Ruleset development

IATI rules and rulesets can be developed and deployed in a number of possible ways.

Different types of rules

So far, the Standard Ruleset deploys two types of rules:

• Starts with - conditions around the formation of the iati-identifier

• Date order - logics around the ordering of various date elements.

Other rules are also possible / feasible.

Making new rulesets

Individual rules can be used and re-used in various collections of Rulesets.

The Standard Ruleset could be extended by adding rules particular to a single publisher, to allow them, and others, to check the data they are producing matches a certain criteria.

Limitations of rulesets

Via the IATI Validator, Rulesets do not currently apply to an entire dataset, consisting of several files. Hence, a ruleset cannot test if an activity identifier has been used once, and only once, by a publisher across their entire dataset.

Rulesets do not allow for checks such as whether or not supplied text contains meaningful information.

Rulesets do not check codes against codelists.