[bv-dev] Bean Validation and JAX-RS: conversion too?

[Gunnar Morling]

Hi,

I also think a dedicated spec would make sense, but it should be made sure
that BV and such a new spec work nicely together.

In the wider field of object conversion (i.e. not only binding user "input"
to typed models, but converting/copying between any JavaBeans) there a some
candidates which might benefit from such a spec, be it generic mapping
libraries such as Orika [1] or solutions based on compile-time code
generation such as my own project MapStruct [2].

2013/7/15 Emmanuel Bernard <emmanuel at hibernate.org>

> I have to admit I am not particularly experienced in the "conversion" /
> "transformation" field but my intuition follows what Matt has been
> describing. i.e. a separate specification to cover this.
>
> Out of curiosity, do you Ed or anyone see specific adherence between Bean
> Validation and conversion? I can see a few thinking only a few minutes to
> the subject:
>
> - one might want conversion after some input has been validated - coarse
> grained around "convertibility"? Or is that the whole responsibility of the
> converter?
> - one might want validation after some input has been converted - fine
> grained
>

Right, both can be required. That's why e.g. JFace databinding has several
validation phases, before and after conversion. I think BV as of today
would be helpful mostly in the second step as it is centered around
properly typed properties.

Any other adherence?
>

I think reporting/messaging is one, i.e. you'd typically want to report
conversion and validation errors in a similar manner to the user (using the
same kind of "decoration", maybe using something like a "property path"),
maybe retrieve messages from the same bundle etc.

Configuration in general may be another integration point, e.g. it might be
useful to have some kind of shared XML descriptor which allows to add
constraints and conversion rules for an attribute in a unified manner.

--Gunnar

[1] http://code.google.com/p/orika/
[2] http://mapstruct.org/


Emmanuel
>
> On 12 juil. 2013, at 22:27, Edward Burns <edward.burns at oracle.com> wrote:
>
> > Hello Volunteers,
> >
> > I've been viewing Emmanuel's videos about BV 1.1 and whenever he talks
> > about Bean Validation and JAX-RS, such as this
> >
> > @Path("/user")
> > class UserResource {
> >
> >  @Post
> >  @Consumes("application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
> >  public void register(
> >    @NotEmpty @FormParam("firstname") String firstname,
> >    @NotEmpty @FormParam("lastname") String lastname,
> >    @NotNull @Email @FormParam("email") String email) { ... }
> > }
> >
> > I have to ask myself, isn't this missing something?  What about
> > conversion?
> >
> > Before Bean Validation, JSF brought type conversion *and* validation to
> > the table.  Now that Bean Validation provides the validation part for
> > all of JavaEE, isn't it time we think about the other part: type
> > conversion?
> >
> > JSF has an elaborate conversion system with by-type conventions and also
> > the ability to manually declare that specific converters should be used
> > for specific values.  It's not a far cry to realize that we don't need
> > to limit ourselves to "String" for these arguments and there is a lot we
> > could do to enable arbitrary types and have Bean Validation handle the
> > conversion on the way in.
> >
> > JAX-RS also has the javax.ws.rs.ext.ParamConverter facility, which
> > solves the conversion problem in a JAX-RS specific way.
> >
> > Here we have two specs that do conversion.  I think it might be useful
> > to realize that type conversion is really just the first part of
> > validation, and therefore falls under the responsibility of Bean
> > Validation.
> >
> > Is this worth pursuing?
> >
> > Ed
> >
> > --
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>
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