Why Hibernate Validator doesn't care #Valid but #NotNull only? - bean-validation

Question

I'm trying to check constraints look like this.
class Registration {
#Valid
#NotNull
private User user;
}
class User {
#NotBlank
private String name;
#Max(128)
#Min(0)
#PositiveOrZero
private int age;
}
When I try to invoke isValidFor(Registration.class, "user", null) it populates a non empty Set<ConstraintViolation<Registration>> as expected.
But it returns an empty set for isValidFor(Registration.class, "user", <invalid User>).
final Validator validator = Validation.buildDefaultValidatorFactory().getValidator();
final User user = User.newInstanceWithInvalidAge();
Assertions.assertThat(validator.validate(user))
.isNotEmpty(); // succeeds
final BeanDescriptor constraints = validator.getConstraintsForClass(Registration.class);
for (final PropertyDescriptor constrainedProperty
: constraints.getConstrainedProperties()) {
log.debug("constrained property: {}", constrainedProperty);
for (final ConstraintDescriptor<?> constraintDescriptor
: constrainedProperty.getConstraintDescriptors()) {
log.debug("\tconstraint descriptor: {}", constraintDescriptor);
}
}
final Registration registration = Registration.builder().user(user).build();
Assertions.assertThat(validator.validate(registration))
.isNotEmpty(); // succeeds
Assertions.assertThat(validator.validateValue(Registration.class, "user", user))
.isNotEmpty(); // fails
Here comes what it prints.
constrained property: PropertyDescriptorImpl{
propertyName=user,
cascaded=true
}
constraint descriptor: ConstraintDescriptorImpl{
annotation=j.v.c.NotNull,
payloads=[],
hasComposingConstraints=true,
isReportAsSingleInvalidConstraint=false,
elementType=FIELD,
definedOn=DEFINED_LOCALLY,
groups=[interface javax.validation.groups.Default],
attributes={groups=[Ljava.lang.Class;#664a9613,
message={javax.validation.constraints.NotNull.message},
payload=[Ljava.lang.Class;#5118388b},
constraintType=GENERIC,
valueUnwrapping=DEFAULT
}
Why the isValidFor method doesn't care for #Valid?
I'm working on following dependencies.
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.validation</groupId>
<artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>
<version>2.0.1.Final</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
<artifactId>javax.el</artifactId>
<version>3.0.1-b12</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.hibernate.validator</groupId>
<artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
<version>6.0.23.Final</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

Answer 1

I just found the #Valid is not honored by the validateProperty method.
<T> Set<ConstraintViolation<T>> validateProperty(T object, String propertyName, Class<?>... groups) validates a given field or property of an object. An IllegalArgumentException is thrown when validateProperty() is called and object is null or propertyName is null, empty or invalid or null is passed to the varargs groups parameter. The property name is the JavaBeans property name (as defined by the JavaBeans Introspector class). This method implements the logic described in Validation routine but only to the given property. #Valid is not honored by this method. This method is useful for partial object validation.
I still want to know why.