Validate and convert your first package

You will convert one complete Flow JSON into eILCD XML, convert it back, and validate it. First install tidas and confirm tidas --version prints tidas 0.2.0. Perform all steps in the same new practice folder.

1. Download the teaching file

Run these two commands where you want to store the exercise. They work in macOS/Linux shells and PowerShell 7; choose a new name if the directory exists. All later relative paths start from this practice directory.

mkdir tidas-practice
cd tidas-practice

Download the teaching Flow JSON to sample/flows/demo-flow.json. flows is the dataset category directory; do not place the JSON directly at the package root. Create the folders and save the file with your file manager, or use these commands.

macOS / Linux:

mkdir -p sample/flows
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://docs.tiangong.earth/assets/docs/tool-guides-v1/demo-flow.json -o sample/flows/demo-flow.json

Windows PowerShell:

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force sample/flows
Invoke-WebRequest https://docs.tiangong.earth/assets/docs/tool-guides-v1/demo-flow.json -OutFile sample/flows/demo-flow.json

All UUIDs and references in this file are fictional. It demonstrates structure validation and conversion, not a complete production dependency package. Do not upload, publish, or use it for calculations.

2. Validate TIDAS JSON

Run commands one at a time. Immediately afterward, use echo $? on macOS/Linux or $LASTEXITCODE in PowerShell 7 to read the exit code; later commands can replace it. Except for explicitly expected sign-in/error demonstrations, stop on a nonzero code and resolve the error before continuing.

tidas validate sample --input-format tidas-json --format json

Success means exit code 0, status: succeeded, and exit_class: success. Check these fields to confirm that one document was validated, not an empty directory:

3. Convert to eILCD and validate the output

Keep the ./ prefix in the output path and choose a directory that does not yet exist. Input and output must not overlap. Generated data is in converted/data/, not the converted/ root. Conversion also includes supporting schema assets.

tidas convert sample --output ./converted --to ilcd --format json

tidas validate converted/data --input-format ilcd-xml --format json

The conversion report should show summary.conversion.converted_file_count: 1. The second command should show summary.validation.document_count: 1 and error_count: 0. Creating files is not the same as validating them: check both commands.

4. Convert back to TIDAS and validate again

tidas convert converted/data --output ./roundtrip --to tidas --format json

tidas validate roundtrip/data --input-format tidas-json --format json

The final validation should again be succeeded, with one document and zero errors. You have completed input validation, conversion, output validation, and a return conversion. Keep sample, converted, and roundtrip for comparison; use fresh output directories when repeating the exercise.

For a repeat exercise, the simplest approach is a new outer practice directory with unchanged commands. If you rename only an output directory, update every later validation/conversion path too, so you do not accidentally validate old results.

Judge success and failure

Success proves that this document meets the tool’s structural and semantic rules, produces XSD-valid eILCD, and can recover source semantics. It does not prove that referenced datasets exist or that dependencies are complete, and it does not replace scientific review or publishing approval.

For complete issue lists, other import formats, and scripting, read the Command and report reference.