Java EE 8 updates the Bean Validation version to 2.0. Besides including new, pre-defined constraints, it mainly targets support for Java SE 8.

The Java SE 8 support includes multiple, differently-configured validation constraint annotations. Types of the Java 8 Date and Time API are now supported; for example, via usage such as @Past LocalDate date.

Values that are contained in container types can also be validated separately, via parameterized type annotations. Examples for this are Map<String, @Valid Customer> customers, List<@NotNull String> strings, and Optional<@NotNull String> getResult().

Bean Validation 2.0 includes new pre-defined constraints. For example, @Email validates email addresses. @Negative and @Positive verify numeric values. @NotEmpty ensures that collections, maps, arrays, or strings are not empty or null. @NotBlank validates that strings do not solely consist of whitespace.

These constraints are a helpful default feature that avoids potentially defining this manually.