WDTF Validation

Validating WDTF documents

To support the use of the WDTF format the Bureau has developed a WDTF Validation Service to allow organisations to check if the data they are supplying can be interpreted correctly and is compliant with WDTF.

The Bureau's WDTF validating service uses a web interface to enable manual validation of sample documents.

To support the use of the WDTF online Validation Service, the Bureau has developed a downloadable User Guide. The User Guide will help the data supplier to understand the use of the Validation Service.

What needs to be validated?

The WDTF data format details the structure and meaning of the content, known as syntax and semantics, in its schemas. The syntax rules govern the form and structure of the text contained in a WDTF XML document. A WDTF document must conform to the syntax rules for XML documents as well as the schemas included in WDTF. The semantic rules define the additional business requirements that define the meaning of the data. For example, a simple semantic rule would be that rainfall should be reported in units of millimetres.

Validation tools in the WDTF release package

The WDTF distribution package includes an Apache ANT script for validating XML documents. This script can be installed and run on a local computer. The ANT script will test for XML "well-formedness" and compliance with the schemas inherited in WDTF, including the primary WDTF schema water.xsd. The ANT script is only able to apply schema level (syntax) validation. While important in its own right, this level of validation does not enforce all of the business rules that ensure the usability of a XML document.

Validation services on the Bureau website

The validation service allows you to upload and test a WDTF document online. The validation service tests syntactic and semantic compliance. Syntactic compliance is tested using the Apache ANT script as contained in the WDTF distribution package. Semantic compliance is tested using Schematron to apply rules and test against the WDTF defined vocabularies.

Our existing web-based WDTF validation service provides a significantly enhanced ability to test WDTF documents. The validator will be developed to apply the WDTF business rules with increasing rigour.

Validation service versioning

New versions of the validation service will be released with the WDTF release packages. The web site will provide access to the validator for various WDTF release versions. As we improve the validator's rule base we will make pre-WDTF release versions of the validator available for testing on the web site.