Data validation

You can validate integration object records and specify the maximum number of validation errors that can occur before the importing process is stopped. You can also choose to validate these records with or without loading any records into IBM® Maximo® Real Estate and Facilities staging tables or creating any DataConnect jobs. Time formatting options are also provided on the data map tab for validation purposes. Data validation is only available when you import data with the DataConnect scheme.

Data validation options

When you specify whether to validate and identify invalid options, the following options are available:
  • Specify whether to create a data file containing invalid records and attach it to the integration instance record.
  • Specify whether to load staging tables with valid records or validate without loading staging tables. If you specify to load staging tables with valid records, the DataConnect Job that is created from processing the integration object loads data from the staging table into the environment. Data is loaded if there is at least one valid record in the data file.
  • Specify the maximum number of validation errors that can occur before the importing process is stopped. Processing is stopped when the maximum or the end of the data file is reached. A value of 0 or a negative value indicates no maximum and the entire data file is processed regardless of the number of invalid records.
  • Specify whether to validate records based on time formatting options.

Time formatting options

When you specify whether to validate records based on time formatting, the following options are available:
  • Time formatting options are visible in the data map when validate is checked. Date, date and time, duration, and time values that are specified in the data file must correspond with the formats that are specified in the Time Formatting Options section. Otherwise, a validation error occurs.
  • To ensure that the data and time format values are converted to the correct epoch values, you must choose the Time Zone region that corresponds with the date and time values in the data file. Daylight Saving Time is handled automatically based on the specified time zone region. The GMT offset values provided next to each time zone region might not be accurate for some time zone regions because of Daylight Saving Time. The values are provided to give order to the list.
  • Time Zone: Included with field values takes time zone specifications from the date and time values in the data file. You can examine all valid time zones for including with imported date and time values by selecting Valid Time Zones. The time zone must be at the end of the field values in the data file, for example, 1/31/2015 10:00:00PM Pacific Standard Time. Note that using abbreviations, for example, CST, might produce unexpected results since different time zone regions can have the same abbreviation, for example, China Standard Time and Central Standard Time.
  • Lenient Format Parsing parses date and time format ranges in a lenient manner when the data file is being validated. When lenient format parsing is checked, a date such as February 942, 1996 is treated as being equivalent to the 941st day after February 1, 1996. When lenient format parsing is cleared, such dates cause a validation failure.

Data validation conditions

The following table provides details about the conditions that are validated on incoming data for integration object execution.
Table 1. Integration object validation
Condition Description
Numeric field type Checks to see whether the value contains numeric values.
Date, Date and Time, Duration, and Time data types Checks to see whether the value corresponds with the format specified for the field type in the Time Formatting Options section.
Boolean data type Checks to see whether the value contains Boolean values (‘true’ or ‘false’, case insensitive).
Classification data type Checks to see whether the value exists in the classification in Maximo Real Estate and Facilities.
List data type Checks to see whether the value exists in the list in Maximo Real Estate and Facilities.
Text field length Checks to see whether the value exceeds the size that is specified for the field in the Data Modeler.
Locator fields Checks all possible records for the locator and checks to see whether the value corresponds to one of the records.