Create a custom validation rule

You can add validation rules to properties and configuration items (CIs) in the synthetic.xml. Out of the box, XL Deploy comes with the regex validation rule, which can be used to define naming conventions using regular expressions.

This XML snippet shows how to add a validation rule:

<type type="tc.WarModule" extends="ud.BaseDeployedArtifact" deployable-type="jee.War"
       container-type="tc.Server">
    <property name="changeTicketNumber" required="true">
        <rule type="regex" pattern="^JIRA-[0-9]+$"
           message="Ticket number should be of the form JIRA-[number]"/>
    </property>
</type>

The validation will throw an error, when the tc.WarModule is being saved in XL Deploy with a value that is not of the form JIRA-[number].

Define a validation rule in Java

You can define XL Deploy validation rules in Java. These can then be used to annotate CIs or their properties so that XL Deploy can perform validations.

This is an example of a property validation rule called static-content that validates that a string kind field has a specific fixed value:

import com.xebialabs.deployit.plugin.api.validation.Rule;
import com.xebialabs.deployit.plugin.api.validation.ValidationContext;
import com.xebialabs.deployit.plugin.api.validation.ApplicableTo;
import com.xebialabs.deployit.plugin.api.reflect.PropertyKind;

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

@ApplicableTo(PropertyKind.STRING)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Rule(clazz = StaticContent.Validator.class, type = "static-content")
@Target(ElementType.FIELD)
public @interface StaticContent {
    String content();

    public static class Validator
           implements com.xebialabs.deployit.plugin.api.validation.Validator<String> {
        private String content;

        @Override
        public void validate(String value, ValidationContext context) {
            if (value != null && !value.equals(content)) {
                context.error("Value should be %s but was %s", content, value);
            }
        }
    }
}

A validation rule consists of an annotation, in this case @StaticContent, which is associated with an implementation of com.xebialabs.deployit.plugin.api.validation.Validator<T>. They are associated using the @com.xebialabs.deployit.plugin.api.validation.Rule annotation. Each method of the annotation needs to be present in the validator as a property with the same name, see the content field and property above. It is possible to limit the kinds of properties that a validation rule can be applied to by annotating it with the @ApplicableTo annotation and providing that with the allowed property kinds.

When you’ve defined this validation rule, you can use it to annotate a CI like such:

public class MyLinuxHost extends BaseContainer {
    @Property
    @StaticContent(content = "/tmp")
    private String temporaryDirectory;
}

Or you can use it in synthetic XML in the following way:

<type name="ext.MyLinuxHost" extends="udm.BaseContainer">
    <property name="temporaryDirectory">
        <rule type="static-content" content="/tmp"/>
    </property>
</type>