Grails domain class fields nullable validator decided by other fields

Question

For example, I have a domain class called:

class Employee {
     boolean belongToDepartment
     Department department

     static constraints = {
          department ????
     }
}

I want to write a validator for department which is if the field belongToDepartment is true, department is not null, otherwise department can be null.

I am not sure whether this is make sense?

Answer 1

You can use custom validator on department to check if the boolean flag on the domain object is true and the department value is null. In that case it is a constraint failure, you can return false or an error code depending your need.

static constraints = {
      department nullable: true, validator: {dep, obj ->
          return !(obj.belongToDepartment && !dep)
      }
 }