GWT 2.5 easy Bean validation

The goal of this paper is to setup quickly and smoothly a clean validation process on your DTO. It shows an easy setup using GIN and GWT-Dispatch. An Intro is also available here Gwt 2.5 Validation Intro

The needed libraires to start are: Javax validation (Api), Hibernate validators (Sources and Implementation) and Slf4j (logger).
For the next step we are going to build a custom annotation which will be use into our gwt-dispatch actions:
Here the code for custom validator and his annotation:

@Target({ ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE })
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Documented
@Constraint(validatedBy = RequiredValidator.class)
public @interface Required {
    String message() default "Value is required";
    Class[] groups() default {};
    Class[] payload() default {};
}

 

public class RequiredValidator implements ConstraintValidator {
    @Override
    public void initialize(Required constraintAnnotation) { }

    @Override
    public boolean isValid(String value, ConstraintValidatorContext context) {
        return (!Strings.isNullOrEmpty(value));
        // use Guava strings to check null or empty value
    }
}

Now we can use our required annotation into our action (There is also a possibility to use more than one annotation on our field):

public class SendMailAction extends ActionImpl {
    @Required
    private String email;
  ...
    private SendMailAction(String email) {
       this.email = email;
    }
  ...
  // add accessors
}

To complete module settings we need a validator factory for the module like it is shown into the Gwt Devguide:

public final class ClientValidatorFactory extends AbstractGwtValidatorFactory {

    // Syntax for multiple class:  @GwtValidation({action1.class, action2.class})
    @GwtValidation(SendMailAction.class)
    public interface GwtValidator extends Validator {
    }
    @Override
    public AbstractGwtValidator createValidator() {
        return GWT.create(GwtValidator.class);
    }
}

Now we are going to write a generic constraint validation manager which will be provided using Gin Injector. Here it is :

public class ClientValidation extends Validation {
    private Validator validator;
    private Set<ConstraintViolation> constraintViolations;

    public ClientValidation() {
        this.validator = buildDefaultValidatorFactory().getValidator();
    }
    public Set<ConstraintViolation> getConstraintViolations(Object object) {
        this.constraintViolations = validator.validate(object);
        return constraintViolations;
    }
    public String getPrimaryMessage() {
        return constraintViolations.iterator().next().getMessage();
    }
}

Finally we can configure one single instance into our module:

...
bind(ClientValidation.class).in(Singleton.class);

and use it everywhere on client side with @Inject:

if (!clientValidation.getConstraintViolations(new sendMailAction(email)).isEmpty()) {
            alert(clientValidation.getPrimaryMessage());
} else {
    // do something
}

Thanks to the GWT team for those enhancements for client side validation.

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