XML Catalog Conformance Test Suite

[Rob Lugt <roblugt@elcel.com>]

Is the Technical Committee interested in creating and maintaining an XML
Catalog conformance test suite similar to the OASIS/NIST conformance tests
for XML [1] ?

I believe it would be very useful for several reasons:-
1) Creating a "complete" set of tests is labour intensive and it's difficult
to get full coverage
2) It is likely to create more conformant (and therefore more interoperable)
implementations
3) It can act as a (non-normative) clarification for the specification

To help this process along I am happy to donate the regression tests that we
are using at ElCel Technology.  We have structured these tests in a similar
way to the Oasis XML conformance tests so that multiple parties can donate
separate test suites.

The attached zip file contains:-
xmlcatconf.dtd - A DTD describing the test cases
xmlcatconf.xml - A top-level file containing an entity for each test suite
elcel/valid.xml  - A set of test cases that test a selection of valid
catalog resolutions
elcel/*.xml - The catalog entry files.

To save on the number of catalog entry files, we use the same set of catalog
files for multiple tests.  This can make understanding the catalogs a little
tricky, but it does make the number of files more manageable.

We run the tests by reading xmlcatconf.xml with a perl script.  For each
test the perl script calls a simple command-line catalog driver and compares
the output with the expectedUri.  If it matches, then the test passed,
otherwise it failed.  I am happy to supply the perl script (and our driver)
if it would be helpful.

Kind regards
Rob Lugt
ElCel Technology

[1] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xmltest/testsuite.htm

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