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Immutable spring request scoped beans

I'd like to be able to instantiate a request-scoped bean which is also immutable by using constructor parameters.
Something like the following (which of course doesn't work):
RequestContextFactory.java
package org.springframework.samples.mvc.requestscope;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.context.annotation.RequestScope;
#Configuration
public class RequestContextFactory {
#Bean
#RequestScope
public RequestContext getRequestContext(TestBean bean) {
return new RequestContext(bean);
}
}
MyController.java
package org.springframework.samples.mvc.requestscope;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;
#Controller
public class MyController {
#Autowired
RequestContextFactory requestContextFactory;
#RequestMapping("/my")
public #ResponseBody String simple(TestBean bean) {
RequestContext requestContext = requestContextFactory.getRequestContext(bean);
return "Hello world!";
}
}
Spring complains that it cannot autowire a TestBean bean to create RequestContext.
How can I achieve immutability of a request-scoped bean which needs constructor parameters only known in the controller?
I'd like to be able to inject RequestContext into other beans (either request scope or other scopes). Is this an antipattern? Should something like RequestContext (or any other object with request lifecycle) be in the signature of all call hierarchy under the controller?
Note:
I thought of as a solution like for example having a RequestContext with default constructor and an init(...) method which can be called only once (would throw the second time). I don't like it.

Autowire dependency in builder class with static instantiation method

I'm pondering this builder class that should calculate a hash from the field values. Maybe this in itself is wrong for starters, but at the moment it seems to me that it belongs there because I'm striving to an immutable Article.
I would like to autowire/inject ArticleMD5HashCalculator but when I put #Autowired on the field, IntelliJ complains: field injection is not recommended. Constructor injection is not possible because it's a builder pattern class, which means it has a private constructor without parameters and a static method for instantiation where it would be awkward to pass in hashCalculator.
The builder is injected into a scraper. The scraper will reuse the same builder for many articles. When Spring creates the builder with prototype scope, the builder will carry old values when the next article doesn't overwrite the old values.
New'ing the hashCalculator results is a hard dependency, making it impractical to inject mocks. What is the best way to handle this situation?
Here's the code of how it is now:
import org.observer.media.utils.ArticleMD5HashCalculator;
import org.observer.media.utils.MD5HashCalculator;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Set;
public class ArticleBuilder {
private ArticleMD5HashCalculator hashCalculator;
private String headline;
private String subheading;
private String lead;
// other article fields...
private ArticleBuilder() {
// This seems wrong.
this.hashCalculator = new ArticleMD5HashCalculator(new MD5HashCalculator());
}
public static ArticleBuilder article() {
return new ArticleBuilder();
}
public ArticleBuilder withHeadline(String headline) {
this.headline = headline;
return this;
}
//Other with-methods...
public Article build() {
// calculateHash() is called in the 9th argument.
return new Article(headline, subheading, lead, body, images, quotations, subArticles, url, calculateHash(), author, sources, category, subjects, index, medium, company, datePublished, dateFetched);
}
private String calculateHash() {
return hashCalculator.hash(headline, subheading, lead, body, quotations, datePublished, dateFetched);
}
}

