Validation in Spring Boot
with Hibernate Validator
By Ramesh Fadatare ( Java Guides)
By Ramesh Fadatare ( Java Guides)
By Ramesh Fadatare ( Java Guides)
Java Bean Validation Basics
• We validate a Java bean with the standard framework — JSR 380, also
known as Bean Validation 2.0.
• Validating user input is a super common requirement in most
applications. And the Java Bean Validation framework has become the
de facto standard for handling this kind of logic.
• JSR 380 is a specification of the Java API for bean validation and this
ensures that the properties of a bean meet specific criteria, using
annotations such as @NotNull, @Min, and @Max.
• Hibernate Validator is the reference implementation of the validation
API.
Important Bean Validation annotations
• @NotNull validates that the annotated property value is not null.
• @Size validates that the annotated property value has a size between the attributes
min and max; can be applied to String, Collection, Map, and array properties.
• @Min validates that the annotated property has a value no smaller than the value
attribute.
• @Max validates that the annotated property has a value no larger than the value
attribute.
• @Email validates that the annotated property is a valid email address.
• @NotEmpty validates that the property is not null or empty; can be applied to String,
Collection, Map or Array values.
• @NotBlank can be applied only to text values and validates that the property is not
null or whitespace.
Validation in Spring Boot
• Spring boot provides good integration support with Hibernate validator
• We will use Hibernate Validator, which is one of the reference
implementations of the bean validation API
• Starting with Boot 2.3, we need to explicitly add the spring-boot-
starter-validation dependency:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-validation</artifactId>
</dependency>
Development Process
1. Add maven dependency: <dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-validation</artifactId>
</dependency>
2. Apply validation annotations to a PostDto bean. For example, @NotNull, @NotBlank,
and @Size annotations etc.
3. Enable validation on Spring Rest Controller by adding @Valid annotation in addition
to @RequestBody
4. To customize response validation we need to extend
ResponseEntityExceptionHandler class and override
handleMethodArgumentNotValid(MethodArgumentNotValidException ex,
HttpHeaders headers, HttpStatus status, WebRequest request) method.
By Ramesh Fadatare ( Java Guides)
