Validating

Note

The validating function is vfxnaming.validate(name)

Warning

The appropiate Rule must be set as active before calling the validate() function. Use vfxnaming.set_active_rule(“rule_name”)

Many times the only thing we need is to know if a name is valid or not for a given rule. Each Rule validates the name according to the next criteria:

  • The name must have the same number of tokens as the rule.

  • The tokens must be in the same order as the rule.

  • The number of expected separators must match with the rule.

  • If tokens have options, the given name must use one of those options.

  • If token is a number, validates suffix, prefix and padding.

  • If ‘strict’ is passed as True to the validate function, the name must match exactly the casing of the rule and tokens and the separators counts is also matched.

  • If no rule names are passed to with_rules, only the active rule is validated.

Let’s set these Tokens and Rule.

import vfxnaming as n

# CREATE TOKENS
n.reset_tokens()
n.add_token("whatAffects", fallback="nothing")
n.add_token_number("digits")
n.add_token(
    "category",
    natural="natural",
    practical="practical",
    dramatic="dramatic",
    volumetric="volumetric",
    default="natural",
)
n.add_token(
    "function",
    key="key",
    fill="fill",
    ambient="ambient",
    bounce="bounce",
    rim="rim",
    custom="custom",
    kick="kick",
    default="custom",
)
n.add_token("type", lighting="LGT", animation="ANI", default="lighting")

# CREATE RULES
n.add_rule("lights", "{category}_{function}_{whatAffects}_{digits}_{type}")

n.set_active_rule("lights")

And then let’s validate these names:

n.validate("dramatic_bounce_chars_001_LGT")
# Result: True

n.validate("dramatic_bounce_nothing_001_LGT")
# Result: True

n.validate("dramatic_bounce_chars_001")
# Result: False. Last token is missing.

n.validate("whatEver_bounce_chars_001_LGT")
# Result: False. whatEver is not a valid option for the category token.

n.validate("dramatic_bounce_chars_01_LGT")
# Result: False. Padding on numbers by default is 3, got 2 in these case.

n.validate("dramatic_bounce_chars_v001_LGT")
# Result: False. No prefix are defined by default or by the code above.

n.validate("dramatic_bounce_chars_1000_LGT")
# Result: True. Even though 1000 has 4 digits, we're validating padding, not the number of digits.