Post-check actions

Post-check actions take place after data validation. They are split into the following four categories:

Enforcement action

Enforcement actions are actions that must take place before the data can be processed any further. Enforcement actions follow one of the following methods:

• The user is alerted that the data entered is not valid – this can be through a combination of colours (red to highlight errors) and symbols or textual instructions. The data entered is not accepted, the process does not proceed any further, and the user must amend it
• Automatic correction – if the data could be correct but is mis-formatted, a system can automatically amend the format in order to meet the validation requirements. For instance, when asking for a postcode, a user may enter “pe191lq” when the required format is to use capital letters with a space between the first and second section. A system can automatically correct “pe191lq” to “PE19 1LQ”

Advisory action

An advisory action can be raised in a situation where the data input has been accepted even though one or more validation errors have been encountered.

A typical action in this case would be to process the data as submitted, but also send a notification to the user that highlights the issues that were encountered.

Verification action

A verification action is used to repeat the input data back to the user, to ask for verification that it is what they intended to enter.

For example, when adding a shipping address on an eCommerce website, you may enter your address in a different format to the Post Office; if the retailer tries to validate your address, they may not find it if the formats do not exactly match.

Therefore a verification action is taken, where the retailer can show the user what format the address should be, and the user can update the format accordingly.

Log of validation

A log of validation steps that have been taken along with their responses is maintained. This is a useful diagnostic data source for future use in case any data verification issues are later highlighted.