After a user resets a password, I want to force the user to change the password before she gets access to secured content. This is usually done with a servlet filter. But with Spring MVC, you can also use a HandlerInterceptor . According to Spring JavaDoc: HandlerInterceptor is basically similar to a Servlet 2.3 Filter, but in contrast to the latter it just allows custom pre-processing with the option of prohibiting the execution of the handler itself, and custom post-processing. Filters are more powerful, for example they allow for exchanging the request and response objects that are handed down the chain. Note that a filter gets configured in web.xml, a HandlerInterceptor in the application context. As a basic guideline, fine-grained handler-related preprocessing tasks are candidates...

To inject ServletContext into a Spring bean: implement ServletContextAware : import javax.servlet.ServletContext; import... Define bean in Spring application context: <beans:bean id="myBean" class="com.example.M...

Simply call pageContext.setAttribute() to export a variable from within a JSP custom tag: public class MyCustomVarTag extends TagSupport { ... The availability of the exported variable can be limited in the TLD: <tag> <name>setVar</name> <tag-class... The availability scopes are: Value Availability NESTED Between the start tag and the end tag. AT_BEGIN From the start tag until the scope of any enclosing tag. If there’s no enclosing tag, then to the end of the page. AT_END After the end tag until the scope of any enclosing tag. If there’s no enclosing tag, then to the end of the page.

To implement a JSP custom tag with dynamic attributes (for example, to pass-thru arbitrary attributes not handled by the JSP tag): Set the dynamic-attributes element to true in the TLD: <tag> <name>mark</name> <tag-class>c... The tag handler must implement javax.servlet.jsp.tagext.DynamicAttributes : package com.example.jsp; import java.io.*; ...

Suppose that I have an email field annotated with: @NotEmpty(message="Please enter email address") ... Bean validation will trigger two errors when no email address is entered: the email field is empty an empty email field is not a valid email address Displaying both errors to the user with <form:errors> would be redundant and confusing: <%@ taglib uri="http://www.springframework.org/tag... This is how to display the first error only: <spring:bind path="emailAddress"> <c:if test="$...

This may or may not be useful, but I did the research so here's the code. import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotatio...

In the bean validation API javadoc, for every constraint annotation, there's a corresponding .List annotation. For example, for @NotNull , there's @NotNull.List , for which JavaDoc says: Defines several @NotNull annotations on the same element What would you accomplish with multiple @NotNull annotations that you cannot accomplish with one @NotNull ? This is a test to reveal some of the facts. Change the Person class to: package com.example; public class Person { ... Add another JUnit test ( src/test/com/example/TestPersonWithList.java ): package com.example; import java.util.Itera... As the test shows, a Person bean can never be valid because we are requiring that name must begin with Mr and Ms . One might think that the same can be accomplished by simply repeating the @Pattern annotation multiple times,...

Validation groups can be used to control which rules validation rules to run. A validation group can be identified by any Java interface (not class!). Multiple validation groups may be specified when validating. In this example, I added a validation group named MyValidationGroup ( src/main/java/com/example/MyValidationGroup.java in Maven project): package com.example; public interface MyVal... and added a @Size rule for a person's name, because my database can only store up to 15 characters for a person's name: package com.example; import javax.validatio... Now validate Person with a JUnit test ( src/test/java/com/example/TestPersonWithGroup.java in Maven project): package com.example; import java.util.Set; ... Test with " mvn clean test ". The rules where groups is not specified, which belong to the javax.validation.groups.Default group, are not executed with these tests.

A bean class may also be defined through composition. The validation rules of referenced beans are not automatically called when a composite bean is validated. You need to use the @Valid annotation to trigger cascade validation. As an example, I create a class named AccountPerson2 , which contains a Person with the addition of an email field ( src/main/java/com/example/AccountPerson2.java in Maven project): package com.example; import javax.validatio... Now validate AccountPerson2 with a JUnit test ( src/test/java/com/example/AccountPerson2Test.java in Maven project): package com.example; import java.util.Set; ... Test with " mvn clean test " and you'll see that the validation rules of the Person class are executed when an AccountPerson2 bean is validated. Without the @Valid annotation, the validation rules of Person will not be called.

When a bean class inherits another class, the validation rules of the parent class is automatically executed when a child class bean is validated. As an example, I create a class named AccountPerson , which inherits the Person class with the addition of an email field ( src/main/java/com/example/AccountPerson.java in Maven project): package com.example; import javax.validatio... Now validate AccountPerson with a JUnit test ( src/test/java/com/example/AccountPersonTest.java in Maven project): package com.example; import java.util.Set; ... Test with " mvn clean test " and you'll see that the validation rules of the Person class are executed when an AccountPerson bean is validated.