Seam Hibernate Validator displaying JSF messages

Question

I have an application that uses Seam 2.2.2- JSF 1.1 - Hibernate Validator 3.1.0.GA. I am trying to display custom messages using hibernate validate message=() option. message=() gets displayed for other validators like @Length. But the message I set for @NotNull is not working.

Here is the code snippet.

<s:decorate id="decoration1" template="/includes/myTemplate.xhtml">         
 <ui:define name="label">userId</ui:define>
 <h:inputTextarea label="userIdFromTemplate" value="#myController.user.userId}" required="true" >
       <a4j:support event="onblur" reRender="decoration1" ajaxSingle="true"  bypassUpdates="true"/>
  </h:inputTextarea>
</s:decorate>

MyController

@Out(required = false) @Valid
Object user;

User Object Fields

 @NotNull(message="userIdFromAnno is required")
 getUserId() {
 }

When I set javax.faces.component.UIInput.REQUIRED={0} is a required field in messages.properties, I get userIdFromTemplate is a required field. Otherwise I get JSF default message Validation Error: Value is required. I never get the message "UserIdFromAnno is required".

Same code works and picks up annotation messages for @Length.

Can somebody help?

Answer 1

Empty HTTP request parameters are by default submitted as an empty string. This is not the same as null and thus @NotNull will never be invoked. On JSF 2.0, you could use a context parameter to let JSF interpret empty submitted values as null. On JSF 1.2 you could use a custom string converter to let JSF convert empty submitted values to null. On JSF 1.1, however, by design a custom converter for strings will never be invoked.

Your best bet is using the Hibernate Validator specific @NotBlank annotation instead of @NotNull.

See also:

• h:inputText which is bound to String property is submitting empty string instead of null
• Is there a converter for String?