[Bug]: Exporting a file with missing required attributes does not throw error.

[ehennestad]

What happened?

The following code snippet throws a warning, but allows the user to export a file that breaks relative to the schema. According to the schema, the source_script_file_name property is required when source_script is filled out.

See here for an a small discussion in MatNWB: NeurodataWithoutBorders/matnwb#667

from pynwb import NWBHDF5IO, NWBFile, TimeSeries
from datetime import datetime
from dateutil import tz

session_start_time = datetime(2018, 4, 25, 2, 30, 3, tzinfo=tz.gettz("US/Pacific"))

nwbfile = NWBFile(
    session_description="Mouse exploring an open field",  # required
    identifier="test",  # required
    session_start_time=session_start_time,  # required
    source_script="create_nwbfile.py",  # optional
)

io = NWBHDF5IO("temp.nwb", mode="w")
io.write(nwbfile)
io.close()

Question: Should this throw an error instead?

Steps to Reproduce

See above

Traceback

Operating System

macOS

Python Executable

Python

Python Version

3.11

Package Versions

No response

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct
• Have you checked the Contributing document?
• Have you ensured this bug was not already reported?

[stephprince]

I agree that according to the current schema, the example code you shared should throw an error instead of a warning to avoid the creation of invalid files, since file_name is a required attribute of source_script.

However I am also wondering if file_name should be made to be an optional attribute. The definition in the schema is a little unclear to me, it seems source_script could be the name of the file or a link to the source code (See also: #1451 (comment)). I think in either case the file_name attribute may not always be necessary.

@bendichter @rly do you know how these fields are being used and if file_name should be required?

[rly]

I agree with Ben's comment in #1451. I think source_script should be a link to a commit/tag/release in a public repo or a name of the package with a version string, and source_script_file_name should be the entry point / the file that was run within that repo. Now that we have was_generated_by which allows for multiple names and versions/identifiers, does it make sense to keep source_script and source_script_file_name?

Regardless, I think it would be OK to have source_script_file_name be optional. Most conversion packages have only one entry point, and it seems unnecessary to have to specify that.