Spring boot - NotEmpty annotation only for a specific Controller

Question

I have a form class like this:

public class ProjectForm {
    @NotEmpty
    private String name;

    @NotEmpty
    private String desription;

    // getters and setters
}

this form is used to both create and edit Project objects which will be saved in a database.

I have two different controllers for creating and editing project objects.

@PostMapping("/projects/edit/{id}")
public String editProject(@Valid ProjectForm projectForm, BindingResult bindingResult, @PathVariable("id") String id) {
    //Controller code here
}

and

@PostMapping("/projects/new")
public String addProject(@Valid ProjectForm projectForm, BindingResult bindingResult) {
    //Controller code here
}

As you see, both controllers use the ProjectForm class. How can I make the name field for the first controller mandatory and for the second one optional?

Answer 1

You named both of your methods as editProject but I assume only the first one is for editing. As a solution, you can create another class just for editing without using @NotEmpty annotation say, ProjectFormWrapper. Other than that, if you are editing an object don't use POST, use PUT.

Answer 2

Yes u can do it using validation-groups.see this docs validation-groups-docs

public interface FirstValidation{
}


public class ProjectForm {
@NotEmpty(groups = {FirstValidation.class},message = "Name can not be empty")
private String name;

@NotEmpty
private String desription;

// getters and setters
}


@PostMapping("/projects/edit/{id}")
public String editProject(@Validated(FirstValidation.class) ProjectForm projectForm, BindingResult bindingResult, @PathVariable("id") String id) {
    //Controller code here
}

@PostMapping("/projects/new")
public String addProject(@Valid ProjectForm projectForm, BindingResult bindingResult) {
//Controller code here
}