Spring boot validation annotations @Valid and @NotBlank not working

Question

Given below is my main controller from which I am calling the getPDFDetails method.

@RequestMapping(value=PATH_PRINT_CONTRACTS, method=RequestMethod.POST)
    public ResponseEntity<?> printContracts(@RequestBody final UpdatePrintContracts updatePrintContracts) throws Exception {
    
        System.out.println("contracts value is "+ updatePrintContracts);
        
        Integer cancellationReasons = service.getPDFDetails(updatePrintContracts);
        
        System.out.println("success!");
        
        return ResponseEntity.ok(cancellationReasons);
    }   

Below is the UpdatePrintContracts class where I have defined all the variables with validation annotations and corresponding getter/setter methods.

public class UpdatePrintContracts {
    
    @Valid
    @NotBlank
    @Pattern(regexp = "\\p{Alnum}{1,30}")
    String isReprint;
    
    @Valid
    @NotBlank
    Integer dealerId;
    
    @Valid
    @NotBlank
    @Pattern(regexp = "\\p{Alnum}{1,30}")
    String includeSignatureCoordinates;
    
    @Valid
    @NotBlank
    java.util.List<Integer> contractNumbers;

    public String getIsReprint() {
        return isReprint;
    }

    public void setIsReprint(String isReprint) {
        this.isReprint = isReprint;
    }

    public Integer getDealerId() {
        return dealerId;
    }

    public void setDealerId(Integer dealerId) {
        this.dealerId = dealerId;
    }

    public String getIncludeSignatureCoordinates() {
        return includeSignatureCoordinates;
    }

    public void setIncludeSignatureCoordinates(String includeSignatureCoordinates) {
        this.includeSignatureCoordinates = includeSignatureCoordinates;
    }

    public java.util.List<Integer> getContractNumbers() {
        return contractNumbers;
    }

    public void setContractNumbers(java.util.List<Integer> contractNumbers) {
        this.contractNumbers = contractNumbers;
    }
    
}

I am trying to run the application as a Spring Boot app by right clicking on the project (Run As) and passing blank values for variables isReprint and includeSignatureCoordinates through Soap UI. However the validation doesn't seem to work and is not throwing any validation error in Soap UI. What am I missing? Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

If you are facing this problem in latest version of spring boot (2.3.0) make sure to add the following dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-validation</artifactId>
</dependency>

Observation: In earlier version of Spring Boot (1.4.7), javax.validation used to work out of the box. But, after upgrading to latest version, annotations broke. Adding the following dependency alone doesn't work:

<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.validation</groupId>
    <artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>
</dependency>

Because this provides JSR Specification but not the implementation. You can also use hibernate-validator instead of spring-boot-starter-validation.