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/*
* Copyright 2002-2012 the original author or authors.
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
package org.springframework.validation;
/**
* Extended variant of the {@link Validator} interface, adding support for
* validation 'hints'.
*
* @author Juergen Hoeller
* @author Sam Brannen
* @since 3.1
*/
public interface SmartValidator extends Validator {
/**
* Validate the supplied {@code target} object, which must be of a type of {@link Class}
* for which the {@link #supports(Class)} method typically returns {@code true}.
* The supplied {@link Errors errors} instance can be used to report any
* resulting validation errors.
*
This variant of {@code validate()} supports validation hints, such as
* validation groups against a JSR-303 provider (in which case, the provided hint
* objects need to be annotation arguments of type {@code Class}).
*
Note: Validation hints may get ignored by the actual target {@code Validator},
* in which case this method should behave just like its regular
* {@link #validate(Object, Errors)} sibling.
* @param target the object that is to be validated (can be {@code null})
* @param errors contextual state about the validation process (never {@code null})
* @param validationHints one or more hint objects to be passed to the validation engine
* @see ValidationUtils
*/
void validate(Object target, Errors errors, Object... validationHints);
}