Assumptions:
There is one to one relationship between ArticleBuilder and ArticleMD5HashCalculator. Meaning you don't plan to inject different instances of hashCalculator into ArticleBuilder at different places in the project (essentially having multiple instances of ArticleBuilder)
You can change the ArticleBuilder impl as follows
public class ArticleBuilder {
private ArticleMD5HashCalculator hashCalculator;
public ArticleBuilder(ArticleMD5HashCalculator hashCalculator) {
this.hashCalculator = hashCalculator;
}
}
You can create a spring bean of type ArticleMD5HashCalculator and have this injected into a spring bean of type ArticleBuilder the following way.
#Configuration
public class ArticleConfig {
#Bean
public ArticleMD5HashCalculator articleMD5HashCalculator() {
return new ArticleMD5HashCalculator(new MD5HashCalculator());
}
#Bean
public ArticleBuilder() {
return new ArticleBuilder(articleMD5HashCalculator());
}
}
You can autowire ArticleBuilder elsewhere in your project and use it as a builder.
I am not sure why you made a private constructor and a static method to invoke that. I assume it is because you want a singleton ArticleBuilder. That can be achieved with the above approach. Correct me if I am wrong about this.
Update 1:
Based on the information you provided in the comments, you are injecting ArticleBuilder in a Scraper object and you want to have a way of getting a new instance of ArticleBuilder every time. You can use spring #Lookup annotation for that.
Stub implementation of Scraper class.
public class Scraper {
//assuming this is the method where you want to use ArticleBuilder
public void scrape() {
getArticleBuilder();
}
//You can even pass constructor arguments to this method.
//They will be used to match a constructor on the target bean and that gets invoked
#Lookup
public ArticleBuilder getArticleBuilder() {
//Spring creates a runtime implementation of this method.
return null;
}
}
You can call getArticleBuilder anytime you want a new instance of the bean. If it is declared prototype, you will always get a new instance of the bean.
But the only caveat with this is that Lookup annotation is not going to work with beans created with #Bean annotation. You alternate config may look like this.
#Component
#Scope(ConfigurableBeanFactory.SCOPE_PROTOTYPE)
public class ArticleBuilder {
#Autowired
private ArticleMD5HashCalculator hashCalculator;
public ArticleBuilder(ArticleMD5HashCalculator hashCalculator) {
this.hashCalculator = hashCalculator;
}
}
#Component
public class ArticleMD5HashCalculator {
public ArticleMD5HashCalculator(MD5HashCalculator hashCalculator) {
this.hashCalculator = hashCalculator;
}
}
beans.xml:
<beans>
<bean class="MD5HashCalculator" />
<!-- Fully qualified class name is needed -->
</beans>

Also due to convention used in Spring documentation please use constructor-based injection when possible.
The Spring team generally advocates constructor injection as it enables one to implement application components as immutable objects and to ensure that required dependencies are not null.
Full info (scroll a little): Spring DOCS

I brewed up this alternative approach to pull out the new'ing and to open a window for injecting mocks. The solution implies that the builder has to be instantiated and recreated by a factory.
The factory:
import org.observer.media.hash.ArticleHashCalculator;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Set;
#Component
public class ArticleBuilderFactory {
private ArticleHashCalculator articleHashCalculator;
#Autowired
public ArticleBuilderFactory(ArticleHashCalculator articleHashCalculator) {
this.articleHashCalculator = articleHashCalculator;
}
public ArticleBuilder create() {
return new ArticleBuilder(articleHashCalculator);
}
public class ArticleBuilder {
private ArticleHashCalculator articleHashCalculator;
private String headline;
private String subheading;
//...
private ArticleBuilder(ArticleHashCalculator articleHashCalculator) {
this.articleHashCalculator = articleHashCalculator;
}
public ArticleBuilderFactory.ArticleBuilder withIndex(int index) {
this.index = index;
return this;
}
public ArticleBuilderFactory.ArticleBuilder withHeadline(String headline) {
this.headline = headline;
return this;
}
//...
public Article build() {
return new Article(headline, subheading, lead, body, images, quotations, subArticles, url, calculateHash(), author, sources, category, subjects, index, medium, company, datePublished, dateFetched);
}
private String calculateHash() {
return articleHashCalculator.hash(headline, subheading, lead, body, quotations, datePublished, dateFetched);
}
}
}
Usage of the factory:
import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.observer.media.hash.ArticleMD5HashCalculator;
import org.observer.media.hash.MD5HashCalculator;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringRunner;
import static org.assertj.core.api.Java6Assertions.assertThat;
#RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
#ContextConfiguration(classes = {
ArticleBuilderFactory.class,
MD5HashCalculator.class,
ArticleMD5HashCalculator.class
})
public class ArticleBuilderFactoryTest {
private static final String HEADLINE = "headline";
private static final String LEAD = "lead";
private static final String BODY = "body";
#Autowired
private ArticleBuilderFactory articleBuilderFactory;
#Autowired
private ArticleMD5HashCalculator hashCalculator;
#Test
public void build() {
ArticleBuilderFactory.ArticleBuilder articleBuilder = articleBuilderFactory.create();
Article article = articleBuilder
.withHeadline(HEADLINE)
.withLead(LEAD)
.withBody(BODY)
.build();
assertThat(article.getHeadline()).isEqualTo(HEADLINE);
assertThat(article.getLead()).isEqualTo(LEAD);
assertThat(article.getBody()).isEqualTo(BODY);
assertThat(article.getHash()).isEqualTo(hashCalculator.hash(HEADLINE, null, LEAD, BODY, null, null, null));
}
}
ArticleMD5HashCalculator has #Component:
#Component
public class ArticleMD5HashCalculator {
}

