Hibernate Validator, custom ResourceBundleLocator and Spring

Question

I'm trying to override default ResourceBundleLocator in hibernate validation 4.1. So far it works perfectly, but the only examples of its usage include java code to instantiate ValidationFactory.

When using a web application with spring hibernate validation is automatically configured (only the suitable hibernate validation *.jar file should exist and it is automatically used). How can i substitute ResourceBundleLocator in that scenario? I do not see any way of specyfing my custom ResourceBundleLocator in any properties or applicationContext.xml file.

Answer 1

The magic method that does the required job is LocalValidatorFactoryBean#setValidationMessageSource(MessageSource messageSource).

First of all, contract of the method:-

Specify a custom Spring MessageSource for resolving validation messages, instead of relying on JSR-303's default "ValidationMessages.properties" bundle in the classpath. This may refer to a Spring context's shared "messageSource" bean, or to some special MessageSource setup for validation purposes only.

NOTE: This feature requires Hibernate Validator 4.1 or higher on the classpath. You may nevertheless use a different validation provider but Hibernate Validator's ResourceBundleMessageInterpolator class must be accessible during configuration.

Specify either this property or "messageInterpolator", not both. If you would like to build a custom MessageInterpolator, consider deriving from Hibernate Validator's ResourceBundleMessageInterpolator and passing in a Spring MessageSourceResourceBundleLocator when constructing your interpolator.

You can specify your custom message.properties(or .xml) by invoking this method... like this...

my-beans.xml

<bean name="validator"
    class="org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean">
    <property name="validationMessageSource">
        <ref bean="resourceBundleLocator"/>
    </property>
</bean>

<bean name="resourceBundleLocator" class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource">
    <property name="basenames">
        <list>
            <value>META-INF/validation_errors</value>
        </list>
    </property>
</bean>

validation_errors.properties

javax.validation.constraints.NotNull.message=MyNotNullMessage

Person.java

    class Person {
    private String firstName;
    private String lastName;

    @NotNull
    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;
    }
}

BeanValidationTest.java

    public class BeanValidationTest {

    private static ApplicationContext applicationContext; 

    @BeforeClass
    public static void initialize() {
        applicationContext = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("classpath:META-INF/spring/webmvc-beans.xml");
        Assert.assertNotNull(applicationContext);
    }

    @Test
    public void test() {
        LocalValidatorFactoryBean factory = applicationContext.getBean("validator", LocalValidatorFactoryBean.class);
        Validator validator = factory.getValidator();
        Person person = new Person();
        person.setLastName("dude");
        Set<ConstraintViolation<Person>> violations = validator.validate(person);
        for(ConstraintViolation<Person> violation : violations) {
            System.out.println("Custom Message:- " + violation.getMessage());
        }
    }

}

Outupt: Custom Message:- MyNotNullMessage

Answer 2

Here is a solution if you want to mix the existing hibernate validation messages and custom validation messages :

<mvc:annotation-driven validator="validator" />
<bean id="validator" class="org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean">
    <property name="validationMessageSource" ref="messageSource"/>
</bean>
<bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ResourceBundleMessageSource">
    <property name="basenames" value="i18n,iso-i18n,org.hibernate.validator.ValidationMessages" />
    <property name="useCodeAsDefaultMessage" value="true" />
</bean>

(see Web MVC framework Validation section and Configuring a Bean Validation Provider in Spring documentation)

Answer 3

Thank you @Lu55, based on your answer I solved my problem!!

I just converted to a Configuration class, and I am posting here just in case anyone else need:

Import detail: it worked for me with ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource, but it did not work using ResourceBundleMessageSource. I am not sure why.

@Configuration
public class ErrorConfig {

    @Bean
    public Validator validatorFactory (MessageSource messageSource) {
        LocalValidatorFactoryBean validator =  new LocalValidatorFactoryBean();
        validator.setValidationMessageSource(messageSource);
        return validator;
    }

    @Bean
    public MessageSource messageSource() {
        ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource bean = new ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource();
        bean.addBasenames("classpath:org.hibernate.validator.ValidationMessages","classpath:message");
        bean.setDefaultEncoding("UTF-8");
        return bean;
    }
}

Inside my resource folder I have message.properties file.