Custom Diagnostics

In addition to the standard Diagnostics it is possible to define Custom Diagnostics.

Custom Diagnostics can inspect Draft and Custom Objects.

A Custom Diagnostic has the following properties:

  • short_name: must be unique within the Rave URL. Can be up to 20 characters in length. Short names comprising 4 digits (0000 - 9999) are reserved for built-in diagnostics. It may be useful to use a standard prefix, for example 'C001', 'C002', etc.

  • name: must be unique within the Rave URL

  • description

  • object types: the object types which the custom diagnostic will inspect

  • active: if active is False the Custom Diagnostic will not be displayed in Project Manage Diagnostics and cannot be run against a Draft.

  • code

Copying Custom Diagnostics

Custom Diagnostics can be copied from one URL into another. If a Custom Diagnostic has object types which do not exist in the target URL then a warning will be displayed. The Custom Diagnostic will be copied but might not function as expected. There is no check that any Custom Properties referenced in the Custom Diagnostic code exist in the target URL.

Custom Diagnostic Code

Custom Diagnostic code is written using a subset of the Python programming language called RestrictedPython. For security, RestrictedPython limits the code which can be used; for example it is not possible to use the 'import', 'exec' or 'eval' statements.

A 'diagnostic' object is passed into the Custom Diagnostic Code. The diagnostic object has the following methods which can be called from the Custom Diagnostic code:

  • objects.get(plural_name)

    returns a list of DiagnosticObjects which be can inspected for the given plural_name (the plural name of the Object Definition). See below for the definition of a DiagnosticObject.

  • debug(message)

    displays the string when testing the Custom Diagnostic. When the Custom Diagnostic has been activated and is run for Drafts no debug messages are displayed.

    Parameters:

    message (str) – (required). the message to be displayed

  • report_draft_finding(message)

    creates a diagnostic finding for the Draft

    Parameters:

    message (str) – (required). the finding text

  • report_object_finding(object_with_finding, property_name, message)

    Parameters:

    message (DiagnosticObject) – (required). the object associated with the finding

    property_name (str) – (required). the name of the property associated with the finding

    message (str) – (required). the finding text

A DiagnosticObject has the following property:

  • identifier

    returns the identifier of the object

A DiagnosticObject has the following method:

  • property(property_name)

    returns the value associated with the property of the object

    Parameters:

    property_name (str) – (required). the name of the DiagnosticObject property

Diagnostic Object Properties

The list of properties available for the selected object types will be displayed in the "Properties" tab.

Custom Objects will have all defined Custom Properties; the data type will always be 'string'.

Draft Objects will have built-in Medidata Rave properties and any Custom Properties which have been created for that type of Draft Object.

For example, if "Matrices" are selected for inclusion in the Custom Diagnostic the following built-in properties will be available:

  • Matrices

    • id (int)

    • MatrixName (string)

    • OID (string)

    • Addable (bool)

    • Maximum (int)

The "id" property is a unique integer identifying each Matrix in TrialGrid.

"Matrix Folder Forms" objects will also be included, with the following properties:

  • Matrix Folder Forms

    • id (int)

    • Matrix_id (int)

    • Folder_id (int)

    • Form_id (int)

The "id" property is a unique integer identifying each Matrix Folder Form in TrialGrid.

Properties ending with "_id" are "foreign key" references to another object. "Matrix Folder Form" objects have a "Matrix_id" property which references the "Matrix".

The related object can be looked up using this pattern:

matrices_by_id = {matrix.property("id") : matrix for matrix in diagnostic.objects.get('Matrices')}

for mff in diagnostic.objects.get("Matrix Folder Forms"):
    matrix = matrices_by_id[mff.property("Matrix_id")]

Examples

# Report a draft finding if the 'ID' property of the 'Specifications' objects is repeated in more than one object

spec_ids = []
all_spec_ids = []
for spec in diagnostic.objects.get('Specifications'):
    spec_id = spec.property('ID')
    if spec_id not in spec_ids:
        spec_ids.append(spec_id)
    all_spec_ids.append(spec_id)

for spec_id in spec_ids:
    spec_count = all_spec_ids.count(spec_id)
    if spec_count > 1:
        msg = f"Specification ID {spec_id} is repeated {spec_count} times"
        diagnostic.report_draft_finding(msg)

# Report an object finding if the length of the 'DraftFieldName' property of a 'Fields' object is more than 20

for field in diagnostic.objects.get('Fields'):
    if len(field.property('DraftFieldName')) > 20:
        diagnostic.report_object_finding(field, "DraftFieldName", "is longer than 20 characters")

# Report an object finding if the 'Description' property of a 'Specifications' object contains double-spacing

for spec in diagnostic.objects.get('Specifications'):
    if "  " in spec.property('Description'):
        diagnostic.report_object_finding(spec, "Description", "has double-spacing")