Make NCES ID mandatory for US schools

[Mohamed-RPF]

Make NCES ID mandatory for US schools

Add conditional presence validation for US NCES ID (district_nces_id) fields, with format validation and scoped uniqueness to allow reuse after school rejection. This improves validation error handling so users receive specific, actionable error messages instead of generic form errors.

Status

Closes: https://github.com/orgs/RaspberryPiFoundation/projects/51/views/11?pane=issue&itemId=120513360&issue=RaspberryPiFoundation%7Cdigital-editor-issues%7C780

Related to: (standalone url)

Points for consideration:

Security

• Partial unique indexes prevent duplicate entries among active (non-rejected) schools
• Format validation enforces strict digit patterns (5-6 digits for URN, 12 digits for NCES ID)
• Case-insensitive uniqueness check prevents bypass attempts

What's changed?

Database:

• Converted reference index to partial unique index (WHERE rejected_at IS NULL)
• Converted district_nces_id index to partial unique index (WHERE rejected_at IS NULL)
• This allows rejected schools to release their identifiers for reuse by legitimate schools

Model (School):

• Added conditional presence validation: reference required for UK (country_code == 'GB')
• Added conditional presence validation: district_nces_id required for US (country_code == 'US')
• Added format validation: URN must be 5-6 digits, NCES ID must be 12 digits
• Added scoped uniqueness: only active (non-rejected) schools are checked for duplicates
• Added united_kingdom? and united_states? helper methods

API Error Responses:

Field	Validation	Error Message
reference	presence	"can't be blank"
reference	uniqueness	"has already been taken"
reference	format	"must be 5-6 digits (e.g., 100000)"
district_nces_id	presence	"can't be blank"
district_nces_id	uniqueness	"has already been taken"
district_nces_id	format	"must be 12 digits (e.g., 010000000001)"

Tests:

• 16 comprehensive validation tests covering:
  • Conditional presence (UK/US specific)
  • Format validation (valid/invalid patterns)
  • Scoped uniqueness (allows reuse after rejection)
• Updated factory to include valid reference for default GB schools

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR aims to make URN (reference) mandatory for UK schools and NCES ID (district_nces_id) mandatory for US schools, with format validation and scoped uniqueness constraints. However, there's a critical bug: the reference field is missing presence: true validation in the model, meaning URN is not actually mandatory for UK schools despite the PR's stated purpose.

Key changes:

• Converted database indexes for reference and district_nces_id to partial unique indexes allowing rejected schools to release identifiers for reuse
• Added format validation for URN (5-6 digits) and NCES ID (12 digits) fields
• Added district_name as required field for US schools
• Enhanced error responses to include detailed error types for better API feedback

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 14 out of 15 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
app/models/school.rb	Adds conditional format and uniqueness validations for reference/district_nces_id, plus united_kingdom?/united_states? helper methods. Missing presence validation for reference.
db/migrate/20251208134354_change_reference_and_nces_id_indexes_to_partial.rb	Converts reference and district_nces_id indexes to partial unique indexes (WHERE rejected_at IS NULL)
db/schema.rb	Reflects updated partial index constraints
spec/models/school_spec.rb	Adds comprehensive validation tests, but test on line 143-147 incorrectly asserts reference is not required for UK schools
spec/factories/school.rb	Adds sequential reference generation for default GB schools
spec/features/school/creating_a_school_spec.rb	Updates school creation to include reference field
spec/features/admin/schools_spec.rb	Sets reference to nil when testing US school scenarios
spec/concepts/school/create_spec.rb	Updates school creation params to include reference
spec/jobs/school_import_job_spec.rb	Adds district_name and district_nces_id to US school test data
lib/tasks/seeds_helper.rb	Adds conditional population of country-specific identifier fields, but missing district_name for US schools
lib/concepts/school/operations/create.rb	Adds error_types to operation response for detailed error handling
app/jobs/school_import_job.rb	Passes through district_name, district_nces_id, and school_roll_number fields
app/controllers/api/schools_controller.rb	Returns error_types in addition to error messages for create endpoint
config/locales/en.yml	Adds custom error messages for reference, district_nces_id, and school_roll_number validations
Gemfile.lock	Adds arm64-darwin-25 platform (developer environment update)

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 14 out of 15 changed files in this pull request and generated 7 comments.

[danhalson]

LGTM