[Feature]: Move shape, type, and is-required-field validation to outside of constructor docval #881
Description
What would you like to see added to HDMF?
Currently, compliance with the schema is checked in multiple places -- on write and on construction of a data_type object in the docval of the constructor. This includes type checking, shape checking, and enforcing that required values are passed in.
After #868 is merged, container attributes can be reassigned to values that are not compliant with the schema in the data type, shape, or whether the attribute is required. This can result in errors on write.
Is your feature request related to a problem?
No response
What solution would you like?
To be maximally flexible, type and shape compliance should be checked when the value is set in the setter. We can add a dtype and shape argument to the __fields__ class variable for each field that is referenced in each setter. Checking whether an object has all required fields is more complicated. It might be useful to have a validate method for each object that checks to see if all required attributes are present. This would get called in each setter when not being called from the constructor and once at the end of the constructor. The user could also call this, and this may be useful when validating external resources as well.
Do you have any interest in helping implement the feature?
Yes.
Code of Conduct
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