Zoho CRM Validate Field with a Function Cannot Get Vendor ID

Zoho CRM Validate Field with a Function Cannot Get Vendor ID

I am working with the Vendor module.  I am validating a field using a function.  I use the Vendor ID associated with the Vendor Name in a subsequent look up.  The code I use is:

  1. //  First two lines are the standard reading of the record passed to the validate function
    PurchaseOrderRecord = crmAPIRequest.toMap().get("record");
    response = Map();
    //  Attempt to read from the passed record
        PurchaseOrderVendorRecord = PurchaseOrderRecord.get("Vendor_Name");
        PurchaseOrderVendorID = PurchaseOrderVendorRecord.get("id");
        PurchaseOrderVendorName = PurchaseOrderVendorRecord.get("name");
    //  Using the returned Vendor ID to look up the corresponding record for other lookups
        VendorRecord = zoho.crm.getRecordById("Vendors",PurchaseOrderVendorID);

This code works fine as a standalone function when I hard code a valid vendor ID and don't pass anything to the function.

When I use this as a function to validate a field, it breaks on the line where I attempt to '.get("id")'.

My questions are:
1.  what does the record used in the validate  which is passed to the function look like?
2.  is there any way to capture / echo it?  Since this is a validate function, the only passing back I've found is in '
    response.put('status','error');
    response.put('message',ErrorMessage);'
and that's limited to 100 characters.  'info' echoes can't be seen since you can't see the console when you're doing a validate AND I can't run in the dev window because I don't know what the record that is passed to the function looks like (question 1).

I am able to read from other modules when I have a valid ID.  The trick in this case is finding the valid Vendor ID from the record passed to the function when it is used as a validate function. 

Any help in surfacing what the record passed to the validate function has as its elements would be appreciated.