If you are using Spring MVC remember to explicitly configure the
conversion service that is used. For Java based
@Configuration
this means extending the
WebMvcConfigurationSupport
class and overriding
the mvcConversionService()
method. For XML you should
use the 'conversion-service'
attribute of the
mvc:annotation-driven
element. See
Section 7.6.5, “Configuring Formatting in Spring MVC” for details.
Spring 3 introduces several enhancements to its validation support. First, the JSR-303 Bean Validation API is now fully supported. Second, when used programmatically, Spring's DataBinder can now validate objects as well as bind to them. Third, Spring MVC now has support for declaratively validating @Controller inputs.
JSR-303 standardizes validation constraint declaration and metadata for the Java platform. Using this API, you annotate domain model properties with declarative validation constraints and the runtime enforces them. There are a number of built-in constraints you can take advantage of. You may also define your own custom constraints.
To illustrate, consider a simple PersonForm model with two properties:
public class PersonForm { private String name; private int age; }
JSR-303 allows you to define declarative validation constraints against such properties:
public class PersonForm { @NotNull @Size(max=64) private String name; @Min(0) private int age; }
When an instance of this class is validated by a JSR-303 Validator, these constraints will be enforced.
For general information on JSR-303, see the Bean Validation Specification. For information on the specific capabilities of the default reference implementation, see the Hibernate Validator documentation. To learn how to setup a JSR-303 implementation as a Spring bean, keep reading.
Spring provides full support for the JSR-303 Bean Validation API.
This includes convenient support for bootstrapping a JSR-303
implementation as a Spring bean. This allows for a
javax.validation.ValidatorFactory
or
javax.validation.Validator
to be injected wherever
validation is needed in your application.
Use the LocalValidatorFactoryBean
to
configure a default JSR-303 Validator as a Spring bean:
<bean id="validator" class="org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean"/>
The basic configuration above will trigger JSR-303 to initialize using its default bootstrap mechanism. A JSR-303 provider, such as Hibernate Validator, is expected to be present in the classpath and will be detected automatically.
LocalValidatorFactoryBean
implements both
javax.validation.ValidatorFactory
and
javax.validation.Validator
, as well as Spring's
org.springframework.validation.Validator
. You may inject
a reference to either of these interfaces into beans that need to
invoke validation logic.
Inject a reference to javax.validation.Validator
if
you prefer to work with the JSR-303 API directly:
import javax.validation.Validator; @Service public class MyService { @Autowired private Validator validator;
Inject a reference to
org.springframework.validation.Validator
if your bean
requires the Spring Validation API:
import org.springframework.validation.Validator; @Service public class MyService { @Autowired private Validator validator; }
Each JSR-303 validation constraint consists of two parts. First,
a @Constraint annotation that declares the constraint and its
configurable properties. Second, an implementation of the
javax.validation.ConstraintValidator
interface that
implements the constraint's behavior. To associate a declaration with
an implementation, each @Constraint annotation references a
corresponding ValidationConstraint implementation class. At runtime, a
ConstraintValidatorFactory
instantiates the referenced
implementation when the constraint annotation is encountered in your
domain model.
By default, the LocalValidatorFactoryBean
configures a SpringConstraintValidatorFactory
that uses
Spring to create ConstraintValidator instances. This allows your
custom ConstraintValidators to benefit from dependency injection like
any other Spring bean.
Shown below is an example of a custom @Constraint declaration,
followed by an associated ConstraintValidator
implementation that uses Spring for dependency injection:
@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.FIELD}) @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) @Constraint(validatedBy=MyConstraintValidator.class) public @interface MyConstraint { }
import javax.validation.ConstraintValidator; public class MyConstraintValidator implements ConstraintValidator { @Autowired; private Foo aDependency; ... }
As you can see, a ConstraintValidator implementation may have its dependencies @Autowired like any other Spring bean.
The default LocalValidatorFactoryBean
configuration should prove sufficient for most cases. There are a
number of other configuration options for various JSR-303 constructs,
from message interpolation to traversal resolution. See the JavaDocs
of LocalValidatorFactoryBean
for more
information on these options.
Since Spring 3, a DataBinder instance can be configured with a
Validator. Once configured, the Validator may be invoked by calling
binder.validate()
. Any validation Errors are automatically
added to the binder's BindingResult.
When working with the DataBinder programmatically, this can be used to invoke validation logic after binding to a target object:
Foo target = new Foo(); DataBinder binder = new DataBinder(target); binder.setValidator(new FooValidator()); // bind to the target object binder.bind(propertyValues); // validate the target object binder.validate(); // get BindingResult that includes any validation errors BindingResult results = binder.getBindingResult();
Beginning with Spring 3, Spring MVC has the ability to automatically validate @Controller inputs. In previous versions it was up to the developer to manually invoke validation logic.
To trigger validation of a @Controller input, simply annotate the input argument as @Valid:
@Controller public class MyController { @RequestMapping("/foo", method=RequestMethod.POST) public void processFoo(@Valid Foo foo) { /* ... */ }
Spring MVC will validate a @Valid object after binding so-long as an appropriate Validator has been configured.
Note | |
---|---|
The @Valid annotation is part of the standard JSR-303 Bean Validation API, and is not a Spring-specific construct. |
The Validator instance invoked when a @Valid method argument is encountered may be configured in two ways. First, you may call binder.setValidator(Validator) within a @Controller's @InitBinder callback. This allows you to configure a Validator instance per @Controller class:
@Controller public class MyController { @InitBinder protected void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) { binder.setValidator(new FooValidator()); } @RequestMapping("/foo", method=RequestMethod.POST) public void processFoo(@Valid Foo foo) { ... } }
Second, you may call setValidator(Validator) on the global WebBindingInitializer. This allows you to configure a Validator instance across all @Controllers. This can be achieved easily by using the Spring MVC namespace:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation=" http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd"> <mvc:annotation-driven validator="globalValidator"/> </beans>
With JSR-303, a single javax.validation.Validator
instance typically validates all model objects
that declare validation constraints. To configure a JSR-303-backed
Validator with Spring MVC, simply add a JSR-303 Provider, such as
Hibernate Validator, to your classpath. Spring MVC will detect it and
automatically enable JSR-303 support across all Controllers.
The Spring MVC configuration required to enable JSR-303 support is shown below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation=" http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd"> <!-- JSR-303 support will be detected on classpath and enabled automatically --> <mvc:annotation-driven/> </beans>
With this minimal configuration, anytime a @Valid @Controller input is encountered, it will be validated by the JSR-303 provider. JSR-303, in turn, will enforce any constraints declared against the input. Any ConstraintViolations will automatically be exposed as errors in the BindingResult renderable by standard Spring MVC form tags.