Service overview

Tools for defining requirements for structured data

Process automation requires data to be structured, precisely defined, and documented. This page provides an overview of our tools designed to meet this requirement and enables you to evaluate the service's capabilities.

Implementation in practice

Setting requirements begins with selecting a standard or an organization-specific specification, further refined by case-specific requirements. Regardless of the message syntax, the system uses schemas to cover the basic checks:

  • The XML Schema (W3C XML Schema) for XML
  • The JSON Schema for JSON
  • The schema derived from the UN/CEFACT message specification for EDIFACT

Due to schemas' limited expressiveness, test rules are also required to ensure data quality, especially for checking various conditions and integrity requirements.

With Truugo, you can seamlessly combine the various use case requirements set for a specific data format into one test profile.

The tools offered

The primary tool in Truugo is the Profile Editor, enabling you to create, maintain, and manage test profiles. For XML and EDIFACT, we also provide the Subset Editor, allowing you to generate documentation and validation rules for test profiles in one go. Additionally, we offer the Assertion Editor to provide the ability to implement more complex checks, such as integrity requirements.

Below is a summary of each tool.

Profile Editor

Profile Editor is a syntax-neutral tool for implementing, maintaining, and managing test profiles. It includes built-in support for XML and EDIFACT syntaxes, accommodating other syntaxes (such as JSON, CSV, and FLAT) through a customized preprocessor.

For EDIFACT, the application includes the necessary libraries, so creating a test profile is straightforward. For XML, we recommend providing an XML schema as input to enable the documentation feature.

In addition to test phases, The Profile Editor allows you to add preprocessing and post-processing, such as visualizations, to test profiles. You can find more information about these features on the test profile page.

Subset Editor

The Subset Editor complements the management of XML and EDIFACT test profiles. With this tool, you can maintain most case-specific content requirements using an easy visual interface. You can narrow down large data structures to subsets needed for specific use cases and set additional restrictions for data format and repetition.

With the Subset Editor, you can produce documentation (message implementation guidelines), ancillary materials, and corresponding test rules with the press of a button. That ensures the test profile remains consistent with the documentation, significantly enhancing specification quality and work efficiency.

You can expedite the creation of a new subset and reduce your workload by providing the tool with one or more data samples. The Subset Editor reads through them and includes only the data elements used in the preliminary subset.

Read more about Subset Editor.

Assertion Editor

The Assertion Editor enables you to implement test rules for specific requirements. Each test rule generates a clear description of the requirement as error feedback and a technical error message, including the line number of the error location and additional information defined explicitly for the rule. For example, in the context of a sum check, the additional information may include the given and calculated values to illustrate the magnitude of the problem.

Examples of test assertions implemented using the editor:

  • Conditional format requirement: The party identifier must match the given identifier type.
  • Conditional mandatory requirement: VAT number must be provided in party details if the entity is a seller.
  • Conditional repetition constraint: Orders of a specific type must have a maximum of 99 order lines.
  • Integrity requirement #1: An invoice shall contain a breakdown for each tax rate on invoice lines.
  • Integrity requirement #2: The total tax amount must match the sum of the tax breakdowns.
  • Integrity requirement #3: The invoice due date must be at least 14 days from the invoice issue date.
  • Special constraint: An order shall refer only to products of a specific catalog.

Learn more about test assertions.

Next article: Testing conformance