Spring 3 validation (JSR-303) @Min

Question

I am trying to validate an input field that is supposed to contain (if not empty) a natural number (i.e. a positive non-zero integer: 1, 2, 3, ....)

I am using the following annotations:

@Digits(integer=10, fraction=0)
@Min(value = 1)
private Long number;

(Is this the best way to describe my constraint???)

When I submit a number such as 1.5 I get a VALIDATION MESSAGE which is good. However when I submit an input such as -1 I do not get any VALIDATION MESSAGE. What do I miss?

Thanks!

P.S. Since my (other) Hibernate annotations for this field were on the getter of the field, I just move these two annotations to the getter as well (instead of being on the actual field). Did not help.

EDIT

I just read I might need to add <mvc:annotation-driven /> to my XML. I did it, however while starting the server I am getting the exception:

org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.BeanDefinitionParsingException: Configuration problem: Unable to locate Spring NamespaceHandler for XML schema namespace [http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc] Offending resource: ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/dispatcher-servlet.xml]

I am not sure what it means and if I actually need (????) that annotation-driven tag... also, if I needed that annotation-driven tag in my xml, why did my other annotations (including one of the validation annotations) work without it?

Solution

You have to additionally explicitly specify Spring to validate your bean at the point of binding using @Valid annotation, can you confirm you are doing this. I am assuming the error that you are getting with 1.5 as the input is simply because 1.5 cannot be put into a Long field and is a binding exception, not a validation exception.

Comments

[rapt]

I have of course specified the @Valid annotation on my command object. My Controller's method looks like this: public ModelAndView list(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, @Valid Book book, BindingResult result) throws Exception {...} And NO, the error message I am getting is from the @Digits validation, not a binding exception. Without any validation being used, if I enter a negative integer number (e.g. -1), it acts as if I entered nothing (which is OK and what I expected). The weird thing is that with these two annotations, only the @Digits works.

[rapt]

I meant integer in the mathematical sense. It can be larger than Integer so I am using Long. I think @Min(1) is just an abbreviation, anyway Eclipse suggests @Min(value = ).

[Biju Kunjummen]

I saw your second edit, that error is because you need spring-webmvc jar(3.0+) in your classpath. mvc:annotation-driven is required, it causes the validator for JSR303 to be loaded up as a bean. Additionally in my local projects I have validation-api jar and hibernate's implementation hibernate-validator-4.1.0.Final.jar also present.

[rapt]

Thanks! I've changed all my Spring jars from 3.0.0 to 3.0.5 and I @Min is working now. See above my comments to Willie Wheeler.