How to confirgure swagger to handle custom Controller-level PathVariable annotations?

In my Spring (4.3.2) project I'm using Swagger (2.7.0) to automatically generate docs and swagger-ui for my project. This worked great so far.
But now I determined that I need to be able to declare Path Variables at the Controller level (not method level). And I need to teach swagger to discover these path variables and add them to docs and swagger-ui.
I've created custom annotation
#Target(ElementType.TYPE)
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public #interface HasCommonPathVariable {
/**
* The URI template variable to bind to.
*/
String name();
Class<?> type();
String defaultValue() default "";
}
And I'm using it like this:
#RestController
#Secured(SecurityConstants.ROLE_USER)
#RequestMapping(path = "/rest/api/v1/env/{envId}/asset-type")
#HasCommonPathVariable(name = "envId", type = Long.class)
public class AssetTypeRestController extends CustomRestControllerBase<Long, AssetTypeRow, AssetTypeService> {
// ... contorller code
}
I do not have controller methods that mentions parameters with Spring's PathVariable annotation, and the point is I'm not allowed to do so (it's due to the fact that I'm building micro-framework).
So question is: how to teach swagger to discover path variables described using custom annotation HasCommonPathVariable applied at the controller level?

Ok, I've figured it out. Here is the solution. This bean needs to be registered in the context. Swagger will discover this bean and use it as one of the plugins to enrich operations
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import org.springframework.core.annotation.Order;
import com.fasterxml.classmate.TypeResolver;
import com.google.common.base.Optional;
import springfox.documentation.builders.ParameterBuilder;
import springfox.documentation.schema.ModelRef;
import springfox.documentation.service.Parameter;
import springfox.documentation.spi.DocumentationType;
import springfox.documentation.spi.service.OperationBuilderPlugin;
import springfox.documentation.spi.service.contexts.OperationContext;
import springfox.documentation.swagger.common.SwaggerPluginSupport;
#Order(SwaggerPluginSupport.SWAGGER_PLUGIN_ORDER + 1000)
public class CommonPathVariableOperationBuilderPlugin implements OperationBuilderPlugin {
protected Logger log = Logger.getLogger(getClass());
private TypeResolver typeResolver;
public CommonPathVariableOperationBuilderPlugin(TypeResolver typeResolver) {
this.typeResolver = typeResolver;
}
#Override
public boolean supports(DocumentationType delimiter) {
return true;
}
#Override
public void apply(OperationContext opCtx) {
List<Parameter> ret = new ArrayList<Parameter>();
Optional<HasCommonPathVariable> annSingle = opCtx.findControllerAnnotation(HasCommonPathVariable.class);
if (annSingle.isPresent()) {
ret.add(addParameter(annSingle.get()));
}
Optional<HasCommonPathVariables> annPlural = opCtx.findControllerAnnotation(HasCommonPathVariables.class);
if (annPlural.isPresent()) {
for (HasCommonPathVariable ann : annPlural.get().value()) {
ret.add(addParameter(ann));
}
}
opCtx.operationBuilder().parameters(ret);
}
private Parameter addParameter(HasCommonPathVariable ann) {
ParameterBuilder pb = new ParameterBuilder();
pb.parameterType("path").name(ann.name()).type(typeResolver.resolve(ann.type()));
pb.modelRef(new ModelRef("string"));
pb.required(true);
if (!"".equals(ann.defaultValue())) {
pb.defaultValue(ann.defaultValue());
}
return pb.build();
}
}

