Warn on DynamicTable read validation issues

[ehennestad]

Motivation

Following PR #818, DynamicTable validation now detects two metadata problems that can appear in existing NWB files: materialized columns missing from colnames, and duplicate entries in colnames.

Those checks are useful when creating or exporting new data, but applying them as hard errors while reading existing files breaks compatibility with files that were previously readable. This change makes parsed file reads permissive for these DynamicTable column-name issues while keeping user-side construction and export strict.

The implementation adds a generic validation context for read-time object construction, so this behavior can also support the broader read-validation policy discussed in related issue #776.

How to test the behavior?

Reading/parsing legacy DynamicTable metadata warns instead of failing.

io.createParsedType( ...
    'some/time_intervals/path', ...
    'types.core.TimeIntervals', ...
    'description', 'legacy time intervals table', ...
    'colnames', {'stop_time'}, ...
    'start_time', types.hdmf_common.VectorData( ...
        'description', 'start time column', ...
        'data', single((1:3)')), ...
    'stop_time', types.hdmf_common.VectorData( ...
        'description', 'stop time column', ...
        'data', single((2:4)')), ...
    'not_in_colnames', types.hdmf_common.VectorData( ...
        'description', 'not in colnames', ...
        'data', single((3:5)')));

Before:

Error using io.createParsedType (line 48)
Failed to create object of type "types.core.TimeIntervals" in file location "some/time_intervals/path".

Caused by:
    Error using assert
    All materialized DynamicTable columns must be listed in `colnames`.
    Missing from `colnames`: not_in_colnames

    Error in types.util.dynamictable.checkConfig (line 44)
        assert(isempty(missingColumnNames), ...
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    Error in types.core.TimeIntervals (line 80)
                types.util.dynamictable.checkConfig(obj);
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    Error in io.createParsedType (line 28)
            typeInstance = feval(typeName, varargin{:});

After:

Warning: All materialized DynamicTable columns must be listed in `colnames`.
Missing from `colnames`: start_time, not_in_colnames 
> In types.util.dynamictable.checkConfig>handleColumnNamesMismatch (line 133)
In types.util.dynamictable.checkConfig (line 47)
In types.core/TimeIntervals (line 80)
In io.createParsedType (line 32) 

Creating new invalid DynamicTable metadata remains strict.

types.hdmf_common.DynamicTable( ...
    'description', 'new dynamic table', ...
    'colnames', {'columnA', 'columnA'});

Before/After:

Error using types.util.dynamictable.validateUniqueColnames (line 29)
Column names in `colnames` must be unique. Duplicate column name: `columnA`.

Error in types.util.dynamictable.validateColnames (line 8)
    types.util.dynamictable.validateUniqueColnames(colnames);
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in types.hdmf_common.DynamicTable/validate_colnames (line 82)
        val = types.util.dynamictable.validateColnames(val);
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in types.hdmf_common.DynamicTable/set.colnames (line 66)
        obj.colnames = obj.validate_colnames(val);
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in types.hdmf_common.DynamicTable (line 52)
        obj.colnames = p.Results.colnames;
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^

Improve error/warning message on unique column validation

types.hdmf_common.DynamicTable(...
    'description', 'legacy dynamic table', ...
    'colnames', {'columnA', 'columnA'}, ...
    'columnA', types.hdmf_common.VectorData( ...
        'description', 'column a', ...
        'data', (1:3)'));

Before:

 Error using assert
Column names in `colnames` must be unique.

After:

 Error using types.util.dynamictable.validateUniqueColnames (line 29)
Column names in `colnames` must be unique. Duplicate column name: `columnA`.

Checklist

• Have you ensured the PR description clearly describes the problem and solutions?
• Have you checked to ensure that there aren't other open or previously closed Pull Requests for the same change?
• If this PR fixes an issue, is the first line of the PR description fix #XX where XX is the issue number?

[codecov]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 95.31250% with 3 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 95.42%. Comparing base (a1f3824) to head (ea11288).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
+types/+util/+dynamictable/normalizeColnames.m	84.61%	2 Missing ⚠️
...types/+util/+dynamictable/validateUniqueColnames.m	94.73%	1 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #822      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   95.26%   95.42%   +0.15%     
==========================================
  Files         212      215       +3     
  Lines        7624     7648      +24     
==========================================
+ Hits         7263     7298      +35     
+ Misses        361      350      -11     

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[bendichter]

It would be nice if you said which name was duplicated

[ehennestad]

Fixed in 4c81649