/*
 * Copyright 2002-2011 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.annotation;

import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**
 * Variant of JSR-303's {@link javax.validation.Valid}, supporting the
 * specification of validation groups. Designed for convenient use with
 * Spring's JSR-303 support but not JSR-303 specific.
 *
 * <p>Can be used e.g. with Spring MVC handler methods arguments.
 * Supported through {@link org.springframework.validation.SmartValidator}'s
 * validation hint concept, with validation group classes acting as hint objects.
 *
 * <p>Can also be used with method level validation, indicating that a specific
 * class is supposed to be validated at the method level (acting as a pointcut
 * for the corresponding validation interceptor), but also optionally specifying
 * the validation groups for method-level validation in the annotated class.
 * Can also be used as a meta-annotation on a custom stereotype annotation.
 *
 * @author Juergen Hoeller
 * @since 3.1
 * @see javax.validation.Validator#validate(Object, Class[])
 * @see org.springframework.validation.SmartValidator#validate(Object, org.springframework.validation.Errors, Object...)
 * @see org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.SpringValidatorAdapter
 * @see org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.MethodValidationPostProcessor
 */
@Target({ElementType.TYPE, ElementType.PARAMETER})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Documented
public @interface Validated {

	/**
	 * Specify one or more validation groups to apply to the validation step
	 * kicked off by this annotation.
	 * <p>JSR-303 defines validation groups as custom annotations which an application declares
	 * for the sole purpose of using them as type-safe group arguments, as implemented in
	 * {@link org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.SpringValidatorAdapter}.
	 * <p>Other {@link org.springframework.validation.SmartValidator} implementations may
	 * support class arguments in other ways as well.
	 */
	Class<?>[] value() default {};

}