Spring bean properties persisting

I have a plain POJO being autowired in Spring whose properties appear to persist.
I find that the happy path is OK - Set bean properties and return then, however when I'm not on the happy path and I no longer wish to set a property (in this case responseCode), I find it is still set to the previous value (when a call was successful).
I would like this value to not be set and be equal to what I have currently specified in the model.
I have the following POJO Prototype bean
package com.uk.jacob.model;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Scope;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
#Component
#Scope("prototype")
public class Website {
public String url;
public boolean response;
public int responseCode = 0;
}
I am setting it's information within a service class
package com.uk.jacob.service;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import com.uk.jacob.adapter.HttpAdapter;
import com.uk.jacob.model.Website;
#Component
public class PingerService {
#Autowired
HttpAdapter httpAdapter;
#Autowired
Website website;
public Website ping(String urlToPing) {
website.url = urlToPing;
try {
HttpURLConnection connection = httpAdapter.createHttpURLConnection(urlToPing);
website.response = true;
website.responseCode = connection.getResponseCode();
} catch (Exception e) {
website.response = false;
}
return website;
}
}
Which is called from a RestController
package com.uk.jacob.controller;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
import com.uk.jacob.model.Website;
import com.uk.jacob.service.PingerService;
#RestController
#RequestMapping("api/v1/")
public class PingController {
#Autowired
PingerService pingerService;
#RequestMapping(value = "ping", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public Website getPing(#RequestParam String url){
return pingerService.ping(url);
}
}

The fact that your Website bean is #Scope("prototype") means that every time that it gets injected as a dependency in another bean upon this bean's creation, a new instance gets created and injected. In this case PingerService gets a new instance of Website. If say Website is also injected on another bean called Website2 then a different (new) instance gets injected.
If your anticipation is Website to be new upon each invocation within Website then this cannot be done simply with the prototype annotation. You'll need to expose the context and invoke ApplicationContext#getBean("website").

For your use case, I understand that you need a fresh instance of Website bean for every request.
Use #Scope("request").
Prototype scope on the other hand means it will be creating a separate instance for every Autowiring of Website it sees everywhere. For example, PingerService will have its own Website bean and won't be shared on other classes with the same Autowiring but its values will persist across http requests on PingerService.

Use #Validated and #Valid with spring validator

I have a java bean being used to send JSON messages to a spring #RestController and I have bean validation setup and running just fine using #Valid. But I want to move to Protobuf/Thrift and move away from REST. It is an internal API and a lot of big companies have done away with REST internally. What this really means is that I no longer have control of the message objects - they are generated externally. I can't put annotations on them anymore.
So now my validation has to be programmatic. How do I do this? I have coded up a Validator and it works just great. But it doesn't use the nice #Valid annotation. I have to do the following:
#Service
public StuffEndpoint implements StuffThriftDef.Iface {
#Autowired
private MyValidator myValidator;
public void things(MyMessage msg) throws BindException {
BindingResult errors = new BeanPropertyBindingResult(msg, msg.getClass().getName());
errors = myValidator.validate(msg);
if (errors.hasErrors()) {
throw new BindException(errors);
} else {
doRealWork();
}
}
}
This stinks. I have to do this in every single method. Now, I can put a lot of that into one method that throws BindException and that makes it one line of code to add to every method. But that's still not great.
What I want is to see it look like this:
#Service
#Validated
public StuffEndpoint implements StuffThriftDef.Iface {
public void things(#Valid MyMessage msg) {
doRealWork();
}
}
And still get the same result. Remember, my bean has no annotations. And yes, I know I can use the #InitBinder annotation on a method. But that only works for web requests.
I don't mind injecting the correct Validator into this class, but I would prefer if my ValidatorFactory could pull the correct one based on the supports() method.
Is this possible? Is there a way to configure bean validation to actually use Spring validation instead? Do I have to hijack a Aspect somewhere? Hack into the LocalValidatorFactory or the MethodValidationPostProcessor?
Thanks.

