JSR-303 inject locale into custom validator

Question

I am using Spring 3 and I have the following configuration in my applicationContext.xml:

  <bean id="validationMessageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ReloadableResourceBundleMessageSource"
    p:basename="classpath:messages/validation_messages" p:defaultEncoding="UTF-8" p:cacheSeconds="3" />

  <bean id="globalValidator" class="org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean">
    <property name="validationMessageSource">
      <ref bean="validationMessageSource" />
    </property>
  </bean>

Everything works fine with locales etc.

However, I was wondering if it is possible to inject the locale to a custom validator I have constructed. I have created a @CheckZip annotation for validating Zip codes. But since zip codes have different formats in different countries I am curious whether I could throw the current locale into the validator.

Answer 1

Not by injection, but static LocaleContextHolder can help here:

LocaleContextHolder.setLocale(locale); // set locale for your request or based on user settings e.g. inside custom interceptor

and

LocaleContextHolder.getLocale(); // get locale inside your validator

But I'm not sure why you need the locale explicitly, because having a LocaleChangeInterceptor that should work already:

<!-- Declare the Interceptor -->
<mvc:interceptors>    
    <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.LocaleChangeInterceptor"
          p:paramName="locale" />
</mvc:interceptors>

<!-- Declare the Resolver -->
<bean id="localeResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.SessionLocaleResolver" />