Custom validation message for bean validation

Question

I'm creating a JSF 2-application and I'm trying to use form validation in the bean instead of the faces-page. I'd also like to use a .properties file to store the messages.

I looked at this question but I don't think I have the properties-file set up correctly.

Let's say I have a bean called User in a package called 'dev':

@ManagedBean
@SessionScoped
public class User implements Serializable {

    @Pattern(pattern=".+@.+\\.[a-z]+", message="{dev.User.emailAddress}")
    private String emailAddress;

    // getter/setter
}

I've also created a file 'ValidationMessages.properties' in WEB-INF/classes (I'm using Netbeans 7.0.1)

In the ValidationMessages.properties file I've got this key/value-line:

dev.User.emailAddress=Custom invalid email message

And my view (user.xhtml) looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
    xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
<h:head>
    <title>User registration</title>
</h:head>
<h:body>
    <h:form>
        <h:inputText id="emailAddress" value="#{user.emailAddress}" required="true" />
        <h:message for="emailAddress" />
        <h:commandButton value="Ok" action="null" />
    </h:form>
</h:body>

When I enter an invalid email and press the button, the validation message in the web page reads:

{dev.User.emailAddress}

instead of

Custom invalid email message

Could the problem be that I haven't registered my properties file in web.xml?

I should switch required="true" to @NotNull in the bean too. Is there anything more I need to do than insert this:

<context-param>
    <param-name>javax.faces.INTERPRET_EMPTY_STRING_SUBMITTED_VALUES_AS_NULL</param-name>
    <param-value>true</param-value>
</context-param>

as explained in BalusC's blog?

Thanks in advance!

/ Dennis

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 08 '11 at 16:39

3

I've also created a file 'ValidationMessages.properties' in WEB-INF/classes (I'm using Netbeans 7.0.1)

I understand that you've put it straight in the project's /WEB-INF/classes folder yourself? This will likely be ignored/overridden if you let your IDE build/deploy the WAR (at least, this is true for Eclipse). You should rather put that file straight in the root of the Java source folder of the project. You can verify yourself if it really ended up in /WEB-INF/classes, after you export the project to a WAR file and then extract it using some ZIP tool.

answered Nov 08 '11 at 16:39

BalusC

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Thought that seemed a littly fishy :) Ok, I placed the .properties file at the java root and it does end up in WEB-INF when I've compiled and looked in the EAR-file. My problem still remains though, instead of writing the value from the .properties file, it just prints the key. I.e. it prints {dev.User.emailAddress} instead of 'Custom invalid email message'. It's like it doesn't understand that I want to print a value, not just a string. Ideas? – Dennis S Nov 10 '11 at 07:25

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 10 '11 at 10:45

2

I placed the .properties file in the resources folder and it worked, there was no need to register the file anywhere. For the record: I'm using Netbeans 7.0.1 and Maven.

Thanks for the help, BalusC!

answered Nov 10 '11 at 10:45

Dennis S

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That's odd. What bean validation implementation and/or what servletcontainer are you using? – BalusC Nov 10 '11 at 12:21
I'm using Glassfish 3.1 (bundled with Netbeans). Not sure what you mean by bean validation implementation? – Dennis S Nov 11 '11 at 07:12

Custom validation message for bean validation

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