Its pretty complicated thing to combine Spring validation and JSR-303 constrains. And there is no 'ready to use' way. The main inconvenience is that Spring validation uses BindingResult, and JSR-303 uses ConstraintValidatorContext as result of validation.
You can try to make your own validation engine, using Spring AOP. Let's consider, what we need to do for it. First of all, declare AOP dependencies (if you didn't yet):
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-aop</artifactId>
<version>4.2.4.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
<artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
<version>1.8.8</version>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
<artifactId>aspectjweaver</artifactId>
<version>1.8.8</version>
</dependency>
I'm using Spring of version 4.2.4.RELEASE, but of cause you can use your own. AspectJ needed for use aspect annotation. Next step, we have to create simple validator registry:
public class CustomValidatorRegistry {
private List<Validator> validatorList = new ArrayList<>();
public void addValidator(Validator validator){
validatorList.add(validator);
}
public List<Validator> getValidatorsForObject(Object o) {
List<Validator> result = new ArrayList<>();
for(Validator validator : validatorList){
if(validator.supports(o.getClass())){
result.add(validator);
}
}
return result;
}
}
As you see it is very simple class, which allow us to find validator for object. Now lets create annotation, that will be mark methods, that need to be validated:
package com.mydomain.validation;
#Target({ElementType.METHOD})
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public #interface CustomValidation {
}
Because of standard BindingException class is not RuntimeException, we can't use it in overriden methods. This means we need define our own exception:
public class CustomValidatorException extends RuntimeException {
private BindingResult bindingResult;
public CustomValidatorException(BindingResult bindingResult){
this.bindingResult = bindingResult;
}
public BindingResult getBindingResult() {
return bindingResult;
}
}
Now we are ready to create an aspect that will do most of the work. Aspect will execute before methods, which marked with CustomValidation annotation:
#Aspect
#Component
public class CustomValidatingAspect {
#Autowired
private CustomValidatorRegistry registry; //aspect will use our validator registry
#Before(value = "execution(public * *(..)) && annotation(com.mydomain.validation.CustomValidation)")
public void doBefore(JoinPoint point){
Annotation[][] paramAnnotations =
((MethodSignature)point.getSignature()).getMethod().getParameterAnnotations();
for(int i=0; i<paramAnnotations.length; i++){
for(Annotation annotation : paramAnnotations[i]){
//checking for standard org.springframework.validation.annotation.Validated
if(annotation.annotationType() == Validated.class){
Object arg = point.getArgs()[i];
if(arg==null) continue;
validate(arg);
}
}
}
}
private void validate(Object arg) {
List<Validator> validatorList = registry.getValidatorsForObject(arg);
for(Validator validator : validatorList){
BindingResult errors = new BeanPropertyBindingResult(arg, arg.getClass().getSimpleName());
validator.validate(arg, errors);
if(errors.hasErrors()){
throw new CustomValidatorException(errors);
}
}
}
}
execution(public * *(..)) && #annotation(com.springapp.mvc.validators.CustomValidation) means, that this aspect will applied to any public methods of beans, which marked with #CustomValidation annotation. Also note, that to mark validated parameters we are using standard org.springframework.validation.annotation.Validated annotation. But of cause we could make our custom. I think other code of aspect is very simple and does not need any comments. Further code of example validator:
public class PersonValidator implements Validator {
#Override
public boolean supports(Class<?> aClass) {
return aClass==Person.class;
}
#Override
public void validate(Object o, Errors errors) {
Person person = (Person)o;
if(person.getAge()<=0){
errors.rejectValue("age", "Age is too small");
}
}
}
Now we have make tune the configuration and all ready to use:
#Configuration
#ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.mydomain")
#EnableAspectJAutoProxy(proxyTargetClass = true)
public class AppConfig{
.....
#Bean
public CustomValidatorRegistry validatorRegistry(){
CustomValidatorRegistry registry = new CustomValidatorRegistry();
registry.addValidator(new PersonValidator());
return registry;
}
}
Note, proxyTargetClass is true because we will use cglib class proxy.
Example of target method in service class:
#Service
public class PersonService{
#CustomValidation
public void savePerson(#Validated Person person){
....
}
}
Because of #CustomValidation annotation aspect will be applied, and because of #Validated annotation person will be validated. And example of usage of service in controller(or any other class):
#Controller
public class PersonConroller{
#Autowired
private PersonService service;
public String savePerson(#ModelAttribute Person person, ModelMap model){
try{
service.savePerson(person);
}catch(CustomValidatorException e){
model.addAttribute("errors", e.getBindingResult());
return "viewname";
}
return "viewname";
}
}
Keep in mind, that if you will invoke #CustomValidation from methods of PersonService class, validation will not work. Because it will invoke methods of original class, but not proxy. This means, that you can invoke this methods only from outside of class (from other classes), if you want validation to be working (eg #Transactional works same way).
Sorry for long post. My answer is not about 'simple declarative way', and possible you will do not need it. But I was curious resolve this problem.

