Implement comprehensive error message improvements with validation #16

AdamIsrael · 2025-12-08T16:01:07Z

Summary

Implements comprehensive error message improvements to complete the final Version 0.2.0 goal from ROADMAP.md. This PR adds enhanced error types, better error messages, automatic validation, and non-fatal warning collection.

Motivation

The Version 0.2.0 roadmap identified "Improved error messages" as a remaining goal. Previously:

Error messages were generic with limited context
No validation of GEDCOM data quality
Encoding errors were only printed to stdout
Users had no way to collect warnings without parsing failures

This PR provides clear, actionable feedback about GEDCOM file issues while allowing parsing to continue.

Changes

Enhanced Error Types (src/error.rs: +202 lines)

Added 3 new error variants:

ValidationError - For data quality issues (missing names, empty families)
EncodingError - For character encoding conversion problems
MissingRequiredField - For GEDCOM 5.5.1 required field violations

Enhanced existing errors:

ParseError now includes record_type, field, and context for better debugging
InvalidStructure now includes record_xref for identifying problematic records

Improved Error Display

Error messages now include:

Multi-line formatting with helpful hints
Clear location indicators (line number, record type, field name)
Context snippets showing the problematic code
User-friendly descriptions

Examples:

File not found: 'missing.ged'
  Hint: Check that the file path is correct and the file exists

Parse error at line 42 in INDI record, field 'NAME': Invalid name format
  Context: 1 NAME /Invalid/Name/

Validation error in INDI record (@I1@), field 'NAME': Individual has no name

Validation System (src/parse.rs: +107 lines)

Added warnings: Vec<GedcomError> to Gedcom struct
Automatic validation after parsing completes
Non-fatal warnings allow parsing to continue
Validates all record types:
- Individuals - warns if no NAME (recommended field)
- Families - warns if no HUSB/WIFE/CHIL (data quality)
- Submitters - error if no NAME (required by GEDCOM 5.5.1)
- Repositories - warns if no NAME (recommended)
- Multimedia - error if no FILE (required)

Encoding Error Tracking

Captures character encoding conversion errors during file reading
Adds warnings to gedcom.warnings when encoding issues occur
Maintains backward compatibility with verbose mode
Non-breaking - file still processes with warnings

Helper Methods (src/types/mod.rs: +27 lines)

impl Gedcom {
    /// Returns whether the GEDCOM file has any validation warnings
    pub fn has_warnings(&self) -> bool {
        !self.warnings.is_empty()
    }
}

Comprehensive Tests (tests/integration_tests.rs: +80 lines)

13 new error-specific unit tests
2 new integration tests for validation warnings
Tests verify:
- Error message formatting
- Validation warning collection
- Parsing continues despite warnings
- Specific warning types are detected

Breaking Changes

⚠️ Minor breaking changes:

ParseError struct fields changed (added record_type, field, context)
InvalidStructure changed from tuple to struct variant
Gedcom struct has new warnings field (breaks struct construction)

These are acceptable because:

Error types are primarily used for display, not pattern matching
Gedcom is typically created by parse_gedcom(), not directly
No users exist yet (pre-1.0)

Usage Example

use gedcom_rs::parse::{parse_gedcom, GedcomConfig};

let gedcom = parse_gedcom("family.ged", &GedcomConfig::new())?;

// Check for validation warnings
if gedcom.has_warnings() {
    println!("File has {} warnings:", gedcom.warnings.len());
    for warning in &gedcom.warnings {
        eprintln!("Warning: {}", warning);
    }
}

// All records are still accessible
println!("Found {} individuals", gedcom.individuals.len());

Verification

✅ All 291 tests passing (217 + 8 + 25 + 23 + 18)
✅ No clippy warnings (cargo clippy -- -D warnings)
✅ Code properly formatted (cargo fmt)
✅ Successfully builds
✅ Non-breaking implementation (warnings don't prevent parsing)

Version 0.2.0 Status

This PR completes all Version 0.2.0 goals:

✅ Core FAM record parsing
✅ Complete FAM record parsing
✅ Full INDIVIDUAL_RECORD implementation
✅ Complete SOUR record parsing
✅ Complete NOTE record parsing
✅ Complete OBJE record parsing
✅ Complete REPO record parsing
✅ Improved error messages ← COMPLETED by this PR
✅ Performance optimizations

Implementation Approach

Focused on low and medium priority improvements:

Low complexity: Enhanced error types and display messages
Medium complexity: Validation system with warning collection
Medium complexity: Encoding error capture
Deferred: Line number threading (high complexity, lower ROI)

Testing

Run tests:

cargo test
cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cargo fmt --check

All commands pass successfully.

