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Validator Version 1.2.0

The aim of this page is to provide a summary of the changes in Validator 1.2.0. For a full list of the changes in Validator 1.2.0 see the [http://people.apache.org/~niallp/commons-validator/1.2.0-rc2/site/changes-report.html Changes Report].

1. Validator Inheritance

Probably the most significant change in Validator 1.2.0 is the introduction of inheritance which comes in two forms:

  • Explicit Form inheritance
  • Implicit Locale inheritance

1.1 Explicit Form Inheritance

Explicit Form Inheritance is where one [http://people.apache.org/~niallp/commons-validator/1.2.0-rc2/site/apidocs/org/apache/commons/validator/Form.html Form] can inherit from another by specifying the name of the form to inherit using the new extends property (which is also an new attribute in the [http://svn.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/jakarta/commons/proper/validator/trunk/conf/share/validator_1_2_0.dtd?view=markup validator_1_2_0.dtd]). See [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27870 #27870].

In the following example nameForm inherits from baseForm, overriding the lastName field...

    <formset>
        <form name="baseForm">
            <field property="firstName" depends="required">
                ...
            </field>
            <field property="lastName" depends="required">
                ...
            </field>
        </form>

        <form name="nameForm" extends="baseForm">
            <field property="lastName" depends="required,minLength">
                ...
            </field>
        </form>
    </formset>

1.2 Implicit Locale Inheritance

Prior to Validator 1.2.0, forms defined in different FormSet's (i.e. different Locales) were treated completely separtely. Now Forms with the same name implicitly inherit from those in less specific locales.

For example, if you have a form named CustomerForm defined in a FormSet for the French language (no country) and also in a FormSet for the Candian French locale then the Candian French version of the Form will inherit from the French one.

See [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=30955 Bug 30955], [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=16920 Bug 16920] and [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=37310 Bug 16920].

N.B. See Section 2. Variables in Resource Bundles which may remove your need to have multiple FormSet's for different locales altogether.

2. Variables in Resource Bundles

One motivation for having different Form Sets was due to the fact that variable values needed to be different for different locales. Validator 1.2.0 has the facility to specify variable values in resource bundles which removes the need for multiple formsets in this instance

Two new properties have been added to [http://people.apache.org/~niallp/commons-validator/1.2.0-rc2/site/apidocs/org/apache/commons/validator/Var.html Variable] - resource and bundle. Setting resource to true (default is false) indicates that the variable's value is a resource key. Additionally the (optional) bundle property can be set to the name of an alternative resource bundle.

In the following example the value of datePattern variable is specified in the validatorVariables bundle under a key of dateOfBirth.pattern.

    <formset>
        <form name="EmployeeForm">
            <field property="dateOfBirth" depends="date">

                <var resource="true" bundle="validatorVariables">
                    <var-name>datePattern</var-name>
                    <var-value>dateOfBirth.pattern</var-value>
                </var>

            </field>
        </form>
    </formset>

N.B. Validator provides the facility to indicate that a variable's value is in a resource bundle - but it is down to individual configured validators to actually take notice of these properties and retrieve the value from the resource bundle. Struts 1.3 has been upgraded to take advantage this feature and is an example of what custom validators need to do. See the Struts [http://svn.apache.org/viewcvs.cgi/struts/core/trunk/src/java/org/apache/struts/validator/FieldChecks.java?view=markup FieldChecks] class.

3. Arg0-Arg3 Deprecations Removed

A number of deprecations have been removed in Validator 1.2.0 - however probably the biggest impact will be the Arg0-Arg3 elements (which were replaced by Arg).

So for example, in the validator config...

        <arg0 key="first.key">
        <arg1 key="second.key">

should be changed to

        <arg key="first.key"  position="0">
        <arg key="second.key" position="1">

Position is however optional and if omitted, validator will automatically allocate a position value - see [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=31194 Bug 31194] for details.

Additionally, this issue only arises if you upgrade to the new version of the Validator DTD - previous versions of the DTD using arg0-arg3 will continue to work in Validator 1.2.0.

4. Changes to Validators

A few new validators have been added:

  • A new ISBN Validator for validating book numbers has been added (see [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=31489 #31489]).

  • New locale aware byte, short, integer, long, float and double validations added (see [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=21282 #21282]).

  • New Minimum/Maximum value validators added (see [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=29015 #29015]).

The following validator's issues have been fixed:

  • Email Validator fixed for [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=23990 Bug 23990], [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=29541 Bug 29541], [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=33409 Bug 33409], [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=31644 Bug 31644]

  • URL Validator fixed for [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=30686 Bug 30686]

  • Float Validator fixed for [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=32351 Bug 32351] and [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=36878 Bug 36878]

  • Double Validator fixed for [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=36878 Bug 36878]

  • Credit Card Validator fixed for [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=35926 Bug 35926]

  • Date Validator no longer logs the ParseException for an invalid date.

The following JavaScript validator's issues have been fixed:

  • The Strategy for locating a form using name/id has changed to correct various issues - see [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=35127 Bug 35127], [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=35294 Bug 35294] and [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=31534 Bug 31534]

  • Required validator fixed for [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=15912 Bug 15912] and [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=33047 Bug 33047]

  • Date validator enhanced to support datePattern - see [http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22384 Bug 22384]

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