Model Validations

Latest release: 3.7.0

---

Model-validations allow you to run automated validations on your model to find any issues or possibilities for improvements.

The validations are implemented with Rules which are checked on each element in your Model. The result are combined into a report, which can be an HTML report or a JUnit xml report.

Usage:

• CLI
• Jenkins
• Maven Plugin
• Micro Radiant

Contributing

See Creating rules for creating custom rules.

Usage

There are several ways to run the model-validations:

Maven

You can run the validations with the expanders-maven-plugin (version 2022.0.1 and up):

mvn -f pom-expand.xml expanders:validate-model -Dvalidation.html=report.html -Dvalidation.junit=report.xml -Dvalidation.print=true

You can also configure the plugin in the pom-expand.xml:

<plugin>
  <groupId>net.democritus.maven.plugins</groupId>
  <artifactId>expanders-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2024.7.0</version>
  <configuration>
    <htmlReport>report.html</htmlReport>
    <junitReport>report.xml</junitReport>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

error rules

If any rule with priority error fails, the validate-model goal will fail. This is to stop builds of invalid projects, since these issues will probably cause expansion or compilation errors down the line.

This can be disabled by passing the argument -Dvalidation.failIfError=false.

µRadiant

Since µRadiant version 1.8.0, the validations run in the model editor. Validation Issues will be shown as badges on the tabs and in the tree view.

You can select the validations tab to list all issues for an element.

CLI

You can also run the model-validations jar directly. The jar has a command line interface which can be used to run the validations:

1. Grab the latest release version.

mvn -U dependency:copy "-Dartifact=net.democritus.model:model-validations:RELEASE:jar:jar-with-dependencies" "-DoutputDirectory=." "-Dmdep.stripVersion=true" "-Dmdep.stripClassifier=true"

2. Ask the CLI for help.

java -jar model-validations.jar --help

3. Run on your project with all report formats.

java -jar model-validations.jar \
    --expansionSettings conf/expansionSettings.xml \
    --stdout \
    --html target/validation-report.html \
    --junit target/validation-report.xml

Jenkins

Example stage in Jenkins.

stage('validate') {
  steps {
    modelValidations pomFile: 'pom-expansion.xml'
  }
}

Output Formats

When running from Maven or Command Line, you can select one or more output formats.

stdout

Prints issues to the terminal.

Maven

mvn expanders:validate-model -Dvalidation.print

CLI

java -jar model-validations.jar --stdout

produces

rules:
  - deprecation:
    - Deprecated:
      - net.democritus.elements.validations.FieldIsStatusFieldRule:
          reason: Status field will be determined using "isStatusField" option only. Fields with name "status" and type "String" should contain "isStatusField" option to preserve functionality.
          description: Status field will be determined using "isStatusField" option only. Fields with name "status" and type "String" should contain "isStatusField" option to preserve functionality.
          issues:
            - <Field atodoComp::Duration::status> is missing "isStatusField" option
            - <Field atodoComp::TaskAssignment::status> is missing "isStatusField" option

JUnit

Generates JUnit-compatible XML report file.

Maven

mvn expanders:validate-model -Dvalidation.junit=target/validation-report.xml

CLI

java -jar model-validations.jar --junit target/validation-report.xml

HTML

Generates a HTML validation report.

Maven

mvn expanders:validate-model -Dvalidation.html=target/validation-report.html

CLI

java -jar model-validations.jar --html target/validation-report.html

Rules provided by expansion-resources

The validation rules are packaged as expansion-resources. These resources need to be added to your expansionSettings.xml to use them to validate your model.

E.g. to add basic validations for a standard NS application:

  <expansionResources>
    ...
    <expansionResource name="net.democritus.validations.model:prime-validations" version="3.7.0"/>
  </expansionResources>

Filter Reports

If you want to suppress rules, specific elements, or specific issues.

Create conf/validation.xml file to define your excludes.

<validation xmlns="https://schemas.normalizedsystems.org/xsd/model-validations/1/0/0/validation">
  <excludes>
    <exclude>
      <!-- glob against rule className -->
      <rule>DataCommandHasLogRule</rule>
      <!-- no elements specified, ignore all -->
    </exclude>

    <exclude>
      <!-- glob against rule className -->
      <rule>FieldCollectionRequiresBaseFieldRule</rule>
      <elements>
        <!-- DataRef; exact match, no pattern/glob -->
        <element>expansionControl::ExpansionGoal::expansionTargetElements</element>
        <element>expansionControl::ExpansionGoal::expansionTargetElementTypes</element>
      </elements>
    </exclude>

  </excludes>
</validation>

Re-run validation. The file conf/validation.xml will be automatically picked up.