I am using Spring forms and would like to use the HTML5 \'required\' attribute which Spring forms does not seem to support.
commandName, your approach is ok.just add some jquery at the end of the page
<html>
<body>
<form:input path="someinput" id="someinput"/>
</body>
<script>
$("#someinput").attr('required', '');
</script>
</html>