3.1.0 Release plan - Validator as Packaged Executable + UI for results

[isabelle-dr]

This is an issue for the 3.1.0 release of the validator that is planned for Q2 2022.
It will be updated as we plan and develop the features.

Context

Currently, the reach of this tool is limited to users that are comfortable with using GitHub, JAR files, and the terminal. The long term vision is to provide a hosted interface on the Mobility Database website for running this validator, seeing the results, and sharing the results with other parties.
To solve this issue, we initially planned on working on a local web UI (see this issue). But after some discussions with the GTFS community and validator contributors, we realized that this was only slightly improving the ease-of-use and that for the same amount of effort, we could implement a better solution.
Various considerations are taken into account when deciding what solution to implement.

• MobilityData currently has very limited software development resources, we would like to get the first version of this solution in Q2 2022.
• Google is interested in contributing to this release
• Work on an HTML output has already been done by Trillium in PR#1119
• MobilityData will further maintain this feature, and we would like to be able to re-use this work when the integration of the validator is done with the Mobility Database.

Goal for the release 🎯

Supporting the following user needs:

• 👤 As a GTFS producer/consumer with mid-low tech skills, I want to run the Schedule Validator in order to evaluate the quality of a GTFS dataset
  • ⚠️ Current pain points: manipulation the JAR file, using the command line, using GitHub
  • 💡 Solution 1: Use a Pagkaged Executable, implemented by @bdferris-v2 at Google.
    - Doing in this release:
    - validator as a downloadable EXE, the validator runs when the user drag & drops the .zip GTFS file on it
    - Doing in later stages:
    - A UI to run the validator
    - Integrate the command-line parameters
    - A logo
    • UPDATE: Doing in this release:
      • validator as a downloadable EXE, simple GUI that integrates simple command line parameters
• 👤 As a GTFS producer/consumer with mid-low tech skills, I want to see the validation results and understand them in order to fix my dataset
  • ⚠️ Current pain points: Have to have a few files open to understanding the validation report, have to use a Json Viewer
  • 💡Solution 2: An HTML file that will get generated as an output, implemented by @maximearmstrong at MobilityData, with Trillium's help
  • UPDATE: 💡Additional solution: Re-work RULES.md and integrate info from NOTICES.md to ease interpretation of the validation report.
  • Doing in this release:
    • Display the total number of notice types, list of notices, number of occurrences of each, severity, collapsable details in a table
  • Doing in later stages:
    • Integrate notice descriptions and details on how to fix the dataset (leverage work done by Trillium) Implement human-readable sentences in the HTML report #1148
    • Add filters for sorting the list by severity/notice name
    • Add buttons to only display one notice type

Materials

Related issue: #1126
Work in PR #1127
Work in PR #1125
Packaged Executable for GTFS Validator proposal by @bdferris-v2 https://bit.ly/gtfs-validator-packaged-exe.
Discussion in issue #1112

cc @asvechnikov2, @ed-g

[isabelle-dr]

For anyone like me that only functions with visual things, here is the user story map for the HTML output portion. It displays:

• the before & after user flow
• what user stories are included in this release and what will be a next iteration

It will keep evolving with the feedback we receive, but as of today, this is what it will look like for the user story: I want to see the validation results and understand them in order to fix my dataset

Before:

After: