More useful exception error messages ------------------------------------ Key: HV-235 URL: http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/hibernate/browse/HV-235 Project: Hibernate Validator Issue Type: Improvement Affects Versions: 4.0.0.CR1 Reporter: Ken Egervari Hi, i know you are aware of this for version 3.1, but the problem has become even worse in 4.0 CR1. Whenever an example is thrown, it looks like this: javax.validation.ConstraintViolationException: Invalid object at persist time for groups [javax.validation.groups.Default, ] at org.hibernate.cfg.beanvalidation.BeanValidationEventListener.validate(BeanValidationEventListener.java:83) at org.hibernate.cfg.beanvalidation.BeanValidationEventListener.onPreInsert(BeanValidationEventListener.java:51) at org.hibernate.action.EntityIdentityInsertAction.preInsert(EntityIdentityInsertAction.java:142) at org.hibernate.action.EntityIdentityInsertAction.execute(EntityIdentityInsertAction.java:65) at org.hibernate.engine.ActionQueue.execute(ActionQueue.java:279) at org.hibernate.event.def.AbstractSaveEventListener.performSaveOrReplicate(AbstractSaveEventListener.java:321) at org.hibernate.event.def.AbstractSaveEventListener.performSave(AbstractSaveEventListener.java:204) at org.hibernate.event.def.AbstractSaveEventListener.saveWithGeneratedId(AbstractSaveEventListener.java:130) at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultSaveOrUpdateEventListener.saveWithGeneratedOrRequestedId(DefaultSaveOrUpdateEventListener.java:210) at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultSaveOrUpdateEventListener.entityIsTransient(DefaultSaveOrUpdateEventListener.java:195) at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultSaveOrUpdateEventListener.performSaveOrUpdate(DefaultSaveOrUpdateEventListener.java:117) at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultSaveOrUpdateEventListener.onSaveOrUpdate(DefaultSaveOrUpdateEventListener.java:93) at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.fireSaveOrUpdate(SessionImpl.java:538) at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.saveOrUpdate(SessionImpl.java:530) at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.saveOrUpdate(SessionImpl.java:526) at org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTemplate$16.doInHibernate(HibernateTemplate.java:740) at org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTemplate.doExecute(HibernateTemplate.java:406) at org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTemplate.executeWithNativeSession(HibernateTemplate.java:374) at org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTemplate.saveOrUpdate(HibernateTemplate.java:737) Now, as I mentioned before, this gives unit tests absolutely no clue what the problem is. You see, when people get these exceptions... it's just not when they are testing their constraints - it's when they are testing their database, or their controllers. Usually the point of these tests is to test OTHER things, not the constraints. Yes, I am happy they are working nicely... but my main objective is to quickly fix the bean so the constraint doesn't fail and go along my merry way. As it stands, these error messages are a pain in the rear. It's even worse now because you're not even telling us which object it occured on... so if we stored an object with lots of cascading children, there is no telling what the heck went wrong. In a unit test, this is a very common idiom: try { userAccountDao.save( userAccount ); clear(); } catch( ConstraintViolationException e ) { for( ConstraintViolation constraintViolation : e.getConstraintViolations() ) { System.out.println( constraintViolation.getMessage() ); System.out.println( constraintViolation.getInvalidValue() ); System.out.println( constraintViolation.getLeafBean() ); System.out.println( constraintViolation.getMessageTemplate() ); System.out.println( constraintViolation.getConstraintDescriptor() ); System.out.println( constraintViolation.getPropertyPath() ); System.out.println( constraintViolation.getRootBeanClass() ); } } This is just trash code to write every time a constraint unmistakably gets violated. I tried in Junit... and there's no way to wrap a test method with another method to catch the exception and print this - like an aop around my unit tests. Now, there are 2 solutions. 1) Rewrite the example to something like this: javax.validation.ConstraintViolationException: object of class jawbs.domain.user.UserAccount has constraint violations [ ( property: "emailAddress", message: "Must be a valid email address" ) ] at org.hibernate.cfg.beanvalidation.BeanValidationEventListener.validate(BeanValidationEventListener.java:83) at org.hibernate.cfg.beanvalidation.BeanValidationEventListener.onPreInsert(BeanValidationEventListener.java:51) at org.hibernate.action.EntityIdentityInsertAction.preInsert(EntityIdentityInsertAction.java:142) at org.hibernate.action.EntityIdentityInsertAction.execute(EntityIdentityInsertAction.java:65) at org.hibernate.engine.ActionQueue.execute(ActionQueue.java:279) .... 2) Have an option on the validation factory in Hibernate (i.e. not using build default validator) to throw custom exceptions instead of the "standard" one. The custom one can even be provided by the library. The idea is that the developer shouldn't have to go through all these hoops just to see error messages. Viewing the details of errors messages has been around in other frameworks just fine. As it stands, this feature makes this library/framework very, very, very, very frustrating to deal with. The actual error you guys are throwing... or the genuises who wrote the standard... is the most useless exception I've read all year. I'm sorry to be aggressive on this... I'm just so frustrated with it. Like REALLY frustrated. I feel so powerless in that it's a part of your code I can't just swap out easily without recompiling it. And I don't think that's the right solution. 3) If there has to be workaround, please make it a HUGE point in the 4.0 GA documentation. Make sure people know about it and don't have to hunt down for it. 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