001 /** 002 The contents of this file are subject to the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1 003 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. 004 You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/ 005 Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, 006 WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the 007 specific language governing rights and limitations under the License. 008 009 The Original Code is "Rule.java". Description: 010 "A testable rule to which HL7 messages should conform" 011 012 The Initial Developer of the Original Code is University Health Network. Copyright (C) 013 2002. All Rights Reserved. 014 015 Contributor(s): ______________________________________. 016 017 Alternatively, the contents of this file may be used under the terms of the 018 GNU General Public License (the ???GPL???), in which case the provisions of the GPL are 019 applicable instead of those above. If you wish to allow use of your version of this 020 file only under the terms of the GPL and not to allow others to use your version 021 of this file under the MPL, indicate your decision by deleting the provisions above 022 and replace them with the notice and other provisions required by the GPL License. 023 If you do not delete the provisions above, a recipient may use your version of 024 this file under either the MPL or the GPL. 025 */ 026 027 package ca.uhn.hl7v2.validation; 028 029 import java.io.Serializable; 030 031 /** 032 * <p>A testable rule to which HL7 messages (at least certain specific message) should conform. 033 * This is the central interface of the new HAPI validation model (as of HAPI 0.4). 034 * Previously, the only run-time message validation HAPI performs is within the 035 * setValue() methods of the Primitive datatype classes. For example when you 036 * called setValue() on a DT an exception was thrown if the String arg was not in 037 * the correct DT format. This method served well initially but left us with the 038 * following limitations: 039 * <ol><li>Sometimes validation is inappropriate (e.g. some of the standard rules, like phone 040 * number format, don't make sense in some regions). </li> 041 * <li>Couldn't add further optional constraints (such as all timestamps must have 042 * a time zone). </li> 043 * <li>Couldn't turn off validation to improve performance. </li> 044 * <li>Other forms of validation (e.g. conformance profiles, standard DTDs) were 045 * not covered. </li></ol></p> 046 * <p>Thus the new validation model is broader in scope, and is based on validation rules 047 * implemented as Rule objects, which can be configured to run or not, as needed, depending on 048 * run-time configuration.</p> 049 * <p>There are three kinds of rules: 050 * <ol><li>DataTypeRule: Called when the values of simple datatypes are set, like 051 * the existing hard-coded datatype validations (e.g. TNFollowsNorthAmericanFormat).</li> 052 * <li>MessageRule: Called when complete message content is to be checked on a 053 * parsed message (e.g. conformance profile). </li> 054 * <li>EncodingRule: Applied to an encoded message (e.g. validation against a 055 * 2.xml Schema, a rule that prohibits empty tags, etc.).</li> 056 * </ol></p> 057 * @author Bryan Tripp 058 */ 059 public interface Rule extends Serializable { 060 061 /** 062 * Returns a text description of the rule. This description may be used as a message 063 * in exceptions generated if validation against the rule fails, or in a user 064 * interface for rule configuration. 065 */ 066 public String getDescription(); 067 068 /** 069 * A string indicating the section of the HL7 standard from which this rule 070 * is derived (if applicable). Like the description, this may be used in an exception 071 * message or configuration UI. 072 */ 073 public String getSectionReference(); 074 075 }