Validation is a term in FORMS meaning that an object is tested according to a set of rules. Validation can be performed in three different levels in FORMS, and you can apply external validation routines to all three of them. When you do, you can choose either to bypass FORMS’ internal validation routines or to perform them in addition to the external routines. In the latter case, FORMS behaves normally.
You can also implement validation routines to batches. FORMS currently does not offer its own validation of batches.
Field validation (FORMS Help topic) is performed as soon as a field no longer has any uninterpretable characters. Field validation is performed at least once on each field, either in Interpret or Verify, and validation is repeated as soon as a value is changed in Verify.
Form validation (FORMS Help topic) is performed as soon as all fields on a form have Complete status. This occurs at least once, either in Interpret or Verify. If the result of the validation is the status of one or more fields changes, the form validation is repeated when all the fields are once again Complete.
Set validation is performed as soon as all the forms within a set have Complete status. The only set validation routine currently performed (when selected) is set sum validation (FORMS Help topic), which is performed in Interpret or Verify. If the result of the validation is that the status of a form is changed, set validation is repeated when all the forms are once again Complete.
FORMS itself currently performs no batch validation. Without customization, the status of a batch is based entirely on the status of the forms it contains.