[Bug]: No enforcement of untyped groups (electrodes table and bands table)

[ehennestad]

What happened?

MatNWB does not check if electrodes dynamic tables or band dynamic tables have the required datasets included according to how they are defined in the nwb schemas.

The following code should produce errors because the names of columns (colnames) in the dynamic table does not match the schema definition, but the code runs fine and the electrodes table can be exported to an NWB file without problem

Steps to Reproduce

nwb = NwbFile( ...
    'session_description', 'mouse in open exploration',...
    'identifier', 'Mouse5_Day3', ...
    'session_start_time', datetime(2018, 4, 25, 2, 30, 3, 'TimeZone', 'local'), ...
    'timestamps_reference_time', datetime(2018, 4, 25, 3, 0, 45, 'TimeZone', 'local'), ...
    'general_experimenter', 'Last Name, First Name', ... % optional
    'general_session_id', 'session_1234', ... % optional
    'general_institution', 'University of My Institution', ... % optional
    'general_related_publications', {'DOI:10.1016/j.neuron.2016.12.011'}); % optional


numShanks = 4;
numChannelsPerShank = 3;

ElectrodesDynamicTable = types.hdmf_common.DynamicTable(...
    'colnames', {'x_location', 'x_group', 'x_group_name', 'x_label'}, ...
    'description', 'all electrodes');

Device = types.core.Device(...
    'description', 'the best array', ...
    'manufacturer', 'Probe Company 9000' ...
);
nwb.general_devices.set('array', Device);
for iShank = 1:numShanks
    shankGroupName = sprintf('shank%d', iShank);
    EGroup = types.core.ElectrodeGroup( ...
        'description', sprintf('electrode group for %s', shankGroupName), ...
        'location', 'brain area', ...
        'device', types.untyped.SoftLink(Device) ...
    );
    
    nwb.general_extracellular_ephys.set(shankGroupName, EGroup);
    for iElectrode = 1:numChannelsPerShank
        ElectrodesDynamicTable.addRow( ...
            'x_location', 'unknown', ...
            'x_group', types.untyped.ObjectView(EGroup), ...
            'x_group_name', shankGroupName, ...
            'x_label', sprintf('%s-electrode%d', shankGroupName, iElectrode));
    end
end

nwb.general_extracellular_ephys_electrodes = ElectrodesDynamicTable;

nwbExport(nwb, 'ecephys_tutorial.nwb')

Error Message

No response

Operating System

macOS

Matlab Version

R2023b

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