So mix approach should be followed: validating data on server as well as client side.
I am using Spring Framework and Spring MVC, I have few options available:
- AJAX based validation
- Spring VLANG Validation
- Apache commons validation (Struts Validator Framework)
I have dropped idea of AJAX based validation since it will require to more Remote calls
Spring VLANG Validation is a good option but dependency is JDK 1.5 and we are still running on JDK 1.4.
Finally decided to go for Commons validator this is well proven and stable one.
I have also read blog from Matt where he appreciated commons validator.
I have used custom validation along with commons standard validation.
Steps followed by me to get commons validator configured with Spring are as follows:
Dependency:
1. Spring-commons-validator (Spring modules 0.8)
2. Commons validator
Step 1: Downloaded dependency jar files
Step 2: Added validation.xml, validation-rules.xml, validation-custom-rules.xml (For custom validators)
Step 3: Added validation specific entries to applicationContext-validation.xml
step 4: Added validator property to form controller entry in [context-root]-servlet.xml
My Validation.xml is as follows:
Validation.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE form-validation PUBLIC "-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Commons Validator Rules Configuration 1.1//EN" "http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/dtds/validator_1_1.dtd;
<form-validation>
<formset>
<form name="registerFormBean">
<field property="user.fname" depends="mask,maxlength">
<arg0 key="register.label.firstname"/>
<arg1 name="maxlength" key="${var:maxlength}" resource="false"/> <var><var-name>maxlength</var-name><var-value>5</var-value>
</var> <var> <var-name>mask</var-name> <var-value>^[a-zA-Z]*$</var-value> </var>
</field> <field property="user.email" depends="required,email">
<arg0 key="register.label.email"/>
</field> <
field property="user.password" depends="required,twofields">
<arg0 key="register.label.password" />
<arg1 key="register.label.verifypassword"/>
<var> <var-name>secondProperty</var-name>
<var-value>verifyPasswd</var-value>
</var> </field> <
field property="verifyPasswd" depends="required">
<arg0 key="register.label.verifypassword" />
</field>
<field property="user.location" depends="selectfield">
<arg0 key="register.label.location" />
<arg1 key="${var:maxsize}" name="selectfield" resource="false"/>
<var><var-name>maxsize</var-name><var-value>3</var-value></var>
</field>
</form>
</formset>
</form-validation>
Validation-rules-custom
My custom validation rules file is as follows:
<!DOCTYPE form-validation PUBLIC "-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Commons Validator Rules Configuration 1.3.0//EN" "http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/dtds/validator_1_3_0.dtd; <form-validation>
<global>
<validator name="twofields" classname="com.tj.cand.utils.ValidationUtil" method="validateTwoFields"
methodParams="java.lang.Object,
org.apache.commons.validator.ValidatorAction,
org.apache.commons.validator.Field,
org.springframework.validation.Errors"
depends="required" msg="errors.twofields">
<javascript><!
[CDATA[ function validateTwoFields(form) {
var bValid = true;
var focusField = null;
var i = 0;
var fields = new Array();
oTwoFields = new twofields();
for (x in oTwoFields) {
var field = form[oTwoFields[x][0]];
var secondField = form[oTwoFields[x][2]("secondProperty")];
if (field.type == 'text' field.type == 'textarea' field.type == 'select-one' field.type == 'radio' field.type == 'password') {
var value; var secondValue;
// get field's value
if (field.type == "select-one") { var si = field.selectedIndex; value = field.options[si].value; secondValue = secondField.options[si].value; } else { value = field.value; secondValue = secondField.value; } if (value != secondValue) { if (i == 0) { focusField = field; } fields[i++] = oTwoFields[x][1]; bValid = false; } } } if (fields.length > 0) { focusField.focus(); alert(fields.join('\n')); } return bValid; }]]> </javascript> </validator> <validator name="selectfield" classname="com.tj.cand.utils.ValidationUtil" method="validateSelectField" methodParams="java.lang.Object, org.apache.commons.validator.ValidatorAction, org.apache.commons.validator.Field, org.springframework.validation.Errors" depends="" msg="errors.multiselect"> <javascript><![CDATA[ function validateSelectField(form) { var bValid = true; var focusField = null; var i = 0; var fields = new Array(); oSelectFields = new selectfield(); for (x in oSelectFields) { var field = form[oSelectFields[x][0]]; if (field.type == 'select-multiple') { var iMax = parseInt(oSelectFields[x][2]("maxsize"));
if ((field.options.length == 0) (field.options.length > iMax)) { if (i == 0) { focusField = field; } fields[i++] = oSelectFields[x][1]; bValid = false; } } } if (fields.length > 0) { focusField.focus(); alert(fields.join('\n')); } return bValid; }]]> </javascript> </validator> </global>
</form-validation>
