FISH Data Validation Tool

FISH Data Validation Tool Overview

http://www.heritage-standards.org.uk

Getting Started

The FISH Data Validation Tool (DVT) allows users to validate a MIDAS XML document against UK HER benchmarks. It will also validate the content of a MIDAS XML document against INSCRIPTION wordlists and standardised thesauri.

Validation can be performed online, or the software and its components can be installed on your server or desktop. Before using the online version you must first register and supply your organisation and email address; a password will then be sent to your email address which you can use to login and use the validator.

Once logged in, you can validate XML in three different ways:

Uploading a file from your computer to the server
Entering a URL of an online MIDAS XML document
Cutting-and-pasting MIDAS XML directly into a text field

As well as providing XML you must also specify which Benchmark you wish to validate against. Once you have completed the validator page, press the 'Validate' button to see the result. To access the Data Validation Tool, direct your browser here: http://www.heritage-standards.org.uk/dvt/

Software Development

The Data Validation Tool was designed and built by Oxford Arch Digital Ltd using Open Source development tools: PHP 5 and MySQL 4.0; it has been documented using PHPDocumentor.

Server Installation [See also end of this document]

Basic Requirements:

PHP5 PEAR:DB
PEAR:File

Any of the PEAR:DB Compatible databases: MySQL
PostgreSQL
InterBase
mSQL
Microsoft SQL Server
Oracle 7/8/8i
any ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) compliant database
SyBase
Informix and FrontBase

Any PHP compatible web server Apache
Microsoft IIS
etc...

Most operating systems Linux
Microsoft Windows
Solaris
etc...

The Data Validation Tool is designed to run on any PHP compatible web server. It should be installed in a publicly-accessible directory where execution of PHP is allowed. The files main.ini and dvt.ini need to be configured by the System Administrator, and dvt.ini should be stored in a secure folder. A detailed description of the installation process is located at the end of this document.

Comments and Suggestions

Your comments and suggestions are welcome, please contact edmund.lee@english-heritage.org.uk

Guide to Installation

This section is intended for the System Administrator or anyone wishing to install a copy of the Data Validation Tool.

Using configchecker.php to check your installation:
In order to make the job of installation easier this tool comes with a script called configchecker.php. This checks the libraries, database connections included files, and configuration. Run it from the root DVT directory.

INI files

The INI files allow you to configure parts of th Data Validation Tool. A summary of the settings is provided below:

File Setting Description

main.ini

inilocation

The setting inilocation should point to a secure folder, ie not accessible to the public

dvt.ini[continued below]

[_dns] phptype = mysql username = ****** password = ****** hostspec = 127.0.0.1 database = fish options =
This is used to allow PHP to access the local database.

dvt.ini[continued from above]

[dvt_configuration] AdminEmail = tirath.samra@oxarchdigital.com temp_dir = /tmp/ admin_mode = 0 MAX_FILE_SIZE = 8000000

Please change the AdminEmail to the local administrators email address.
temp_dir ensure web server has write access to this folder
admin_mode switch this to 1 to allow debugging info to be viewed.
An alternative to this is to add
?admin=1 to the URL.
MAX_FILE_SIZE The maximum upload size in Bytes. This value appears in the HTML Form used to upload.

dvt.ini[continued from above]

[dvt_password] 0 = red 1 = blue 2 = green 3 = yellow

This allows the system to create secure and memorable passwords

dvt.ini[continued from above]

[dvt_graphics] pass = 'images/tick.png' fail = 'images/cross.png' warn = 'images/warn.png'

Provide visual feedback for reports

Program Source

The following table shows the code structure used by DVT.

Folder	Description
classes	Contains classes used for DVT
images	Images folder
sql	Contains SQL create code
docs	Source code documentation. Contains this file and program source code documentation.