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