Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Schema

1. Introduction (Non-Normative)

[Editor's note: this section will be synchronized with the EARL 1.0 Guide [Guide] as it is being developed.]

The Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) is a format 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:

aggregated from different sources
exchanged between tools
used to create customized reports
combined to compare how different test subjects fared on the same test.

A companion document [Guide] to this specification provides more introductory material and explanation of the use cases for EARL.

1.1. Structure of EARL Results (Non-Normative)

EARL statements contain the following types of information:

Assertor: This can include information about who or what ran the test. For example human evaluators, automated accessibility checkers, or combinations of these.
Test Subject: This can include Web content (such as Web pages, videos, applets, etc.), software (such as accessibility checkers, validators, user agents, etc.), or other things being tested.
Test Criterion: What are we evaluating the test subject against? This could be a specification, a set of guidelines, a test from a test suite, or some other testable statement.
Test Result: What was the outcome of the test? Which parts of the test subject were significant for the outcome of the test? How confident can we be in the outcome?

Prose examples that demonstrate the above structure:

Example 1: a person carries out a manual evaluation of a Web page against a Test Criterion.

Assertor: Bob B. Bobbington
Test Subject: A Web page located at http://www.example.org/page.html
Test Criterion: Checkpoint 1.1 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
Test Result: Passed

Example 2: an software carries out automated evaluation of a Web page against a Test Criterion.

Assertor: The W3C Markup Validator located at http://validator.w3.org/
Test Subject: The XHTML returned from a GET request to the URI http://www.example.org/page.html at 2004-04-14T14:00:04+1000
Test Criterion: The validity of the XHTML code
Test Result: Failed, the <li> element on line 53, char 7 was not closed.

1.2. Document Conventions and Audience

Editorial Comments (Non-Normative)

There are a number of known issues in this draft, that 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 that have not yet been discussed]

This subsection will be removed from the final version of the document, and editorial comments will have been resolved.

Audience of this document (Non-Normative)

This document is intended as a brief complete specification of the EARL 1.0 vocabulary. It assumes that the reader is familiar with the ideas of RDF and can read its XML serialization as bare code. The assumed audience is developers who are implementing EARL in software or processes, or are seeking to understand the ideas, models, or properties and classes used in the EARL vocabulary. Readers who would like a more tutorial introduction to the language, with more explanation of its foreseen use cases, are referred to the EARL 1.0 Guide [Guide]. Readers who wish to understand more about RDF are advised to consider reading a general introduction, or reading the RDF Primer [RDF-PRIMER].

Keywords

The keywords must, required, recommended, should, may, and optional are used in accordance with RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

Namespaces

The namespace for EARL as specified in this draft is http://www.w3.org/2007/earl# [Editor's note: namespace document will be added at this URI pending WG decision].

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:

earl: The EARL namespace http://www.w3.org/2007/earl# which is described in this document
foaf: The FOAF namespace http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/ which is also where the terms are described [FOAF]
dc: The Dublin Core elements namespace http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/ whose terms are described in [DC]
dct: The Dublin Core terms namespace http://purl.org/dc/terms/ described at [DCT]
rdf: The RDF namespace http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns# described in [RDF]
rdfs: The RDF Schema namespace http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema# described in [RDFS]
owl: The OWL namespace http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl# described in [OWL]
xsd: The XMLS namespace http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema# described in [XMLS]

1.3. About RDF Vocabularies (Non-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 vocabularies will be used as appropriate.

For more information on RDF, please refer to the following references:

RDF Primer [RDF-PRIMER]
Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax Specification [RDF]
Why RDF model is different from the XML model [RDF-XML-DIFFS]

2. Core Vocabulary

The EARL 1.0 specification defines an RDF Vocabulary that consists of classes and properties. This section describes the core vocabulary and gives brief examples of its usage. Later sections describe extensibility of EARL 1.0; and conformance to EARL 1.0.

2.1. Assertion

An Assertion is a statement about the results of performing a test. The earl:Assertion class relates the required instances of an Assertor, Test Subject, Test Requirement, and Test Result to a specific Assertion. It is the fundamental unit of an EARL statement or set of statements.

An Assertion must have exactly one of the following properties:

earl:assertedBy: The Assertor is a human or software, or groups of these, that determine the result.
earl:subject: The thing that is being tested against some test criterion is the Subject of the assertion.
earl:test: The Test Criterion that is used to test a Test Subject of the assertion.
earl:result: The Result of the test - whether the subject passes or fails the test criterion (or there is some other result).

An Assertion may also include the following optional properties:

earl:mode: The mode in which the test was performed - as an automated computer process, by a human, or otherwise.

Example 3: instance of an assertion expressed as an RDF/XML fragment.

