Could you: | @ValidatorClass ( GreaterThanValidator.class ) | @Retention ( RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME ) | @Target ( { ElementType.METHOD } ) | public @interface GreaterThan { | | String elExpr = null; | String mesg = "#{someMessageKey}"; | | } | And then in the validator class get a reference to the Seam interpolator and invoke the el-binding cast it to Comparable and compare it to the annotated data element. Could do the same for less than, either or, just a thought for the simpler things. To do entity exists checks I use a custom interceptor that has access to the entity manager to do the queries. I am curious about this as well as I have lot's of these kind of things floating around and would really like to standardize them and will research it further. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4014625#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...