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

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.