How Struts2 validation framework works

Question

I am using struts2 for my project. Now i have a business information fill-up form for getting business details. In form i have some basic items such as email, username , password , confirm password & Facebook twitter links(FB & tweeter links are optional but if user enters i want to check whether they are real) for basic items i am using xml file validation as:

<validators>
    <field name="companyname">
        <field-validator type="requiredstring">
            <param name="trim">true</param>
            <message>Company name is required.</message>
        </field-validator>
    </field>        
    <field name="fblink">
        <field-validator type="url">
        <message>Please enter a valid url</message>
        </field-validator>
    </field>
    <field name="tweetlink">
        <field-validator type="url">
        <message>Please enter a valid url</message>
        </field-validator>
    </field>
</validators>

& if user enters values for Facebook or twitter url i am writing validation in Action class's Validate() method to check whether these are real(means HTTP_STATUS_CODE=200) as :

    public void validate()
    {
if(getFblink()!=null && !getFblink().isEmpty())
        {
            if(URLValidation.validate(getFblink())== false)
            {
                addFieldError("fblink", getText("Enter valid facebook page link"));
            }
        }       
        if(getTweetlink()!=null && !getTweetlink().isEmpty())
        {
            if(URLValidation.validate(getTweetlink())== false)
            {
                addFieldError("tweetlink", getText("Enter valid tweeter link"));
            }
        }
    }

Here URLValidation is my class & it contains static method validate which takes URL & using Httpclient libraries i am hitting & checking its status code. Depending on its return value ie boolean value i am setting error message.

Its working. But i want to know is my approach is correct? Also i want to use shor-circcuit validation so how can i communicate in xml & validate() validation code??

Answer 1

You want to validate links and want to use your code (from validation xml). This will be possible by writing custom validators. Write a custom validator and use it through XML file for your fields.

For example you can see this tutorial for an idea.