Struts 2 and WebWork: Validator XML Syntax Trivia

I had to write a validator to check if a date entered in a form is not one in the future. I could not find an example of this in the documentation, and had to search around a bit to figure out the right XML syntax.

<validators>
  <field name="someDate">
    <field-validator type="fieldexpression">
      <param name="expression"><![CDATA[!someDate.isAfter(@com.domainlanguage.timeutil.Clock@today())]]></param>
      <message>Please enter a date on or before today</message>
    </field-validator>
  </field>
</validators>

Notice the ‘@’s. Posting this here for anyone who might find it helpful. 🙂

PS: We use Eric Evans’ timeandmoney package.