Validator rules editor provides all the power and features needed to set up validation rules. There are two tabs enabling to set up validation rules using different approaches: Use the Rules tab providing graphical interface to setup validation rules or switch to the Code tab with text editor and type rules by hand in form of xml.

The Rules tab of the dialog is split up into three parts: Available rules, Active rules and Rule parameters.

Tab Code contains a text editor for editing validation rules in XML form, options to import and export of the validation rules, and an option to return to initial state of validation rules.

Validation rules are the cornerstone of Validator. A validation rule is an evaluable condition that needs to be fulfilled to ensure that the field being validated contains a valid value. The evaluation of the condition if affected by corresponding environment settings.

For description of particular available validation rules, see Available rules.

The Active rules pane contains a tree of active validation rules. The rules can be added to the tree from list of Available rules on the left side.

A group named as All rules is the root of the tree of active validation rules. If any of active validation rules is chosen, the details of the rule settings are displayed in rule parameters below.

If you drag a field from metadata and drop it onto any of groups from active rules or between the rules of the group, the Select rule type dialog will appear. The dialog enables you to choose available rule to be added into group of rules. The added rule will be applied to preselected metadata field.

Each validation rule is configurable by several parameters. The parameters are split up in to groups for better lucidity.

There are Basic parameters, Locale and format settings and Common parameters.

Most of basic parameters are rule specific parameters. See Available rules.

Validation rules can be affected by locale and format settings. These settings are inherited from the parent group, by default.

Common parameters are present for all rules.

Error output mapping provides a setup of mapping of fields to an optional second output port.

If the second output port has the same metadata as the input port, no additional error output mapping is needed and the fields not passing the validation will be redirected to the second output port. In this case, the Validator works in the same way as Filter. See Filter.

Validator provides much more functionality than Filter. Validator enables you to get detailed information, why validation of particular record fails and error output mapping provides graphical interface to map fields with validation failure details to corresponding metadata fields on the second output port.

Validation failure details from following fields can be used. The fields can be seen as an additional secondary input port and error output mapping enables you to set up output mapping for the fields like in the Map component. See Map.

Validator error codes for particular available validation rules are listed in following table.

Available rules contain all available validation rules, Filter enabling fast access to particular items and list of Input and output metadata for easy use.

The available validation rules are furthermore categorized to Groups, If - then - else, Basic rules, String rules, Assignment rules, Custom rules and Imports.

To find desired available validation rule or metadata field, start typing its name into the filter input field. The rules and metadata fields are filtered on the fly.

Input metadata contains a list of input metadata fields. Data type of the field is shown in square brackets after the field name. Fields from metadata can be assigned to any active rule by dragging and dropping from the list of metadata onto the active rule.

The rules can be grouped together into rule groups. Each group of rules can have a user-defined name, the rule group including child rules can be enabled or disabled in the same way as a rule. The rule group can contain another rules or rule groups. Operator and Lazy evaluation settings can be set per rule group.

Validation result of a rule group will be computed from validation results of rules in this group and the selected Operator of the given group.

The If - then - else enables you to validate fields conditionally.

The validation rule consists of condition and two subtrees of validation rules to check. If the condition is met, then the first subtree of validation rules is applied (the then branch). If the condition in not fulfilled, the second subtree of validation rules is applied (the else branch).

The condition can be a single rule or group of rules. The condition needs to return boolean value. If the condition contains only assignment rule(s) not returning boolean value, the execution of graph fails. The condition itself works as a group - it can contain more rules as a child nodes.

The conditionally processed validation subtrees work as groups too - zero, one or more validation rules or groups can be assigned to the then or else.

The Else branch is optional, it can be empty or omitted. The user can delete the Else if the else branch is not needed.