[hibernate-issues] [Hibernate-JIRA] Commented: (HV-390) Boolean composition of constraints

Boolean composition of constraints ---------------------------------- Key: HV-390 URL: http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/hibernate/browse/HV-390 Project: Hibernate Validator Issue Type: New Feature Components: engine Reporter: Federico Mancini Assignee: Hardy Ferentschik Fix For: 4.2.0 Attachments: modified classes.zip By adding a built-in annotation @Bool (or some other name) with element values OR, ALLFALSE and AND (which would be the default) it would be possible to compose constraints in a boolean fashion. For example: {code} //Specify that at least one of the patterns must match @Bool(OR) @List({@Pattern(regexp="pat1"),@Pattern(regexp="pat2"),@Pattern(regexp="pat3"),@Pattern(regexp="pat4")}) @interface WhiteList{..} {code} {code} //Specify that none of the patterns must match @Bool(ALLFALSE) @List({@Pattern(regexp="pat1"),@Pattern(regexp="pat2"),@Pattern(regexp="pat3"),@Pattern(regexp="pat4")}) @interface BlackList{..} {code} {code} //At least on valid contact method must match @Bool(OR) @Email @Address @Phone @interface ContactDetails{...} {code} This would greatly increase the type of new constraints that can be defined just by reusing some existing ones. Possible extensions might be for example further operators like XOR (meaning exactly one of the constraints must hold) or similar. It seems like it is possible to implement this feature by adding very little code to just a couple of classes, and adding the new @Bool annotation to the API.