This is a proposal for the new version of JSR 303 (v1.1 ?).

The proposal is: modify the default message interpolation algorithm (section 4.3.1.1) so that the validation engine looks for a Resource Bundle called "ValidationMessages" in the constraint annotation's own package.

For example, when validating constraint annotation com.gdpcons.constraints.MustEqual, validator should also look for messages in a resource bundle called com.gdpcons.constraints.ValidationMessages.

The constraint annotation package ValidationMessages resource bundle should be checked after the "user" ValidationMessages resource bundle, but before the BeanValidation provider's own private ValidationMessages resource bundle, so as to allow users to override the string provided by the constraint annotation resource bundle.

This would allow people to write redistributable collections of constraint annotations, since as of today it's not possible to use multiple ValidationMessages resource bundles files (one will override all the others in the classpath); and it would still allow users to override the provided translation just by a new definition for the message key in their own ValidationMessages resource bundle.

I've written an example implementation, by modifying Hibernate Validator's own ResourceBundleMessageInterpolator. It seams to work without side effects, and is a very straightforward implementation.

Should I open an enhancement on the JSR 303 issue tracker? Is my proposal interesting?

You might be interested in my mod of MessageInterpolator. It allows to specify RB name by the property name: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1010669

Hi,

you are right, there's definitely space for improvement in this area. I saw you already opened BVAL-225 for this; that's great to track this.

Just one note, you might find Hibernate Validator's AggregateResourceBundleLocator useful. This allows to merge several resource bundles into one. So if you have the constraint modules under your control, you could put a uniquely named resource bundle into each module and create an aggregated bundle locator for all these bundles. That way each constraint module would come with its own resource bundle while the texts still can be overridden with the ones from ValidationMessages.

-- Gunnar

Hi Gunnar,

I've seen AggregateResourceBundleLocator and considered using it, but in the end we simply use one single ValidationMessages resource bundle with all the strings, also because our app is in Italian and HV's version I'm using (4.0.2) lacks an italian translation for the standard constraints.

The approach I propose is more plug-and-play.

On a side note, if you need an italian translation for the standard constraints , I can provide it.

--
Regards,
Gabriele

Hi Gabriele,

good to hear that you found a solution which works for you. Having an Italian resource bundle would be great and your help is highly appreciated. Could you open a JIRA issue for HV and attach the resource bundle to it?

Thanks,

Gunnar

can you share it?