JSR 303: How to Validate a Collection of annotated objects?

java bean-validation hibernate-validator jsr
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Is it possible to validate a collection of objects in JSR 303 - Jave Bean Validation where the collection itself does not have any annotations but the elements contained within do?

For example, is it possible for this to result in a constraint violation due to a null name on the second person:

List<Person> people = new ArrayList<Person>();
people.add(new Person("dave"));
people.add(new Person(null));

Validator validator = Validation.buildDefaultValidatorFactory().getValidator();
Set<ConstraintViolation<List<Person>>> validation = validator.validate(people);

Answer

sourcedelica picture sourcedelica · Aug 21, 2011

Yes, just add @Valid to the collection.

Here is an example from the Hibernate Validator Reference.

public class Car {
  @NotNull
  @Valid
  private List<Person> passengers = new ArrayList<Person>();
}

This is standard JSR-303 behavior. See Section 3.1.3 of the spec.

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