JSR-303 errors not detected natively by using the @Valid annotation

Question

How come the @Valid annotation does not catch my JSR-303 annotations natively, but do catch them using the following method:

WebConfig.java

@Bean
public ResourceBundleMessageSource messageSource() {

    ResourceBundleMessageSource messageSource = new ResourceBundleMessageSource();

    String[] strBaseNames = {
            "resources.messages.layout.LayoutResources",
            "resources.messages.layout.MenuResources",
            "resources.messages.global.GlobalResources"
    };

    messageSource.setUseCodeAsDefaultMessage(true);
    messageSource.setDefaultEncoding("UTF-8");
    messageSource.setBasenames(strBaseNames);

    return messageSource;
}

@Bean
public LocalValidatorFactoryBean jsr303Validator() {

    LocalValidatorFactoryBean localValidatorFactoryBean = new LocalValidatorFactoryBean();
    localValidatorFactoryBean.setValidationMessageSource(this.messageSource());

    return localValidatorFactoryBean;
}

UserController.java

@Controller
@RequestMapping(value = "/security/user", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public class UserController {

@Autowired
private SecurityService securityService;

@Autowired
SessionObject sessionObject;

@Autowired 
@Qualifier("jsr303Validator") Validator validator;

@RequestMapping(value = "/edit/validate", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String validateEdit( @ModelAttribute @Valid User user,
                            BindingResult result,
                            Model model) {

    String strViewName = "common/error";

    validator.validate(user, result);

    if(result.hasErrors()) {
        strViewName = "user/userEdit";
    } else {
        ... update work ...
        strViewName = "user/success";
    }

    return strViewName;
}

Resource: http://www.wenda.io/questions/2462924/convert-jsr-303-validation-errors-to-springs-bindingresult.html

If I only use the @Valid annotation, result.hasErrors() is always empty, so I end up having an ConstraintViolationException (see below), which is expected. But I would like to have it working using the @Valid annotation only, without having to autowire my jsr303validator bean in each controller I want to implement some JSR-303 validations.

Constraint Violation log trace

Caused by: javax.validation.ConstraintViolationException: Validation failed for classes [spring4base.model.security.User] during update time for groups [javax.validation.groups.Default, ]
List of constraint violations:[
ConstraintViolationImpl{interpolatedMessage='error.firstname.notnull', propertyPath=strFirstName, rootBeanClass=class spring4base.model.security.User, messageTemplate='error.firstname.notnull'}
ConstraintViolationImpl{interpolatedMessage='error.userid.notnull', propertyPath=strUserId, rootBeanClass=class spring4base.model.security.User, messageTemplate='error.userid.notnull'}
ConstraintViolationImpl{interpolatedMessage='error.lastname.notnull', propertyPath=strLastName, rootBeanClass=class spring4base.model.security.User, messageTemplate='error.lastname.notnull'}

]

User.java

@NotBlank(message = "error.userid.notnull")
@Size(min = 0, max = 14, message = "error.firstname.length")
private String strUserId = "";

@NotBlank(message = "error.firstname.notnull")
@Size(min = 0, max = 50, message = "error.firstname.length")
private String strFirstName = "";

@NotBlank(message = "error.lastname.notnull")
@Size(min = 0, max = 50, message = "error.lastname.length")
private String strLastName = "";

Thank you

Answer 1

The following was required in order to make it work in my case:

First, define a LocalValidatorFactoryBean in my Java Config class (WebAppContext.java in my case).

@Bean
public ResourceBundleMessageSource messageSource() {

    ResourceBundleMessageSource messageSource = new ResourceBundleMessageSource();

    String[] baseNames = {
            "resources.messages.layout.LayoutResources",
            "resources.messages.layout.MenuResources",
            "resources.messages.option.AppConfigResources",
            "resources.messages.global.GlobalResources",
            "resources.messages.contact.ContactResources",
            "resources.messages.currentsession.CurrentSessionResources",
            "resources.messages.welcome.WelcomeResources",
            "resources.messages.user.UserResources",
            "resources.messages.role.RoleResources",
            "resources.messages.profile.ProfileResources"
    };

    messageSource.setCacheSeconds(60);
    messageSource.setFallbackToSystemLocale(false);
    messageSource.setUseCodeAsDefaultMessage(true);
    messageSource.setDefaultEncoding(StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name());
    messageSource.setBasenames(baseNames);

    return messageSource;
}


@Bean
public LocalValidatorFactoryBean jsr303Validator() {

    LocalValidatorFactoryBean localValidatorFactoryBean = new LocalValidatorFactoryBean();
    localValidatorFactoryBean.setValidationMessageSource(this.messageSource());

    return localValidatorFactoryBean;
}

Then, in my controller, I autowire that validator like so:

@Autowired
private Validator jsr303Validator;

And then, the only way I have found to get my JSR-303 executed is to launch them by hand, like so:

@RequestMapping(value = "/update",  method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String processUpdate(@ModelAttribute UserForm userForm,
                            BindingResult result,
                            RedirectAttributes redirectAttributes,
                            SessionStatus status) throws CheckedPersistenceException {

    this.userFormValidator.validate(userForm, result);

    if (!result.hasErrors()) {
        this.jsr303Validator.validate(userForm, result);
    }

    if(result.hasErrors()) {
        return this.UPDATE_VIEW;
    }

    ...
}