I marked #Ken's answer as correct because it is. But I have taken it a little further and wanted to post what I have made. I hope anybody coming to this page will find it interesting. I might try to get it in front of the Spring folks to see if it might be something included in future releases.
The idea is to have a new annotation to replace #Valid. So I called it #SpringValid. Using this annotation would kick off the system put together above. Here are all the pieces:
SpringValid.java
package org.springframework.validation.annotation;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.FIELD;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.METHOD;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.PARAMETER;
import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;
#Target({METHOD, FIELD, CONSTRUCTOR, PARAMETER})
#Retention(RUNTIME)
public #interface SpringValid {
}
SpringValidationAspect.java
package org.springframework.validation;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Aspect;
import org.aspectj.lang.annotation.Before;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import java.util.List;
#Aspect
#Component
public class SpringValidationAspect {
private SpringValidatorRegistry springValidatorRegistry;
#Autowired
public SpringValidationAspect(final SpringValidatorRegistry springValidatorRegistry) {
this.springValidatorRegistry = springValidatorRegistry;
}
public SpringValidatorRegistry getSpringValidatorRegistry() {
return springValidatorRegistry;
}
#Before("#target(org.springframework.validation.annotation.Validated) "
+ "&& execution(public * *(#org.springframework.validation.annotation.SpringValid (*), ..)) "
+ "&& args(validationTarget)")
public void beforeMethodThatNeedsValidation(Object validationTarget) {
validate(validationTarget);
}
private void validate(Object arg) {
List<Validator> validatorList = springValidatorRegistry.getValidatorsForObject(arg);
for (Validator validator : validatorList) {
BindingResult errors = new BeanPropertyBindingResult(arg, arg.getClass().getSimpleName());
validator.validate(arg, errors);
if (errors.hasErrors()) {
throw new SpringValidationException(errors);
}
}
}
}
Spring's examples show classes annotated with #Validated so I wanted to keep that. The above aspect only targets classes with #Validated at the class-level. And, just like when you use #Valid, it looks for the #SpringValid annotation stuck to a method parameter.
SpringValidationException.java
package org.springframework.validation;
import org.springframework.validation.BindingResult;
public class SpringValidationException extends RuntimeException {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
private BindingResult bindingResult;
public SpringValidationException(final BindingResult bindingResult) {
this.bindingResult = bindingResult;
}
public BindingResult getBindingResult() {
return bindingResult;
}
}
SpringValidatorRegistry.java
package org.springframework.validation;
import org.springframework.validation.Validator;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class SpringValidatorRegistry {
private List<Validator> validatorList = new ArrayList<>();
public void addValidator(Validator validator) {
validatorList.add(validator);
}
public List<Validator> getValidatorsForObject(Object o) {
List<Validator> result = new ArrayList<>();
for (Validator validator : validatorList) {
if (validator.supports(o.getClass())) {
result.add(validator);
}
}
return result;
}
}
Just like the first answer, a place to register all classes that implement Spring's org.springframework.validation.Validator interface.
SpringValidator.java
package org.springframework.validation.annotation;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;
#Target(ElementType.TYPE)
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Documented
#Component
