Question

I have following nested objects. I am using @Valid for validation in my controller. Here BindingResult object is not validating name field of Child object. Am I missing anything?

class Parent{
         @Valid  
         private Child child;
         //getter and setter for child object
 }

 class Child{
     @NotNull(messag="Name cannot be null")
     private String name;
     //getter and setter for name
 }

My controller validate method

@RequestMapping(value = "/validate", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public @ResponseBody  String validate(@Valid @ModelAttribute("parent") Parent parent, BindingResult bindingResult) {
    //Here I can see child name value if I say parent.getChild().getName()

  // But if  parent.getChild().getName() is null, bindingResult.hasErrors() is returning false

}

Answer 1

As far as I know, @NotNull isn’t quite right for String validation, since the Spring-model often mapping “no object received” to “blank string” instead.

Please try @NotBlank and sees if the BindingResults return errors.