Struts Validation Framework Tutorial with example.

Create a Struts project

Create Form Beans

package net.viralpatel.struts.validation.form;

import org.apache.struts.validator.ValidatorForm;

public class CustomerForm extends ValidatorForm {
 
 private String name;
 private String telephone;
 private String email;
 private int age;

 public String getName() {
  return name;
 }

 public void setName(String name) {
  this.name = name;
 }

 public String getTelephone() {
  return telephone;
 }

 public void setTelephone(String telephone) {
  this.telephone = telephone;
 }

 public String getEmail() {
  return email;
 }

 public void setEmail(String email) {
  this.email = email;
 }

 public int getAge() {
  return age;
 }

 public void setAge(int age) {
  this.age = age;
 }
}
Code language: Java (java)

Add Validator Plug-in in struts-config.xml

<!-- Validator Configuration -->
<plug-in className="org.apache.struts.validator.ValidatorPlugIn">
 <set-property property="pathnames"
  value="/WEB-INF/validator-rules.xml,
    /WEB-INF/validation.xml" />
</plug-in>
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Define validations for the form

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE form-validation PUBLIC
          "-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Commons Validator Rules Configuration 1.1.3//EN"
          "http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/dtds/validator_1_1_3.dtd">
<form-validation>
<global>
 <constant>
 <constant-name>telephoneFormat</constant-name>
 <constant-value>^\d{5,10}$</constant-value>
 </constant>
</global>
<formset>
 <form name="CustomerForm">
  <field property="name" depends="required">
   <arg key="label.name" />
  </field>
  <field property="age" depends="required, integer, intRange">
   <arg0 key="label.age" />
   <arg1 key="${var:min}" resource="false"/>
   <arg2 key="${var:max}" resource="false"/>
   <var>
    <var-name>min</var-name>
    <var-value>1</var-value>
   </var>
   <var>
    <var-name>max</var-name>
    <var-value>125</var-value>
   </var>
  </field>
  <field property="telephone" depends="required, mask">
   <arg key="label.telephone" />
   <arg1 key="label.telephone" />
   <var>
    <var-name>mask</var-name>
    <var-value>${telephoneFormat}</var-value>
   </var>
  </field>
  <field property="email" depends="email">
   <arg0 key="label.email" />
   <arg1 key="label.email" />
  </field>
 </form>
</formset>
</form-validation>
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Struts-config.xml entry for the action

<form-beans>
 <form-bean name="CustomerForm"
  type="net.viralpatel.struts.validation.form.CustomerForm" />
</form-beans>
...
...
...
<action-mappings>
...
 <action path="/customer" name="CustomerForm" validate="true"
  input="/index.jsp"
  type="net.viralpatel.struts.validation.action.CustomerAction">
  <forward name="success" path="/Customer.jsp" />
  <forward name="failure" path="/index.jsp" />
 </action>
...
</action-mappings>
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Configuring ApplicationResources.properties

label.name= Name
label.email= Email
label.telephone= Telephone
label.age= Age


# general error msgs
errors.header=<font size="2"><UL>
errors.prefix=<LI><span style="color: red">
errors.suffix=</span></LI>
errors.footer=</UL></font>
errors.invalid={0} is invalid.
errors.maxlength={0} can not be greater than {1} characters.
errors.minlength={0} can not be less than {1} characters.
errors.range={0} is not in the range {1} through {2}.
errors.required={0} is required.
errors.byte={0} must be an byte.
errors.date={0} is not a date.
errors.double={0} must be an double.
errors.float={0} must be an float.
errors.integer={0} must be an integer.
errors.long={0} must be an long.
errors.short={0} must be an short.
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Create JSP to display the form

<%@ taglib uri="http://struts.apache.org/tags-html" prefix="html"%>
<%@ taglib uri="http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean" prefix="bean"%>
<html>
<head>
<title>Struts Validation Framework example.</title>
</head>
<body>

<html:errors />
<html:javascript formName="CustomerForm" />

<html:form action="/customer">

 <bean:message key="label.name" />
 <html:text property="name"></html:text>
 <br />
 <bean:message key="label.age" />
 <html:text property="age"></html:text>
 <br />
 <bean:message key="label.email" />
 <html:text property="email"></html:text>
 <br />
 <bean:message key="label.telephone" />
 <html:text property="telephone"></html:text>
 <br />

 <html:submit value="Submit"></html:submit>

</html:form>
</body>
</html>
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Running the application