[java] javax.validation.ValidationException: HV000183: Unable to load 'javax.el.ExpressionFactory'

I try to write very simple application with hibernate validator:

my steps:

add following dependency in pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
    <version>5.1.1.Final</version>
</dependency>

write code:

class Configuration {
    Range(min=1,max=100)
    int threadNumber;
    //...

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ValidatorFactory factory = Validation.buildDefaultValidatorFactory();

        Validator validator = factory.getValidator();

        Configuration configuration = new Configuration();
        configuration.threadNumber = 12;
            //...

        Set<ConstraintViolation<Configuration>> constraintViolations = validator.validate(configuration);
        System.out.println(constraintViolations);

    }
}

And I gets following stacktrace:

Exception in thread "main" javax.validation.ValidationException: Unable to instantiate Configuration.
    at javax.validation.Validation$GenericBootstrapImpl.configure(Validation.java:279)
    at javax.validation.Validation.buildDefaultValidatorFactory(Validation.java:110)
    ...
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ConfigurationImpl.<init>(ConfigurationImpl.java:110)
    at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ConfigurationImpl.<init>(ConfigurationImpl.java:86)
    at org.hibernate.validator.HibernateValidator.createGenericConfiguration(HibernateValidator.java:41)
    at javax.validation.Validation$GenericBootstrapImpl.configure(Validation.java:276)
    ... 2 more

What do I wrong?

Regarding the Hibernate validator documentation page, you have to define a dependency to a JSR-341 implementation:

<dependency>
   <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
   <artifactId>javax.el</artifactId>
   <version>3.0.1-b11</version>
</dependency>

I ran into the same issue and the above answers didn't help. I need to debug and find it.

 <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
        <artifactId>hadoop-common</artifactId>
        <version>2.6.0-cdh5.13.1</version>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
                <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>

After excluding the jsp-api, it worked for me.

If you're using spring boot with starters - this dependency adds both tomcat-embed-el and hibernate-validator dependencies:

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

for gradle :

compile 'javax.el:javax.el-api:2.2.4'

In case you don't need javax.el (for example in a JavaSE application), use ParameterMessageInterpolator from Hibernate validator. Hibernate validator is a standalone component, which can be used without Hibernate itself.

Depend on hibernate-validator

<dependency>
   <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
   <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
   <version>6.0.16.Final</version>
</dependency>

Use ParameterMessageInterpolator

import javax.validation.Validation;
import javax.validation.Validator;
import org.hibernate.validator.messageinterpolation.ParameterMessageInterpolator;

private static final Validator VALIDATOR =
  Validation.byDefaultProvider()
    .configure()
    .messageInterpolator(new ParameterMessageInterpolator())
    .buildValidatorFactory()
    .getValidator();

The Hibernate Validator requires — but does not include — an Expression Language (EL) implementation. Adding a dependency on one will will fix the issue.

<dependency>
   <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
   <artifactId>jakarta.el</artifactId>
   <version>3.0.3</version>
</dependency>

This requirement is documented in the Getting started with Hibernate Validator documentation. In a Java EE environment, it would be provided by the container. In a standalone application such as yours, it needs to be provided.

Hibernate Validator also requires an implementation of the Unified Expression Language (JSR 341) for evaluating dynamic expressions in constraint violation messages.

When your application runs in a Java EE container such as WildFly, an EL implementation is already provided by the container.

In a Java SE environment, however, you have to add an implementation as dependency to your POM file. For instance, you can add the following dependency to use the JSR 341 reference implementation:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
  <artifactId>jakarta.el</artifactId>
  <version>${version.jakarta.el-api}</version>
</dependency>

There are other EL implementations that can be used other than Glassfish. For instance, Spring Boot versions 2.2.x and earlier by default used embedded Tomcat (it's since switched to use the Jakarta EL reference implementation). That version of EL can be used as follows:

<dependency>
   <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.embed</groupId>
   <artifactId>tomcat-embed-el</artifactId>
   <version>9.0.41</version>
</dependency>

That said, in a Spring Boot project, typically one would use the spring-boot-starter-validation dependency rather than specifying the Hibernate validator & EL libraries directly. That dependency includes both hibernate-validator and the EL implementation.

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

If using Spring Boot this works well. Even with Spring Reactive Mongo.

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

and validation config:

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.data.mongodb.core.mapping.event.ValidatingMongoEventListener;
import org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalValidatorFactoryBean;

@Configuration
public class MongoValidationConfig {

    @Bean
    public ValidatingMongoEventListener validatingMongoEventListener() {
        return new ValidatingMongoEventListener(validator());
    }

    @Bean
    public LocalValidatorFactoryBean validator() {
        return new LocalValidatorFactoryBean();
    }
}

for sbt, use below versions

val glassfishEl = "org.glassfish" % "javax.el" % "3.0.1-b09"

val hibernateValidator = "org.hibernate.validator" % "hibernate-validator" % "6.0.17.Final"

val hibernateValidatorCdi = "org.hibernate.validator" % "hibernate-validator-cdi" % "6.0.17.Final"

If you are using tomcat as your server runtime and you get this error in tests (because tomcat runtime is not available during tests) than it makes make sense to include tomcat el runtime instead of the one from glassfish). This would be:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
        <artifactId>tomcat-el-api</artifactId>
        <version>8.5.14</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tomcat</groupId>
        <artifactId>tomcat-jasper-el</artifactId>
        <version>8.5.14</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>

do just

<dependency>
   <groupId>javax.el</groupId>
   <artifactId>javax.el-api</artifactId>
   <version>2.2.4</version>
</dependency>