[contents]
Copyright © 2005 W3C ® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark, document use rules apply.
This document describes the schema of the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0. The Evaluation and Report Language is a standardized format to describe test results. The primary motivation for developing this language is to facilitate the exchange of test results between Web accessibility evaluation tools in a vendor neutral and platform independent format. It will also provide reusable vocabulary for generic Web quality assurance and validation purposes. While this document focuses on the technical details of the specification, a companion document describes the motivations for EARL and provides a tutorial introduction to its use. [Editor's note: link EARL Guide once available]
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
This is a working group internal draft of the schema for the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0. Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.
This Working Draft is expected to be published and maintained as a W3C Recommnedation after review and refinement. The ERT Working Group encourages feedback about this Working Draft by Web developers and researchers with interest in software supported evaluation and validation of Web sites. Please send comments to the mailing list of the Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG). The archives for this list are publicly available.
This document was produced under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. The Working Group maintains a public list of patent disclosures relevant to this document; that page also includes instructions for disclosing [and excluding] a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) with respect to this specification should disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
This document has been produced as part of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The goals of the Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG) are discussed in the Working Group charter. The ERT WG is part of the WAI Technical Activity.
This section is informative.
Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) is a language to express test results. Test results include bug reports, test suite evaluations, and conformance claims. The test subject might be a Web site, an authoring tool, a user agent or some other entity. Thus, EARL is flexible. It enables any person, entity, or organization to state test results for any thing tested against any set of criteria.
Stating test results in EARL creates a variety of opportunities. The data can be
A companion document to this specification is intended to provide more introductory material and explanation of the use cases for EARL.
[Editor's note: this section will be synchronized with the EARL Guide as it is being developed.]
EARL statements contain the following information:
Prose examples that demonstrate the above structure:
Example 1: a person carries out a manual evaluation of a Web page against a test criteria
Example 2: an evaluation tool carries out automated evaluation of a Web page against a test criteria
There are many issues noted which need to be resolved in future drafts. Comments are specifically requested on any of these issues, which are marked as follows:
[Editor's note: there are some items that the working group has discussed but not reached consensus, and others that are known issues which have not yet been discussed]
Must, Should, May, should be used in accordance with RFC 2119 [MSM]
Where RDF terms are used in their abbreviated form (e.g. Assertion
or foaf:Person
), if no namespace is provided the term is in the EARL namespace. The following prefixes are used in examples throughout this document
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#
which is described in this documenthttp://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/
which is also where the terms are described [FOAF]http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
whose terms are described in [DC]http://purl.org/dc/terms/
also described at [DCT]http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
described in [RDF][Editor's note: should this be normative?]
EARL is defined as an RDF vocabulary. The Resource Description Framework (RDF) [RDF] is a general-purpose language for describing information in a way that is machine-understandable.
EARL is an RDF vocabulary used to make statements about how a resource performed against a test. In common with other RDF it assumes that other voacbularies will be used as appropriate.
For more information on RDF, please refer to the following references:
This chapter is normative.
The namespace for EARL as specified in this draft is http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#
.
[Editor's note: Versioning terms during the process of developing the vocabulary is an issue the group is working on. It is possible that a new namespace will be used for a final version of the vocabulary]
An assertion is a statement about the results of performing a test. This is the fundamental part of an EARL statement.
An assertion must have at least the following properties:
assertedBy
is defined by this specification.subject
is defined by this specification.testCase
is defined by this specification.result
is defined by this specification.mod
e is defined by this specification.Example 3: instance of an assertion expressed as an RDF/XML fragment
<earl:Assertion rdf:about="http://example.org/#assertion-1">
<earl:subject rdf:resource="http://example.org/#someID02495"/>
<earl:result rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#pass"/>
<earl:mode rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#manual"/>
<earl:testcase rdf:resource="http://example.org/#tc-1"/>
<earl:assertedBy rdf:resource="http://example.org/#assertor123" />
</earl:Assertion>
An assertor states the results of a test (i.e. an assertor asserts and assertion). An assertor must be either a person or a tool of class Assertor
which is defined by this specification. An assertor must belong to one of the following types:
Person
for a person. There should be identifying information including a name, and a uniquely identifying property such as email address or an encrypted email address. Again, the properties name
, mbox
and mbox_sha1sum
are defined by FOAF [FOAF].PersonUsingTool
class, and the usingTool
and user
properties to identify the people and tools concerned.Tool
used to be a sub class of Assertor
. The term Tool
has been deprecated in favour of Software
, which may also be a Test Subject.]The assertor in the following example is a person using software. Their personal email address is used to uniquely identify them, in both unencrypted and encrypted forms (it is not necessary to use both of these methods, but it is permitted). The test was done using a tool called "My Favourite Tool".
