Validation

Validation in PDS checks the language and modeling correctness of the saved workspace data.

When validation detects a problem, it assigns it severity and renders the problem marker on all visualizations of the element and all its parent modeling elements:

• Errors represent severe mistakes that prevent the module being deployed.
• Warnings are issues that may affect execution and cause undesired behavior but are generally harmless; for example, a missing value of a parameter, which is interpreted automatically as null.
• Infos are notifications of non-standard situations, which influence neither the validity nor further deployment. Infos occur, for example, if a modeling element is present in the process definition, but does not appear in any Diagram.

The severity of a detected problem is generally assigned automatically but for in some cases you can define the severity yourself.

Your workspace is by default validated automatically on each save and before module upload. To turn automatic validation off on a project, on the main menu, go to Project and unselect Build Automatically.

You can trigger validation also manually: right-click the node in the GO-BPMN Explorer and click Validate in the context menu.If your resource has validation problems even though the expressions are correct, try cleaning the project: on the main menu, go to Project -> Clean

To analyze the detected problems, use the Problems view: The Problems view shows a list of validation problems detected in the opened GO-BPMN projects (closed project are not validated).

Non-Executable Processes and contents of Non-Main Pools are not validated.

Note: The type of individual problems displayed in the view may differ, though mostly it has the “GO-BPMN Problem” value; for information about other problem types refer to www.help.eclipse.org or documentation of the respective plug-in.

Configuring Validation

You can configure the severity of some of the problem that validation checks:

1. Click Window > Preferences.
2. In the Preferences dialog box in the left pane, expand Process Design Suite.
3. Expand Modeling and click Validation.
   

   Validation page with predefined settings
   Most of the settings are self-explanatory. Let us describe some of the more cryptic ones:
   • An expression with a side effect does one of the following:
     • modifies a variable outside of its scope;
     • creates a shared record;
     • modifies a record field;
     • calls an expression that causes a side effect.
   • Usage of deprecated element: the expression uses an element with the flag Deprecated
4. Click the respective severity level for the described problem.
5. Provide the maximum length allowed for a database object (if exceeded, by some data types, the validation detects a problem).
6. Click Apply or OK.

Validating Old Modules

Imported GO-BPMN Modules created in older versions of the Process Design Suite may not be validated automatically. To enable validation of older modules, do the following:

1. Click Project -> Configure GO-BPMN Validator.
2. Click OK.

Any old GO-BPMN modules in the workspace are added to the validation scope.

Hiding Validation Markers

To hide problem markers in a diagram editor (markers remain visible in the GO-BPMN Explorer and other views), do the following:

1. Click Show Diagram Items ( ) button on the main toolbar.

   The button is available only when a diagram editor is focused.

2. Unselect Show Validation Errors/Warnings.