Question

I’m validating two fields, “password” and “confirmPassword” on the form for equality using HibernateValidator as specified in this answer. The following is the constraint descriptor (validator interface).

package constraintdescriptor;

import constraintvalidator.FieldMatchValidator;
import javax.validation.Constraint;
import javax.validation.Payload;
import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.TYPE;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

@Target({TYPE, ANNOTATION_TYPE})
@Retention(RUNTIME)
@Constraint(validatedBy = FieldMatchValidator.class)
@Documented
public @interface FieldMatch
{
    String message() default "{constraintdescriptor.fieldmatch}";
    Class<?>[] groups() default {};
    Class<? extends Payload>[] payload() default {};

    /**
     * @return The first field
     */
    String first();

    /**
     * @return The second field
     */
    String second();

    /**
     * Defines several <code>@FieldMatch</code> annotations on the same element
     *
     * @see FieldMatch
     */
    @Target({TYPE, ANNOTATION_TYPE})
    @Retention(RUNTIME)
    @Documented
    public @interface List{
        FieldMatch[] value();
    }
}

The following is the constraint validator (the implementing class).

---

package constraintvalidator;

import constraintdescriptor.FieldMatch;
import javax.validation.ConstraintValidator;
import javax.validation.ConstraintValidatorContext;
import org.apache.commons.beanutils.BeanUtils;

public final class FieldMatchValidator implements ConstraintValidator<FieldMatch, Object>
{
    private String firstFieldName;
    private String secondFieldName;

    public void initialize(final FieldMatch constraintAnnotation) {
        firstFieldName = constraintAnnotation.first();
        secondFieldName = constraintAnnotation.second();
        //System.out.println("firstFieldName = "+firstFieldName+"   secondFieldName = "+secondFieldName);
    }

    public boolean isValid(final Object value, final ConstraintValidatorContext cvc) {
        try {
            final Object firstObj = BeanUtils.getProperty(value, firstFieldName );
            final Object secondObj = BeanUtils.getProperty(value, secondFieldName );
            //System.out.println("firstObj = "+firstObj+"   secondObj = "+secondObj);
            return firstObj == null && secondObj == null || firstObj != null && firstObj.equals(secondObj);
        }
        catch (final Exception e) {
            System.out.println(e.toString());
        }
        return true;
    }
}

---

The following is the validator bean which is mapped with the JSP page (as specified commandName="tempBean" with the <form:form></form:form> tag).

package validatorbeans;

import constraintdescriptor.FieldMatch;
import javax.validation.constraints.Size;
import org.hibernate.validator.constraints.NotEmpty;

@FieldMatch.List({
    @FieldMatch(first = "password", second = "confirmPassword", message = "The password fields must match", groups={TempBean.ValidationGroup.class})
})

public final class TempBean
{        
    @NotEmpty(groups={ValidationGroup.class}, message="Might not be left blank.")
    private String password;
    @NotEmpty(groups={ValidationGroup.class}, message="Might not be left blank.")
    private String confirmPassword;

    public interface ValidationGroup {};

    //Getters and setters                
}

UPDATE

It’s all working correctly and does the validation intended. Just one thing remains is to display the specified error message above the TempBean class within @FieldMatch is not being displayed i.e only one question : how to display error messages on the JSP page when validation violation occurs?

(the annotation @NotEmpty on both of the fields password and confirmPassword in the TempBean class works and displays the specified messages on violation, the thing is not happening with @FieldMatch).

I’m using validation group based on this question as specified in this blog and it works well causing no interruption in displaying error messages (as it might seem to be).

---

On the JSP page these two fields are specified as follows.

<form:form id="mainForm" name="mainForm" method="post" action="Temp.htm" commandName="tempBean">

    <form:password path="password"/>
    <font style="color: red"><form:errors path="password"/></font><br/>

    <form:password path="confirmPassword"/>
    <font style="color: red"><form:errors path="confirmPassword"/></font><br/>

</form:form>

Answer 1

Could you try your isValid method to be like this? (this is certainly working for me in live project):

 public boolean isValid(final Object value, final ConstraintValidatorContext cvc){
    boolean toReturn = false;

    try{
        final Object firstObj = BeanUtils.getProperty(value, firstFieldName );
        final Object secondObj = BeanUtils.getProperty(value, secondFieldName );

        //System.out.println("firstObj = "+firstObj+"   secondObj = "+secondObj);

        toReturn = firstObj == null && secondObj == null || firstObj != null && firstObj.equals(secondObj);
    }
    catch (final Exception e){
        System.out.println(e.toString());
    }
    //If the validation failed
    if(!toReturn) {
        cvc.disableDefaultConstraintViolation();
        //In the initialiaze method you get the errorMessage: constraintAnnotation.message();
        cvc.buildConstraintViolationWithTemplate(errorMessage).addNode(firstFieldName).addConstraintViolation();
    }
    return toReturn;
}

Also I see that you are implementing the ConstraintValidator interface with an Object, literally. It should be the backing object that you have from your form:

tempBean // the one that you specify in the commandName actually.

So you implementation should like this:

 implements ConstraintValidator<FieldMatch, TempBean>

This is probably not the issue here, but as a future reference, this is how it should be.

UPDATE

Inside your FieldMatch interface/annotation you have two methods : first and second, add one more called errorMessage for example:

  Class<? extends Payload>[] payload() default {};

/**
 * @return The first field
 */
String first();

/**
 * @return The second field
 */
String second();

/**
  @return the Error Message
 */
String errorMessage

Look inside you method from the Validation class – you are getting the first and second field names there., so just add the errorMessage, like this for example:

  private String firstFieldName;
  private String secondFieldName;
  //get the error message name
  private String errorMessagename; 
public void initialize(final FieldMatch constraintAnnotation)
{
    firstFieldName = constraintAnnotation.first();
    secondFieldName = constraintAnnotation.second();
    errorMessageNAme = constraintAnnotation.errorMessage(); 

    //System.out.println("firstFieldName = "+firstFieldName+"   secondFieldName = "+secondFieldName);
}

Inside isValida get it, the same way you do for first and second field name and use it.