Example 4: instance of an assertor expressed as an RDF/XML fragment
<earl:PersonUsingTool rdf:about="http://example.org/#assertor123">
<earl:user>
<foaf:Person>
<foaf:name>Bob B. Bobbington</earl:name>
<foaf:mbox rdf:resource="mailto:bob@example.org"/>
<foaf:mbox_sha1sum>1a9daad476f0158b81bc66b7b27b438b4b4c19c0</foaf:mbox_sha1sum>
</foaf:Person>
</earl:user>
<earl:usingTool>
<earl:Software rdf:about="http://example.com/toolshop/MFT#20050101b2">
<dc:title xml:lang="en">My Favourite Tool</dc:title>
</earl:Software>
</earl:usingTool>
</earl:Assertor>
The class of things that have been evaluated. It needs to be qualified with some type of information in order to make it unambiguous. You may use an unambiguous property, or unambiguous constellation of properties.
Example 5: instance of an assertion expressed as an RDF/XML fragment
<earl:Software rdf:about="http://example.org/#someID02495"/>
<dc:title xml:lang="en">TestThisTool version 4</dc:title>
<dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#gDate">2005-06-25</dc:date>
</earl:Software>
The result of the test. This must have a validity property, whose value must be one of the Validity Levels
cannotTell
fail
notApplicable
notTested
pass
or a customised subClass of these.
It may also include a description, using the Dublin Core description
property. This is meant to be human-readable text or markup (for example HTML included as an XML Literal). This can be inserted by a tool or by a human evaluator.
There is a confidence property which allows an evaluator to assert their confidence in the result. This may be used where a tool wants to assert that it has difference levels of confidence about two possible results (for example low confidence that a test has been passed, but also high confidence that it is not applicable.
[Editor's note: there are currently value specified as confidence values, of high, medium, and low, but these are under discussion and may be removed or significantly revised since it is not yet clear how to ensure that they can be used interoperably]
The following example shows a result with a validity of fail and a description of the problem in XHTML:
Example 6: instance of an assertion expressed as an RDF/XML fragment
<earl:result rdf:parseType="Resource">
<earl:validity rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#fail"/>
<dc:description rdf:parseType="Literal">
<div xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<p>The <code>table</code> element is not allowed to appear
inside a <code>p</code> element</p>
</div>
</dc:description>
</earl:result>
A Test Case is a test - usually one that can either be passed or failed. This may include many things such as validation requirements, code test cases, checkpoints from guidelines such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10], etc. These should be identified with a URI.
A Test Case may be a compound test, or may be a part of a larger compound test. These relations can be described using Dublin Core's hasPart
or isPartOf
properties.
[Editor's note: This class is included for convenience, since it allows various useful properties to be described in simple standard RDF. The working group will deprecate this class if they find an appropriate replacement from a language designed for describing test cases, something which is beyond the scope of the current specification.]
The following example uses the Test Case class to identify a test case for an Assertion.
Example 7: instance of an assertion expressed as an RDF/XML fragment
<earl:testCase>
<earl:Testcase rdf:about="http://example.org/#tc-1">
<dc:title xml:lang="en">A sample test</dc:title>
</earl:Testcase>
</earl:testcase>
The value of the testCase property is by definition a Test Case, so the above example can be shortened to:
Example 8: instance of an assertion expressed as an RDF/XML fragment
<earl:testCase rdf:resource="http://example.org/#tc-1" />
The value of the mode property must be exactly one test mode (or subclass of a test mode - see extensibility for more explanation). The modes defined are
usingTool
property.Example 9: instance of an assertion in manual mode
<earl:Assertion rdf:about="http://example.org/#assertion-1">
<earl:mode rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#manual"/>
</earl:Assertion>
Because it is written as an RDF vocabulary EARL is extensible; that is, it is simple to add new terms or otherwise modify them to fit your own specific application demands more closely. EARL was designed to be extended. You may think of it as a core set of structures and terms. In addition, the working group expects to work on at least a couple of areas and extend the specification before publishing it as a Recommendation.
[Editor's note: there will be examples of extending EARL provided in a later draft]
The EARL vocabulary uses OWL [OWL] to provide formal constraints on what is valid EARL.
