Do not include the validation starter in web starters by default

We've noticed that many applications are not using the validation features in web applications, while validator libraries on the classpath come with a cost.

We could do the following:

remove the spring-boot-starter-validation dependency from spring-boot-starter-web and spring-boot-starter-webflux
create a new spring-boot-starter-validation-web that brings in the validation dependencies without the tomcat-embed-el which is currently excluded by the web starters
properly document that change in the release notes and the reference docs

We'll do the following:

remove the spring-boot-starter-validation from spring-boot-starter-web by default
change spring-boot-starter-validation to use org.glassfish:jakarta.el instead of the current choice of default implementation
update all the web servers starters to use that same el implementation for all

With this change, we don't need to add a new starter and we can consistently use the same el implementation.

I'm surprised to figure out not most projects are not using validations, because all my web apps use them. I had to include this new starter.

I'm wondering what is people using instead?

The rationale behind this decision is not that most applications aren’t using validation, but rather that there is a significant amount of them and that the (startup and runtime) cost associated with the validation starter is far from negligible.

We usually try to strike the right balance between doing as much as possible with the developer’s intent and keeping setups efficient and lightweight. « Not all web applications should use validation and we want to optimize efficiency » is all that you should read into this decision.

This change caught me by surprise a little bit. In upgrading to 2.3.0, I added the validation API, but not the hibernate impl. My unit tests started covering validation started to fail. Without test coverage, might not have caught this.

Maybe consider failing startup if the API is present, and impl is not?

@springframeworkguru

@springframeworkguru Any reason why you're not using the spring-boot-starter-validation instead of bringing the dependencies manually in your build?

@bclozel

@bclozel - Just didn't know of it, until I saw this thread. I def will now though.

But jakarta-el is now used for compiling jsp, that doesn't look right too. It is present now as a dependency for tomcat starter, not only for validation starter

See - it is compile dependency for tomcat starter, not only for validation starter...
https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.springframework.boot/spring-boot-starter-tomcat/2.3.2.RELEASE

@mykolap

@mykolap if you've got a solution in mind, please submit a PR and we can reconsider this arrangement.

I don't know how to resolve it properly...
If validation starter is not used - put tomcat-el as a compile dependency to tomcat starter looks good.
But if validation starter is used - we will have 2 libs with el, from jakarta and tomcat, and it should be resolved by excluding one of them...
It doesn't look nice... I will think about better solution, now I see the only way manual resolving, that's what I did in my project...

Hi. In my case, @Valid not work, in GitHub repository specify that in the newest version of spring "Do not include the validation starter in web starters by default ". Now how can i use the validator @Valid in the restcontrollers

My Pom.xml

<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-validation</artifactId>
	<version>2.4.2</version>
</dependency>

My Entity class:

@Entity
@Table(name = "todos")
@AllArgsConstructor @NoArgsConstructor
public class ToDo {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
    @Column(name = "ID")
    @Getter @Setter
    private Integer id;

    @Column(name = "DESCRIPTION")
    @Getter @Setter
    @NotNull @NotEmpty @NotBlank
    private String description;

    @Column(name = "DATE")
    @Getter @Setter
    @NotNull @NotEmpty @NotBlank
    private Date date;

    @Column(name = "PRIORITY")
    @Getter @Setter
    @NotNull @NotEmpty @NotBlank
    private String priority;

    @Column(name = "FK_USER")
    @Getter @Setter
    @NotNull @NotEmpty @NotBlank
    private String fkUser;


    @PrePersist
    void getTimeOperation(){
        this.date = new Date();
    }



}

and my RestController class

@RequestMapping("/todo")
public String todoInInput2(@Valid ToDo toDo){
    return "Todo description: "+toDo.getDescription()+", todo priority "+toDo.getPriority();
}

A dependency on spring-boot-starter-validation should be sufficient. If that's not working and you'd like some help in figuring it out, please come and chat on Gitter or ask a question on Stack Overflow.

what if you are using gradle? This tip is not working. springboot 2.4.4

@jdriver2

@jdriver2 To which tip are you referring? The build system shouldn't make any difference and adding a dependency on spring-boot-starter-validation should be sufficient with both Maven and Gradle. As I said above, if that's not working and you'd like some help in figuring it out, please come and chat on Gitter or ask a question on Stack Overflow.

i solved the issue. Using gradle, but required me to restart the IDE. Thanks!

Wanted to point, if you use kotlin, you need to annotate your fields like @field: NotNull @field:NotEmpty @field:NotBlank, without it - validations won't work using kotlin

@Arturo0911 Did you find a solution for your issue? I'm facing the same exact problem as you

i come with the same problem.i use the spring-boot-starter-parent v2.7.5，given the spring-boot-start-validation，but the validation never works，who has the answer ，please.

i get

Thanks for getting in touch, but it feels like this is a question that would be better suited to Stack Overflow. As mentioned in the guidelines for contributing, we prefer to use the issue tracker only for bugs and enhancements. Feel free to update this issue with a link to the re-posted question (so that other people can find it) or add some more details if you feel this is a genuine bug.

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Do not include the validation starter in web starters by default #19550

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bclozel commented on Jan 10, 2020

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bclozel commented on May 22, 2020

springframeworkguru commented on May 23, 2020

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