public #interface SpringValidator {
}
This is just extra sauce to make it easier to register/find Validators. You could register all your Validators by hand, or you could find them via reflection. So this part is not required, I just thought it made things easier.
MyConfig.java
package com.example.config;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.validation.SpringValidationAspect;
import org.springframework.validation.SpringValidatorRegistry;
import org.springframework.validation.annotation.SpringValidator;
import java.util.Map;
import javax.validation.Validator;
#Configuration
public class MyConfig {
#Autowired
private ApplicationContext applicationContext;
#Bean
public SpringValidatorRegistry validatorRegistry() {
SpringValidatorRegistry registry = new SpringValidatorRegistry();
Map<String, Object> validators =
applicationContext.getBeansWithAnnotation(SpringValidator.class);
validators.values()
.forEach(v -> registry.addValidator((org.springframework.validation.Validator) v));
return registry;
}
#Bean
public SpringValidationAspect springValidationAspect() {
return new SpringValidationAspect(validatorRegistry());
}
}
See, scan your classpath and look for #SpringValidator classes and register them. Then register the Aspect and away you go.
Here is an example of such a Validator:
MyMessageValidator.java
package com.example.validators;
import com.example.messages.MyMessage;
import org.springframework.validation.Errors;
import org.springframework.validation.ValidationUtils;
import org.springframework.validation.Validator;
import org.springframework.validation.annotation.SpringValidator;
#SpringValidator
public class MyMessageValidator implements Validator {
#Override
public boolean supports(Class<?> clazz) {
return MyMessage.class.isAssignableFrom(clazz);
}
#Override
public void validate(Object target, Errors errors) {
ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmpty(errors, "firstField", "{javax.validation.constraints.NotNull}",
"firstField cannot be null");
MyMessage obj = (MyMessage) target;
if (obj.getSecondField != null && obj.getSecondField > 100) {
errors.rejectField(errors, "secondField", "{javax.validation.constraints.Max}", "secondField is too big");
}
}
}
And here is the service class that uses the #SpringValid annotation:
MyService.java
package com.example.services;
import com.example.messages.MyMessage;
import org.springframework.validation.annotation.SpringValid;
import org.springframework.validation.annotation.Validated;
import javax.inject.Inject;
#Validated
public class MyService {
public String doIt(#SpringValid final MyMessage msg) {
return "we did it!";
}
}
Hope this makes sense for someone at some point. I personally think it is quite useful. A lot of companies are starting to move their internal APIs away from REST and to something like Protobuf or Thrift. You can still use Bean Validation but you have to use XML, and it isn't all that nice. So I hope this will be helpful to people who want to still do programmatic validation.

Hope it helps someone. I've got it working by adding the following configuration:
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean;
import org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.MethodValidationPostProcessor;
#Configuration
public class ValidatorConfiguration {
#Bean
public MethodValidationPostProcessor getMethodValidationPostProcessor(){
MethodValidationPostProcessor processor = new MethodValidationPostProcessor();
processor.setValidator(this.validator());
return processor;
}
#Bean
public LocalValidatorFactoryBean validator(){
return new LocalValidatorFactoryBean();
}
}
The service is then annotated the same way (#Validated on the class and #Valid on the parameter) and can be injected into another bean where the method can be called directly and validation happens.