[Editor's note: the topic of conformance requirements beyond those implicit in the vocabulary definition will be discussed, and results will be incorporated into a future draft.]
[Editor's note: needs updating]
EARL is the result of the work of a great many people. In particular important contributions to the specification have been made by Shadi Abou-Zahra, Chrisoula Alexandraki, Myriam Arrue, Gabriele Bartolini, Giorgio Brajnik, Dan Brickley, Karl Dubost, Nick Gibbins, Al Gilman, Dominique Hazael-Massieux, Nadia Heninger, Ian Hickson, Carlos Iglesias, Leonard Kasday, Nick Kew, Johannes Koch, Jim Ley, William Loughborough, John Lutts, Charles McCathieNevile, Libby Miller, Tom Martin, Dave Pawson, Eric Prud'hommeaux, Pierre Queinnec, Chris Ridpath, Romain Roure, Aaron Swartz, Olivier Thoreaux, Paul Walsh and Rob Yonaitis.
The editors would particularly like to thank Sean B Palmer and Daniel Dardailler, who edited EARLier versions of EARL specifications.
The editors apologise for any names left out of this list, and will endeavour to rectify any errors noted in comments.
[Editor's note: needs updating]
[Editor's note: We should make a schema available at the namespace URI, which includes OWL information on deprecated terms]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding='UTF-8'?>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:earl="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#"
xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
xmlns:owl="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#">
<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertion">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">An assertion</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Parent node that contains all parts of an assertion</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#assertedBy"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#mode"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#result"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#subject"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#testcase"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
</rdfs:subClassOf>
</rdfs:Class>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#assertedBy">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">asserted by</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertion"/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertor"/>
</rdf:Property>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#result">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">result</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertion"/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestResult"/>
</rdf:Property>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#subject">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">subject</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertion"/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestSubject"/>
</rdf:Property>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#testcase">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">testcase</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertion"/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestCase"/>
</rdf:Property>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#mode">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">mode</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertion"/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestMode"/>
</rdf:Property>
<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertor">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Assertor Class</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Person or evaluation tool that claims assertions</rdfs:comment>
<owl:oneOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Thing rdf:type="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Software"/>
<owl:Thing rdf:type="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#PersonUsingTool"/>
<owl:Thing rdf:type="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person">
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/mbox"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/mbox_sha1sum"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
</rdfs:subClassOf>
</owl:Thing>
</owl:oneOf>
</rdfs:Class>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#usingTool">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Using the tool </rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#PersonUsingTool"/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Software"/>
</rdf:Property>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#user">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Using the tool </rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#PersonUsingTool"/>
<rdfs:range>
<owl:Thing rdf:type="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person">
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/mbox"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/mbox_sha1sum"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
</rdfs:subClassOf>
</owl:Thing>
</rdfs:range>
</rdf:Property>
<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Software">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Software Tool</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">A tool that can perform tests or be the subject of testing</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/terms/hasVersion"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
</rdfs:subClassOf>
</rdfs:Class>
<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestCase">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Test Case</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test case against which subjects are tested</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/terms/hasPart"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/terms/isPartOf"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
</rdfs:subClassOf>
</rdfs:Class>
<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestMode">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Test Mode</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Mode in which tests were conducted</rdfs:comment>
<owl:oneOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#manual">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Manual Testing Mode</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test was performed by a human</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#automatic">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Automatic Testing Mode</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test was performed by a tool</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#heuristic">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Heuristic Testing Mode</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Result was derived from other results</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
</owl:oneOf>
</rdfs:Class>
<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestResult">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Test Result</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Result from conducting test cases on subjects</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#confidence"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#validity"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1
</owl:minCardinality>
<owl:maxCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1
</owl:maxCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
</rdfs:subClassOf>
</rdfs:Class>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#confidence">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Confidence Level Property</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestResult"/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#ConfidenceLevel"/>
</rdf:Property>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#validity">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Validity Level Property</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestResult"/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#ValidityLevel"/>
</rdf:Property>
<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#ValidityLevel">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Validity Level</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Nominal value of the result</rdfs:comment>
