Handling multiple validation annotations error messages

Question

I am trying out Validations in SpringMVC using annotations...

I used 2 annotations for a field to validate

@NotEmpty(message="required")

@Size(min="3" max="8" message="Out of range")

private String password;

The issue i'm facing is, when the field is left blank it shows both error messages (*required as well as Out of Range). But I want to display either one of those error message not both...

Is it possible to restrict with one message? If so what are the possibilities for this scenario?

Any suggestions and guidance is appreciated.. Thanks in advance...

Answer 1

I've faced the same problem, so I created custom errors tag that displays the first error only - feel free to use it:

a] Create custom tag class

package cz.devmint.springext.web.tags.form;

import javax.servlet.jsp.JspException;

import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
import org.springframework.util.ObjectUtils;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.ErrorsTag;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.tags.form.TagWriter;

public class ErrorsTagExt extends ErrorsTag {

private boolean firstErrorOnly = true;

public boolean isFirstErrorOnly() {
    return firstErrorOnly;
}

public void setFirstErrorOnly(boolean firstErrorOnly) {
    this.firstErrorOnly = firstErrorOnly;
}

@Override
protected void renderDefaultContent(TagWriter tagWriter) throws JspException {
    tagWriter.startTag(getElement());
    writeDefaultAttributes(tagWriter);
    String delimiter = ObjectUtils.getDisplayString(evaluate("delimiter", getDelimiter()));
    String[] errorMessages = getBindStatus().getErrorMessages();
    for(int i = 0; i < errorMessages.length; i++) {
        String errorMessage = errorMessages[i];
        if (i > 0) {
            tagWriter.appendValue(delimiter);
        }
        tagWriter.appendValue(getDisplayString(errorMessage));
        if (firstErrorOnly) break;
    }
    tagWriter.endTag();
}

b] To use the custom tag you have to create tag library descriptor - you can simply copy ErrorsTag declaration from spring's tag library descriptors (spring-webmvc-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar in META-INF directory under name spring-form.tld) and add your own attribute firstErrorOnly. Below is the complete example extracted from my library - see comments in the code what can be changed and customized:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<taglib xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-jsptaglibrary_2_0.xsd"
    version="2.0">

<description>Custom extension to Spring Framework JSP Tag Library</description>
<tlib-version>3.0</tlib-version>
<short-name>tags</short-name>
<!-- use your own uri -->
<uri>http://cz.devmint.spring-ext/tags</uri>
<tag>
    <description>Renders field errors in an HTML 'span' tag.</description>
    <name>errors</name>
    <!-- use your own package - fully qualified name of your tag class  -->
    <tag-class>cz.devmint.springext.web.tags.form.ErrorsTagExt</tag-class>
    <body-content>JSP</body-content>
    <variable>
        <name-given>messages</name-given>
        <variable-class>java.util.List</variable-class>
    </variable>
    <!-- this attribute declaration is the only change when compare with spring's original tag definition -->   
    <attribute>
        <description>Whether to render the first error for given field only</description>
        <name>firstErrorOnly</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>false</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>Path to errors object for data binding</description>
        <name>path</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Standard Attribute</description>
        <name>id</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>Enable/disable HTML escaping of rendered values.</description>
        <name>htmlEscape</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>Delimiter for displaying multiple error messages. Defaults to the br tag.</description>
        <name>delimiter</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>Equivalent to "class" - HTML Optional Attribute</description>
        <name>cssClass</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>Equivalent to "style" - HTML Optional Attribute</description>
        <name>cssStyle</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Standard Attribute</description>
        <name>lang</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Standard Attribute</description>
        <name>title</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Standard Attribute</description>
        <name>dir</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Standard Attribute</description>
        <name>tabindex</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Event Attribute</description>
        <name>onclick</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Event Attribute</description>
        <name>ondblclick</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Event Attribute</description>
        <name>onmousedown</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Event Attribute</description>
        <name>onmouseup</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Event Attribute</description>
        <name>onmouseover</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Event Attribute</description>
        <name>onmousemove</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Event Attribute</description>
        <name>onmouseout</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Event Attribute</description>
        <name>onkeypress</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Event Attribute</description>
        <name>onkeyup</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>HTML Event Attribute</description>
        <name>onkeydown</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <attribute>
        <description>Specifies the HTML element that is used to render the enclosing errors.</description>
        <name>element</name>
        <required>false</required>
        <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
    </attribute>
    <dynamic-attributes>true</dynamic-attributes>
</tag>
</taglib>

Put this xml file in WEB-INF/tld/spring-ext.tld

On jsp page add declaration:

<%@taglib prefix="spring-ext" uri="http://cz.devmint.spring-ext/tags" %>    

Instead of spring's ErrorsTag use custom tag:

<spring-ext:errors path="dummy" firstErrorOnly="true" />