Spring and JSR

• Java Bean Validation standard (JSR-380) is well integrated with Spring
• Standard @Valid annotation on method parameters and fields to tell Spring that we want a method parameter or field to be validated.
• Spring @Validated annotation is a class-level annotation that we can use to tell Spring to validate parameters that are passed into a method of the annotated class.
• Standard @Valid anotation does not support group validation
  • In such situations you need to use Spring @Validated annotation
• Spring Immediate validation
• Spring validation using DataBinder (binder.validate())

@Valid

Standard Java Bean Validation annotation. Ensures cascading validation of method/constructor, or return values is performed. It performs the validation of the whole object graph. You will typically use @Valid in web/rest controllers. Constraint violation results into MethodArgumentNotValidException.

public ResponseEntity processCreation(@RequestBody @Valid BookDTO book) {
    [...]
    return new ResponseEntity(HttpStatus.CREATED);
}

@Validated

Spring specific @Validated annotation enables Spring-driven method validation on target class. It provides more fine-grained control over the validation process. @Validated enables to use validation groups. You will typically use @Validated in services. You can define custom exception handling.

@Service
@Validated
public class UserService {
    @NotNull(groups = {CreateUser.class})
    public User createUser(@Valid User user) {
        // Business logic to create a user
        return user;
    }
}

Validation provider

Spring provides Bean Validation provider (Hibernate validator), so you can inject validation services, wherever you need them:

• jakarta.validation.ValidatorFactory
• jakarta.validation.Validator

Additionaly Spring provides its own Spring Validation API represented by:

• org.springframework.validation.Validator

It adapts standard ConstraintViolation to FieldError.