Validation

GeoServer 1.3 includes the innovative Validation capabilities, completed by Refractions Research, which gratefully acknowledges the GeoConnections Secretariat for providing matching funds for the development via the GeoInnovations program. It provides a mechanism for ensuring that features edited via GeoServer are spatially clean before allowing them to be inserted into the spatial backend databases. If you are working using GeoServer to its full WFS-T transactional capabilities we strongly recommend that you consider defining a few validation tests. These can be easily defined to ensure simple things like no 0 length geometries, and no dangling lines. But it can also express more complex tests, like ensuring that no streets overlap with defined houses, and that the street name is defined in a Gazetteer.

The Validation configuration is accessed in the WFS section. For 1.3 we don't have time to port and improve the validation guide, so for now just refer to the document created by Refractions, found

• ValidationUserGuide.pdf

If a volunteer wanted to take on the task of making a real validation guide and tutorial, it would be hugely appreciated, as there are some very powerful features there, that no one makes use of since they aren't documented. Indeed uDig 1.1 is starting to use some of the same code, which should hopefully make it easier to define test suites and share between the two. There is also information at: http://vwfs.refractions.net