Validate the specification

What does this guide solve?

This guide shows you how to validate the YAML file that specifies a Lumen dashboard.

Run the specification routine

Use the lumen validate command line tool to run the validation. Insert the path to your specification file in place of <dashboard.yml> below.

lumen validate <dashboard.yaml>

Debug an invalid specification file

When the validation fails, it will provide an error message indicating the type and location of the issue.

Indentation errors

Indentation errors often show up as “expected… but found…”

expected <block end>, but found '?'
  in "<unicode string>", line 28, column 3:
      facet:
      ^

They may also appear as messages about certain values not being allowed in this hierarchy level:

ERROR: mapping values are not allowed here
  in "<unicode string>", line 6, column 11:
        shared: true
              ^

Invalid keys or values

For constrained key and value fields, invalid entries will get caught, and a recommendation may be provided:

View component specification declared unknown type 'hvplotqedq'. Did you mean 'hvplot or 'hvplot_ui'?

    table: southern_rockies
    type: hvplotqedq
    kind: line
    x: time
    y: precip
    by:
    - model
    - emissions
    min_height: 200
    responsive: true

Package not installed

The validation will also catch the declaration of packages not installed. For example:

ERROR: In order to use the source component 'intake', the 'intake' package must be installed.

In this case, simply install the package into your environment, such as with:

conda install intake