What is the legal test for making a mandatory or directory requirement?

Cal.Rptr.3d 124, 164 P.3d 557.) There is no mechanical test for determining whether a provision should be given mandatory or directory effect and we must ascertain the legislative intent "`from the terms of the statute construed as a whole, from the nature and character of the act to be done, and from the consequences which would follow the doing or failure to do the particular act at the required time.'" (Id. at pp. 101-102, 64 Cal.Rptr.3d 124, 164 P.3d 557, quoting Pulcifer v. County of Alameda (1946) 29 Cal.2d 258, 262, 175 P.2d 1.)