Spring MVC form validation does't work for nested complex types

Question

I am implementing a sample Spring MVC Form with Form Validation. I have a complex type Address as bean property for Student form bean. And I have added form validation @NotEmpty for Address bean properties. But the same is not reflecting in the UI. But form validation works for other primitive types of Student form bean.

So, Validation works perfectly for Student form bean but not for nested complex types like Address within Student form bean.

I am trying understand the reason and a fix.

Spring version 4.0+. Hibernate Validator api:5.2.4

Student POJO:

package com.xyz.form.beans;

import java.util.Date;
import java.util.List;

import javax.validation.constraints.Past;
import javax.validation.constraints.Size;

import org.hibernate.validator.constraints.NotEmpty;

import com.xyz.validators.DateNotEmpty;
import com.xyz.validators.ListNotEmpty;

public class Student {
    @Size(min = 2, max = 30)
    private String firstName;
    @Size(min = 2, max = 30)
    private String lastName;
    @NotEmpty
    private String gender;
    @DateNotEmpty
    @Past
    private Date DOB;
    private String email;
    private String mobileNumber;
    @ListNotEmpty
    private List<String> courses;
    private Address address;

    public Address getAddress() {
        return address;
    }

    public void setAddress(Address address) {
        this.address = address;
    }

    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }

    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }

    public String getGender() {
        return gender;
    }

    public void setGender(String gender) {
        this.gender = gender;
    }

    public Date getDOB() {
        return DOB;
    }

    public void setDOB(Date dOB) {
        DOB = dOB;
    }

    public String getEmail() {
        return email;
    }

    public void setEmail(String email) {
        this.email = email;
    }

    public String getMobileNumber() {
        return mobileNumber;
    }

    public void setMobileNumber(String mobileNumber) {
        this.mobileNumber = mobileNumber;
    }

    public List<String> getCourses() {
        return courses;
    }

    public void setCourses(List<String> courses) {
        this.courses = courses;
    }
}

Address POJO:

    package com.xyz.form.beans;

    import org.hibernate.validator.constraints.NotEmpty;

    import com.xyz.validators.LongNotEmpty;

    public class Address {
        @NotEmpty
        private String houseNo;
        @NotEmpty
        private String street;
        @NotEmpty
        private String area;
        @NotEmpty
        private String city;
        @LongNotEmpty
        private Long pin;

        public String getHouseNo() {
            return houseNo;
        }

        public void setHouseNo(String houseNo) {
            this.houseNo = houseNo;
        }

        public String getStreet() {
            return street;
        }

        public void setStreet(String street) {
            this.street = street;
        }

        public String getArea() {
            return area;
        }

        public void setArea(String area) {
            this.area = area;
        }

        public String getCity() {
            return city;
        }

        public void setCity(String city) {
            this.city = city;
        }

        public Long getPin() {
            return pin;
        }

        public void setPin(Long pin) {
            this.pin = pin;
        }
    }

Student Controller:

    @RequestMapping(value = "/newStudentDetails.do", method = RequestMethod.POST)
        public ModelAndView newStudentDetails(
                @Valid @ModelAttribute("student") com.xyz.form.beans.Student studentFormBean,
                BindingResult bindingResult) {
            if (bindingResult.hasErrors()) {
                return new ModelAndView("newStudentPage");
            }
            Student studentDto = new Student();
            studentDto.setFirstName(studentFormBean.getFirstName());
            studentDto.setLastName(studentFormBean.getLastName());
            studentDto.setGender(studentFormBean.getGender());
            studentDto.setDOB(new Date(studentFormBean.getDOB().getTime()));
            studentDto.setEmail(studentFormBean.getEmail());
            studentDto.setMobileNumber(studentFormBean.getMobileNumber());
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            sb.append(studentFormBean.getAddress().getHouseNo() + ", ");
            sb.append(studentFormBean.getAddress().getStreet() + ", ");
            sb.append(studentFormBean.getAddress().getArea() + ", ");
            sb.append(studentFormBean.getAddress().getCity() + "-");
            sb.append(studentFormBean.getAddress().getPin());
            studentDto.setAddress(sb.toString());
            studentDto.setCourses(studentFormBean.getCourses());
            studentDao.createStudent(studentDto);
            ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView("newStudentSuccess");
            return mav;
        }

Thanks, Viswanath

Answer 1

You need to annotate your complex types with @Valid. This is the reference (which references here)

Answer 2

Hi lets try @ModelAttribute("student") @Valid com.xyz.form.beans.Student studentFormBean in place of @Valid @ModelAttribute("student")

Answer 3

For nested complex types, you have to activate the direct field access. Just like below:

@org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ControllerAdvice
public class ControllerAdvice {

    @InitBinder
    public void initBinder(WebDataBinder webDataBinder) {
        webDataBinder.initDirectFieldAccess();
    }