Patent ID: 8418142

Claim:
A method of validating data, comprising: providing a single entry point to invoke a validation application programming interface (API) from a calling application, wherein the validation API includes a validation architecture including code, written in a first language, for validating data, the validation architecture including an interface operable to receive validation calls from applications written in the first language and at least one other language, wherein the interface is configured to define a central process for passing in validation sets to be validated; providing a centralized location for placing all validation logic for each entity in a plurality of entities, wherein the central processing and centralized location for placing all validation logic provides a framework for performing common validation processing that is required for a majority of validation sets, and wherein the framework specifies a source for the majority of validation sets; receiving, at the interface, a validation call including a validation set from an entity of the plurality of entities, the validation set including information for at least one validation to be executed using the validation architecture, wherein the validation set includes validation attributes of the entity; based on the validation set, determining which validation processes from a plurality of validation processes are to be executed, wherein certain validations within the validation set are dynamically disabled which are not applicable the validation set; based on the validation set, interpreting validation failures differently according to requirements of the calling application and specifying document types for which a particular validation is applicable; based on the determination, performing one or more of the determined validations for each instance of information in the validation set, wherein the performing includes accessing the centralized location; determining any errors or warnings for each validation; and returning results of each validation and any errors or warnings in response to the validation call.