Better Conformance Testing Through Automation: A Software-Based Approach to Creating Conformance Tests for W3C XML Schema

Published

May 1, 2003

Author(s)

John M. Tebbutt

Abstract

This paper describes our experiences in developing a highly configurable, extensible, component-based tool for the creation of conformance tests for XML (eXtensible Markup Language) Schema. It discusses our goals in building the tool; the needs it was designed to fill; its architecture; and finally its capabilities and limitations. The tests produced consist of a set of schemas, each with a corresponding set of instance documents. Alongside the test files themselves is produced a set of metadata, which enables fully automated processing and result presentation of the test collection. The tool achieves this by combining information obtained from the normative Schema for schemas and a local XML control document, using a java class library to generate the required test values, and wrapping these values appropriately. To date, the tool is capable of producing conformance tests for all Schema built-in simple datatypes, including list and union datatypes. Some 6,000+ tests produced by the tool are currently included in the World Wide Web Consortium's test suite for XML Schema. We are also experimenting with incorporating the tool in the automation of test production for XML Query. Our aim as testers is to develop a tool which is flexible, extensible, responsive, easily configurable and modifiable, and which enables us to provide broad coverage of the Recommendation while at the same time minimizing our involvement in individual test production and simplifying the testing procedure for product developers. We believe this tool is a good first step towards that end.

Proceedings Title

XML Europe 2003 Conference Proceedings

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

conformance, conformance testing, datatypes, schema, W3C XML schema, XML

Citation

Tebbutt, J. (2003), Better Conformance Testing Through Automation: A Software-Based Approach to Creating Conformance Tests for W3C XML Schema, XML Europe 2003 Conference Proceedings (Accessed April 26, 2024)