Validata: A tool for testing
profile conformance
Alasdair J G Gray
Heriot-Watt University
www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ajg33
A.J.G.Gray@hw.ac.uk
@gray_alasdair
Andrew Beveridge
Jacob Baungard Hansen
Johnny Val
Leif Gehrmann
Roisin Farmer
Sunil Khutan
Tomas Robertson

HCLS Dataset Descriptions
https://www.w3.org/TR/hcls-dataset/
Dumontier M, Gray AJG, Marshall MS, et al. (2016) The health care
and life sciences community profile for dataset descriptions.
PeerJ 4:e2331 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2331
1 December 2016
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Requirements
• Online tool
– Deployable on W3C
server
– GUI
– API
• Support multiple
constraints
– Properties
– Data values
– …
• Requirement levels
– Different levels of
user messages:
Error, Warning,
Information
• Configurable
– HCLS (Required)
– DCAT, Open
PHACTS, etc
(Optional)
1 December 2016
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Example Constraint
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• Shape
• A Dataset
– MUST be declared to be of type dctype:Dataset
– MUST have a dcterms:title as a language typed
string
– MUST NOT have dcterms:created date
<Dataset> rdf:langString
.
✗
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Dates are associated
with versions in HCLS

Example Validation
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<Dataset> rdf:langString
.
✗
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• Shape
• Data

Example Validation
• Shape
• Data
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<Dataset> rdf:langString
.
✗
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Example Validation
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<Dataset> rdf:langString
.
✗
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• Shape
• Data

<Dataset> {
rdf:type (dctypes:Dataset),
dct:title rdf:langString,
dct:alternative rdf:langString+,
!dct:created .
}
Shape
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<Dataset> rdf:langString
.
✗
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Shape Expressions (ShEx)

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ShEx: Validation
<Dataset> {
rdf:type (dctypes:Dataset),
dct:title rdf:langString,
dct:alternative rdf:langString+,
!dct:created .
}
<Dataset> {
rdf:type (dctypes:Dataset),
dct:title rdf:langString,
dct:alternative rdf:langString+,
!dct:created .
}
<Dataset> {
rdf:type (dctypes:Dataset),
dct:title rdf:langString,
dct:alternative rdf:langString+,
!dct:created .
}
<Dataset> {
rdf:type (dctypes:Dataset),
dct:title rdf:langString,
dct:alternative rdf:langString+,
!dct:created .
}
<Dataset> {
rdf:type (dctypes:Dataset),
dct:title rdf:langString,
dct:alternative rdf:langString+,
!dct:created .
}
<Dataset> {
rdf:type (dctypes:Dataset),
dct:title rdf:langString,
dct:alternative rdf:langString+,
!dct:created .
}
Validator can’t warn of
missing property
Example data

<Dataset> {
`MUST` rdf:type (dctypes:Dataset),
`MUST` dct:title rdf:langString,
`MAY` dct:alternative rdf:langString+,
`MUST` !dct:created .
}
Shape
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<Dataset> rdf:langString
.
✗
@gray_alasdair
www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ajg33
Requirement Levels
Validator can warn of
missing property

Implementation
Validata
• Web app front end
• Javascript + HTML
• Relies on ShEx-validator
– Validates documents
– Returns report
https://github.com/HW-
SWeL/Validata
ShEx-validator
• Validation system
• Validation API
• Javascript
– nodejs engine
• Reuses
– n3: RDF Library
– ShExParser
https://github.com/HW-
SWeL/ShEx-validator
1 December 2016
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http://hw-swel.github.io/Validata/
VALIDATA DEMO

Validata
https://github.com/HW-SWeL/Validata
• RDF constraint validation tool
– Configurable to any profile
• Shape Expression (ShEx) constraints
• Open source javascript implementation
www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ajg33/
A.J.G.Gray@hw.ac.uk
@gray_alasdair