Request to add a command to validate WDLs through cromshell.

[bshifaw]

Problem:

• Before running a workflow a user needs to validate their workflow, needing to switch to another tool like womtool or miniwdl is possible but it would be more streamlined to use one tool.
• When submitting a workflow to Cromwell, Cromwell will automatically pass the workflow through validation before running. However, the miniwdl validation can point out the issues at each line which is friendlier to new users.

Request: Add a wrapper command for miniwdl to validate WDLs through cromshell.

cromshell validate helloworld.wdl

[jamesemery]

👍 @bshifaw would it be possible to make the behavior for Cromshell2 to run Womtool validate before submitting your job at all? This was a feature of the old Cromshell and it saves a lot of time and energy having to wait for the server to progress your job past "submitted" to know that you added a silly typo to your script.

[bshifaw]

👍 @bshifaw would it be possible to make the behavior for Cromshell2 to run Womtool validate before submitting your job at all? This was a feature of the old Cromshell and it saves a lot of time and energy having to wait for the server to progress your job past "submitted" to know that you added a silly typo to your script.

Great question @jamesemery! Cromshell does end up validating before submitting to cromshell. Previously it would perform it locally which required a local installation of womtool but has shifted to using the Cromwell server womtool API (https://github.com/broadinstitute/cromshell/commit/4372e0321aa002ab0ba7db9e2d5aab3f24249a88). This avoids requiring the user from installing womtool on their end. This validation "should" be close to or just as fast as validating locally but let us know if you find it slower.