<owl:oneOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#pass">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Pass</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test passed</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#fail">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Fail</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test failed</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#cannotTell">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Can Not Tell</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Outcome of the test is uncertain</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#notApplicable">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Not Applicable</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test is not applicable to the subject</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#notTested">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Not Tested</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test has not been carried out</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
</owl:oneOf>
</rdfs:Class>
<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#ConfidenceLevel">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Confidence Level</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Level of confidence in the given result</rdfs:comment>
<owl:oneOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#high">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">High Confidence</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Validity of the result is certain</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#medium">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Medium Confidence</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Validity of the result is not sure</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
<owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#low">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Low Confidence</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Validity of the result is questionable</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Thing>
</owl:oneOf>
</rdfs:Class>
<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestSubject">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Test Subject</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Subject of the assertion</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/terms/hasPart"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/terms/isPartOf"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/date"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1
</owl:minCardinality>
<owl:maxCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1
</owl:maxCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
</rdfs:subClassOf>
</rdfs:Class>
<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#WebContent">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Web Content</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Subjects that are available on the Web</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#httpRequest"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#httpResponse"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/location"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/format"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">0
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
</rdfs:subClassOf>
</rdfs:Class>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#httpRequest">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">http-request</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#WebContent"/>
</rdf:Property>
<rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#httpResponse">
<rdfs:label xml:lang="en">http-response</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#WebContent"/>
</rdf:Property>
</rdf:RDF>
The following terms are defined by this specification:
Class URI | Label | Required properties | Allowable types | Optional properties |
---|---|---|---|---|
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertion | Assertion |
|
||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertor | Assertor |
|
||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#PersonUsingTool |
|
|||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Software | Software tool | dc:title | dct:hasVersion | |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestCase | Test case |
|
||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestMode | Test mode |
|
||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestResult | Test Result | earl:validity |
|
|
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestSubject | Test Subject | dc:date |
|
|
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#WebContent | Web Content |
|
||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#ValidityLevel | Validity Level | |||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#ConfidenceLevel | Confidence Level | |||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#high | High Confidence | |||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#medium | Medium Confidence | |||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#low | Low confidence | |||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#pass | Pass | |||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#fail | Fail | |||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#notTested | Not tested | |||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#cannotTell | Cannot tell | |||
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#notApplicable | Not Applicable |
[Editor's note: There should be more linking around the different parts of the spec - schema, terms table, etc.]
Term URI | Label | Domain | Range |
---|---|---|---|
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#httpResponse | HTTP response information | earl:WebContent | unspecified |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#httpRequest | HTTP request information | earl:WebContent | unspecified |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#validity | validity | earl:TestResult | earl:ValidityLevel |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#confidence | confidence | earl:TestResult | earl:ConfidenceLevel |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#mode | mode | earl:Assertion | earl:TestMode |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#usingTool | using the tool | earl:PersonUsingTool | earl:Software |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#user | user | earl:PersonUsingTool | foaf:Person |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#assertedBy | asserted by | earl:Assertion | earl:Assertor |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#subject | result | earl:Assertion | earl:TestResult |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#subject | subject | earl:Assertion | earl:TestSubject |
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#testcase | test case | earl:Assertion | earl:TestCase |
New terms have been introduced to the vocabulary, sometimes as replacements for deprecated terms that existed in EARLier drafts, sometime to introduce new funtionality
Software
Tool
and is not a subclass of Assertor, so can be used to describe any type of tool.PersonUsingTool
usingTool
, user
httpRequest
, httpResponse
WebContent
A number of terms have been deprecated, either in favour of terms from existing widely-used vocabularies, or because their use is somehow problematic. While this deprecation is provisional, no RDF has been published formally noting them as deprecated (for example through OWL). A quick guide to terms that have been provisionally deprecated:
format
, reprOf
Tool
Software
classUserAgent
, platform
message
description
.Person
, name
, email
, contactInfo
The working group is considering several open issues which would lead to extending the current vocabulary before it reaches recommendation.
As well as issues noted in the draft, the following issues are under active consideration:
A mechanism to provide further evidence used to make a claim. This could be a copy of the web content analysed for a particular test, or a rule describing how may tests are required to pass some compund test, and pointers to the individual results that together satisfy the rule.
Within Web content, for the use case of testing accessibility, it is very valuable to point to the location(s) that cause the test to pass or fail. This is also true of software interfaces and various other kinds of subject. THe working group has agreed in principle to include a mechanism for recording this information in an EARL report, but has not yet developed or found the necessary terms.
There are currently placeholder properties httpRequest
and httpResponse
for HTTP transaction information. The group expects to develop these further, either themselves or with an existing vocabulary.
This is under review by the working group. It is not clear how the currently defined model can be used interoperably, and whether there is an alternative approch that would allow for a more interoperable statement of confidence in some results.
(see also appendix C Semantic Changes, which describes semantic changes to the terms in the vocabulary.
[Editor's note: need to complete this section.]