Package org.acegisecurity.domain.validation

Validation services for complex domain objects.

See:
Description

Interface Summary

BindBeforeValidation	Indicates a domain object wishes to perform additional binding before the Validator is called.
IntrospectionManager	Indicates a concrete class capable of introspecting a domain object for its immediate children.
ValidationManager	Able to validate any passed domain object instance, including its children.
ValidationRegistryManager	ValidationRegistryManager implementations are able to authoritatively return a Validator instance that is suitable for a given domain object.

Class Summary

BindBeforeValidationUtils	Convenience class that invokes the BindBeforeValidation interface if the passed domain object has requested it.
ValidationAdvisor	Advisor for the ValidationInterceptor.
ValidationInterceptor	Calls ValidationManager for method invocations.
ValidationManagerImpl	Default implementation of ValidationManager.
ValidationRegistryManagerImpl	A basic implementation of ValidationRegistryManager.

Exception Summary

ValidatorNotFoundException

Thrown if no Validator could be found that supports a domain object presented for validation.

Package org.acegisecurity.domain.validation Description

Validation services for complex domain objects.

Generally you will write Validators for each of your domain objects, and add a ValidationManager to your application context. You will need to wire a suitable IntrospectionManager against the ValidationManager so that children of a domain object presented for validation can be identified and in turn also validated.

The ValidationInterceptor and ValidationAdvisor are provided, although their use is not recommended against DAOs given many Validators require a DAO and this will cause a loop that results in the DAO not being advised. Instead your DAO implementations should have their mutator methods pass the object to the ValidationManager prior to persistence. This is a non-AOP approach, but represetns a practical solution.

If you domain objects themselves wish to ensure they are in a valid state prior to internal business methods being invoked, it is suggested they provide a ValidationManager collaborator, and fire its validate method. Such collaborator can be autowired during both instance retrieval and creation. It should generally also be marked as transient, to avoid possible serialisation issues if used inside a HttpSession or similar.

Sometimes domain objects need to internally update themselves before being validated. Any such domain objects should implement BindBeforeValidation. The ValidationManager will fire the related method just prior to validation, and you can do it manually using BindBeforeValidationUtils. Using the utility class is generally preferred over calling the method directly, as it ignores classes that do not implement BindBeforeValidation.

Finally, sometimes Validators might need to perform queries against a persistence or services layer. For example, the Validator may be checking no other user has this username, or comparing the object's old state to detect modifications that violate business rules. If using an ORM tool such as Hibernate, it is recommended you use the EvictionUtils static methods to remove objects from the session.