JSF Richfaces and custom Validation

Question

today i tried richfaces. i wanted to create a form for user registration and i wanted to use custom validators. Here is the jsf part:

<ui:composition template="/templates/master.xhtml" >

        <ui:define name="content">

            <center>
                <h:outputText value="New User Registration" />
            </center>

            <h:form>

                <rich:panel>

                    <h:panelGrid columns="3" >

                        <h:outputText value="Username:" />
                        <h:inputText id="username" value="#{registerService.userName}">
                            <!-- <f:validator validatorId="userNameValidator"/> -->
                            <rich:validator />
                        </h:inputText>
                        <h:message id="m_username" for="username" style="color:red" />

                        <h:outputText value="Password:" />
                        <h:inputSecret id="password" value="#{registerService.password}">
                            <f:validator validatorId="passwordValidator" />
                        </h:inputSecret>
                        <h:message id="m_password" for="password" style="color:red" />  

                        <h:outputText value="Confirm Password:" />
                        <h:inputSecret id="confirmPassword" value="#{registerService.confirmPassword}">
                            <f:validator validatorId="passwordConfirmValidator" />
                            <f:attribute name="passwordId" value="#{component.parent.parent.clientId}:password" />
                        </h:inputSecret>
                        <h:message id="m_confirmPassword" for="confirmPassword" style="color:red" />    

                        <h:outputText value="Lastname:" />
                        <h:inputText id="lastname" value="#{registerService.lastName}">
                            <f:validator validatorId="nameValidator" />
                        </h:inputText>
                        <h:message id="m_lastname" for="lastname" style="color:red" />

                        <h:outputText value="Firstname:" />
                        <h:inputText id="firstname" value="#{registerService.firstName}">
                            <f:validator validatorId="nameValidator" />
                        </h:inputText>
                        <h:message id="m_firstname" for="firstname" style="color:red" />

                        <h:outputText value="Date of Birth: " />
                        <rich:calendar value="#{registerService.birthDate}" />
                        <h:outputText value=""/>

                        <h:outputText value="E-Mail:" />
                        <h:inputText id="email" value="#{registerService.eMail}" >
                            <f:validator validatorId="emailValidator" />
                        </h:inputText>
                        <h:message id="m_email" for="email" style="color:red" />    

                        <h:outputText value="Confirm E-Mail:" />
                        <h:inputText id="confirmEmail" value="#{registerService.confirmEMail}">
                            <f:validator validatorId="emailConfirmValidator" />
                            <f:attribute name="emailId" value="#{component.parent.parent.clientId}:email" />
                        </h:inputText>
                        <h:message id="m_confirmEmail" for="confirmEmail" style="color:red" />

                    </h:panelGrid>

                    <h:commandButton type="submit" value="Submit" action="#{registerService.addUser}" >
                        <f:ajax execute="@form" render="m_username m_password m_confirmPassword m_lastname m_firstname m_email m_confirmEmail" />
                    </h:commandButton>            
                    <h:commandButton type="reset" value="Reset" />          

                </rich:panel>

            </h:form>

        </ui:define>

    </ui:composition>

for example a custom validator:

@FacesValidator(value="emailValidator")
public class EmailValidator implements Validator {

    public void validate(FacesContext context, UIComponent component, Object value) throws ValidatorException {
        String email = (String) value;
        FacesMessage message = null;

        if(email == null || email.isEmpty()) {
            message = new FacesMessage ("Please enter a E-Mail!", "Email Validation Error");
            message.setDetail("You havent entered a valid E-Mail yet!");
            message.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR);

            throw new ValidatorException(message);
        }

        if(!email.contains("@")) {
            message = new FacesMessage ("Invalid E-Mail!", "Email Validation Error");
            message.setDetail("E-Mail does not contain '@'");
            message.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR);

            throw new ValidatorException(message);
        }

        Matcher matcher = Regex.EMAIL_PATTERN_COMPILED.matcher(email);

        if(!matcher.matches()) {
            message = new FacesMessage ("Invalid E-Mail!", "Email Validation Error");
            message.setDetail("E-Mail contains forbidden characters or does not match the E-Mail pattern!");
            message.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR);

            throw new ValidatorException(message);
        }

        if(email.length() > 64) {
            message = new FacesMessage ("Invalid E-Mail!", "Email Validation Error");
            message.setDetail("E-Mail is to long (max. 64 characters)!");
            message.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR);

            throw new ValidatorException(message);
        }
    }
}

it seems that these custom validators arent working inside a tag. what do i have to do to get them working. or do i have to use something different to implement a validation.

Answer 1

Us the form-tag inside the rich:panel tag and it will work

<rich:panel>

    <h:form>

        ....

    </h:form>

<rich:panel>

You can also use annotations for validation using richfaces like you already tried:

<h:outputText value="Username:" />
<h:inputText id="username" value="#{registerService.userName}">
    <!-- <f:validator validatorId="userNameValidator"/> -->
    <rich:validator />
</h:inputText>
<h:message id="m_username" for="username" style="color:red" />

In your bean you can use this for example:

@ManagedBean
@RequestScoped
public class ValidationBean {
    @Size(min = 3, max = 12)
    private String name = null;
    @Pattern(regexp = "^[\\w\\-]([\\.\\w])+[\\w]+@([\\w\\-]+\\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,4}$", message = "Bad email")
    private String email = null;
    @Min(value = 18)
    @Max(value = 99)
    private Integer age;
    private String country;
    private String jobTitle;
    @AssertTrue
    private boolean agreed = true;

    public boolean isAgreed() {
        return agreed;
    }

    public void setAgreed(boolean agreed) {
        this.agreed = agreed;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getEmail() {
        return email;
    }

    public void setEmail(String email) {
        this.email = email;
    } 

    public Integer getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(Integer age) {
        this.age = age;
    }

    public String getCountry() {
        return country;
    }

    public void setCountry(String country) {
        this.country = country;
    }

    public String getJobTitle() {
        return jobTitle;
    }

    public void setJobTitle(String jobTitle) {
        this.jobTitle = jobTitle;
    }
}

Source

<rich:validator />

Will automatically validate the user input because of these annotations. I think this makes it easier and you have less work.