Add improved error handling system to complete Version 0.2.0 goals. This commit implements enhanced error types, better error messages, automatic validation, and non-fatal warning collection to provide users with clear, actionable feedback about GEDCOM file issues. Changes: - Enhanced GedcomError enum with 3 new variants: * ValidationError - Data quality issues in records * EncodingError - Character encoding conversion problems * MissingRequiredField - GEDCOM 5.5.1 required field violations - Improved ParseError with context fields (record_type, field, context) - Enhanced InvalidStructure with record_xref identification - Better error display messages with: * Multi-line formatting with hints * Clear location indicators (line, record, field) * Context snippets for parse errors * User-friendly descriptions - Validation system: * Added warnings Vec to Gedcom struct * Automatic validation after parsing * Non-fatal warnings allow parsing to continue * Validates: individuals, families, submitters, repositories, multimedia - Encoding error tracking: * Captures character encoding conversion errors * Adds warnings when encoding issues occur * Maintains compatibility with verbose mode - Helper methods: * Gedcom::has_warnings() - Check for validation issues - Comprehensive tests: * 13 new error-specific unit tests * 2 new integration tests for validation warnings * All 291 tests passing Non-breaking changes - warnings are collected but don't prevent parsing. Completes all Version 0.2.0 goals from ROADMAP.md.

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR implements comprehensive error message improvements to complete the final Version 0.2.0 roadmap goal. It introduces enhanced error types with rich context (ValidationError, EncodingError, MissingRequiredField), improves error display formatting with hints and multi-line context, and adds a validation system that collects non-fatal warnings about data quality issues while allowing parsing to continue.

Key changes:

Enhanced error types with detailed context fields for better debugging
Automatic validation system that checks records for missing recommended/required fields
Non-fatal warning collection in Gedcom.warnings field

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/error.rs	Added 3 new error variants and enhanced existing ones with context fields; improved Display formatting with multi-line hints
src/parse.rs	Added validation function to check all record types; modified encoding handling to capture warnings; updated Gedcom initialization
src/types/mod.rs	Added `warnings` field to Gedcom struct and `has_warnings()` helper method
tests/integration_tests.rs	Added 2 integration tests verifying validation warnings are collected and don't prevent parsing
docs/ROADMAP.md	Updated Version 0.2.0 checklist marking error messages goal as complete

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Copilot · 2025-12-08T16:03:00Z

src/parse.rs

+fn validate_gedcom(gedcom: &mut Gedcom) {
+    // Validate individuals - NAME is recommended but not strictly required in GEDCOM 5.5.1
+    // We'll warn about individuals without names as it's a common data quality issue
+    for individual in &gedcom.individuals {


The validation logic for individuals checking empty names lacks test coverage. While integration tests verify warnings are collected, there's no unit test specifically for the individual name validation branch in validate_gedcom.

Copilot · 2025-12-08T16:03:00Z

src/parse.rs

+    }
+
+    // Validate families - at least one spouse (HUSB or WIFE) is recommended
+    for family in &gedcom.families {


The family validation logic lacks dedicated test coverage. While integration tests check that family warnings appear, there's no unit test for the specific condition where all three fields (husband, wife, children) are empty.

Copilot · 2025-12-08T16:03:01Z

src/parse.rs

+    }
+
+    // Validate submitters - NAME is required in GEDCOM 5.5.1
+    for submitter in &gedcom.submitters {


The submitter validation logic lacks unit test coverage. While the integration test verifies this produces a MissingRequiredField error, there's no dedicated unit test for this validation branch.

Copilot · 2025-12-08T16:03:01Z

src/parse.rs

+    }
+
+    // Validate repositories - NAME is recommended
+    for repository in &gedcom.repositories {


The repository validation logic lacks unit test coverage. There's no test verifying that repositories without names generate the expected ValidationError warning.

Copilot · 2025-12-08T16:03:01Z

src/parse.rs

+    }
+
+    // Validate multimedia records - at least one FILE is required
+    for multimedia in &gedcom.multimedia {


The multimedia validation logic lacks unit test coverage. There's no test verifying that multimedia records without files generate the expected MissingRequiredField error.

Document the 5 validation test coverage issues identified by Copilot in PR #16: - Individual validation lacking unit test coverage - Family validation lacking unit test coverage - Submitter validation lacking unit test coverage - Repository validation lacking unit test coverage - Multimedia validation lacking unit test coverage These validation features work correctly and are covered by integration tests, but lack isolated unit tests for better maintainability. Adding these to the Known Issues section for future improvement.

AdamIsrael requested a review from Copilot December 8, 2025 16:02

Copilot AI reviewed Dec 8, 2025

View reviewed changes

AdamIsrael merged commit b941e32 into main Dec 8, 2025
8 checks passed

AdamIsrael deleted the improved-errors branch December 8, 2025 19:24

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Implement comprehensive error message improvements with validation #16

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AdamIsrael commented Dec 8, 2025

Summary

Motivation

Changes

Enhanced Error Types (src/error.rs: +202 lines)

Improved Error Display

Validation System (src/parse.rs: +107 lines)

Encoding Error Tracking

Helper Methods (src/types/mod.rs: +27 lines)

Comprehensive Tests (tests/integration_tests.rs: +80 lines)

Breaking Changes

Usage Example

Verification

Version 0.2.0 Status

Implementation Approach

Testing

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