I am having a bit of trouble using the @Length annotation with a null value.  In my bean I have:

    @Length(min = 4, max = 7)
    public String getSomeVal() {
        return someVal;
    }

In my seam app, this works as expected and I see the appropriate errors if it is too long or short. The problem is that the field can be null.  When it is, I see this exception in the log:

javax.el.ELException: org.hibernate.validator.InvalidStateException: validation failed for: org.someapp.model.SomeModel

What makes it more troubling is that my seam app doesn't seem to get a nice error.  All I see is the JBoss Seam Debug Page with the exception in it.  The exception also does not indicate that there was a problem with the field 'someVal'. 

So my questions are:

1. How can I use the @Length annotation with a null value?


2. How can I get the web app to get a nice error when there is a constraint violation (I was expecting to see some sort of faces message like a normal validation error)?

Thanks in advance for your help!

D