Validating date with Spring Boot or Hibernate Validator

Question

I've built a REST Service using Spring Boot. I'm also using Hibernate Validator to validate data. I have a REST endpoint like this:

@PostMapping(value = "${apiVersion.v_1}" + "/parameter-dates")
    public ResponseEntity createParameterDate( @RequestBody ParameterDate parameterDate){
// Some code that use parameterDate
}

ParameterDate is defined in a class like this:

public class ParameterDate {

    @NotNull(message = "Parameter Date Unadjusted can not be blank or null")
    private Date parameterDateUnadjusted;
    @NotNull(message = "Parameter Date Adjusted can not be blank or null")
    private Date parameterDateAdjusted;
    private Date parameterDateAdded;
    private Date parameterDateChanged;    
}

I would like to validate parameterDateUnadjusted and parameterDateAdjusted to make sure both of them are valid dates. I've tried with @DateTimeFormat(pattern = "yyyy-MM-dd") but it won't give me a validation error for not validate as long as they stick to yyyy-MM-dd. One example would be 2017-01-40 that it just interpret as 2017-02-09. I guess @DateTimeFormat is rather a formatter than a validator. I also tried using Hibernate Validator's @Pattern and rexexp like @Pattern(regexp="\\t(0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])[- /.](0[1-9]|1[012])[- /.](19|20)\\d\\d\\t"). But this gives me the error

V000030: No validator could be found for constraint 'javax.validation.constraints.Pattern' validating type 'java.util.Date'. Check configuration for 'parameterDateAdjusted'

Any suggestion how I can validate these dates?

I think the REST service validation is the one to use. By the time you get to Hibernate the data should be validated. — duffymo, Jun 05 '17 at 19:37
Take a peek at setting lenient to false: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7606387/what-is-the-use-of-lenient @du — hooknc, Jun 05 '17 at 19:44
@hooknc how do I sett lenient to false when using the annotation `@DateTimeFormat`? — g3blv, Jun 05 '17 at 20:22
Well, that is a good question. I accidentally hit 'add comment' before I was ready and couldn't go back and edit my comment the way I wanted to. From my, quick research, there doesn't seem to be able to set the lenient value on the hibernate's @DateTimeFormat. However, you could implement your own validator fairly simply: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17539724/validating-date-bean-validation-annotation-with-a-specific-format — hooknc, Jun 05 '17 at 21:12

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 05 '17 at 20:39

Here is an example to implement validator for Date object:

@Target({ ElementType.FIELD })
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Constraint(validatedBy = MyDateValidator.class)
@Documented
public @interface ValidDate {

    String message() default "some message here";

    Class<?>[] groups() default { };

    Class<? extends Payload>[] payload() default { };
}

public class MyDateValidator implements ConstraintValidator<ValidDate, Date> {
   public void initialize(ValidDate constraint) {
   }

   public boolean isValid(Date value, ConstraintValidatorContext context) {
      // validate the value here.
   }
}

Validating date with Spring Boot or Hibernate Validator

1 Answers1