<earl:Assertion rdf:about="#assertion">
  <earl:assertedBy rdf:resource="#assertor"/>
  <earl:subject rdf:resource="#subject"/>
  <earl:test rdf:resource="#testcase"/>
  <earl:result rdf:resource="#result"/>
</earl:Assertion>

2.2. Assertor

An Assertor determines the results of a test (i.e. an assertor asserts and assertion). An earl:Assertor must belong to one of the following types:

earl:SingleAssertor

There is a single entity responsible for making the Assertion, it must be one of the following types:

foaf:Agent

The Assertor is an Agent, as defined in [FOAF]. An Agent is a super class of foaf:Person, foaf:Organization and foaf:Group which can all be used to describe an Assertor. However, since the foaf:Agent class and several of its subclasses are not currently considered as stable, these classes must be used with care. It is recommended to use the widely deployed foaf:Person and foaf:Organization classes, and to use them as follows:

foaf:Person: The Assertor is a human being. This uses the FOAF vocabulary term foaf:Person to describe a person. There should be identifying information including a name, and a uniquely identifying property such as email address or preferably an encrypted email address. The properties foaf:name, foaf:mbox and foaf:mbox_sha1sum are defined by FOAF [FOAF].
foaf:Organization: The Assertor represents an organization. This uses the FOAF vocabulary term foaf:Organization to describe the entity.; [Editor's note: can we say anymore about the intended usage of foaf:Organization?]

earl:Software

The Assertor is a piece of Software, such as a black box testing tool of some sort or an evaluation tool.

earl:CompoundAssertor

The Assertor is a compound group of persons and/or software. Each group must have at least one primary Assertor identified by the earl:mainAssertor property, and may, have secondary Assertor identified by the earl:helpAssertor property, as well as optional title and description identified by the [DC] dc:title and dc:description properties respectively.

Note: since the range of both the earl:mainAssertor and the earl:helpAssertor properties of the Compound Assertor reference earl:Assertor classes, these instances can be a Person, Agent, Software, or recursively another Compound Assertor.

Example 4: an Assertor that is a person called Bob B. Bobbington.

<foaf:Person rdf:about="#bob">
  <foaf:name>Bob B. Bobbington</foaf:name>
  <foaf:mbox rdf:resource="mailto:bob@example.org"/>
  <foaf:mbox_sha1sum>1a9daad476f0158b81bc66b7b27b438b4b4c19c0</foaf:mbox_sha1sum>
</foaf:Person>

Example 5: an Assertor that is a piece of software called Cool Tool (see also example 13).

<earl:Software rdf:about="#tool">
  <dc:title xml:lang="en">Cool Tool</dc:title>
  <dc:description xml:lang="en">My favorite tool!</dc:description>
  <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://example.org/tools/#cool"/>
  <dct:hasVersion>1.0.3</dct:hasVersion>
</earl:Software>

Example 6: a Compound Assertor of the person from example 4 using the software from example 5.

<earl:compoundAssertor rdf:about="#assertor">
  <dc:title xml:lang="en">Bob using Cool Tool</dc:title>
  <dc:description xml:lang="en">Bob doing semi-automated testing</dc:description>
  <earl:mainAssertor rdf:resource="#bob"/>
  <earl:helpAssertor rdf:resource="#tool"/>
</earl:compoundAssertor>

2.3. Test Subject

The Test Subject is the class of things that have been tested. This class is intentionally generic to serve a wide variety of usages. For more specific use cases, the EARL earl:WebContent or earl:Software classes can be used in place to describe Web Content or Software that is being tested.

The earl:TestSubject class may have any of the following properties:

dc:title: Human readable title for the subject
dc:description: Human readable description of the subject
dc:date: Date on which the subject was tested (or when it was identified if more appropriate)
dct:hasPart: Relationship to other subjects that are part of this subject
dct:isPartOf: Relationship to other subjects of which this subject is a part of

Example 7: Login module that is part of a system.

<earl:TestSubject rdf:about="file:///login.c">
  <dc:title xml:lang="en">Login Module</dc:title> 
  <dc:description xml:lang="en">Software module that is used for system login</dc:description> 
  <dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#date">2007-01-25</dc:date> 
  <dct:isPartOf rdf:resource="file:///system.c"/> 
</earl:TestSubject>

2.4. Test Criterion

A Test Criterion is a testable statement - usually one that can be passed or failed. It is a super class for all types of tests including things such as validation requirements, code test cases, checkpoints from guidelines such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10], or others.

While the generic earl:Testable class can be used directly, one of the following types should be used:

earl:TestRequirement: A higher-level requirement that is tested by executing one or more sub-tests. For example WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 1.1 which is tested by executing several sub-tests and combining the results.
earl:TestCase: An atomic test - usually one that is a partial test for a requirement. For example, checking if an image has an alt attribute which could be part of testing WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 1.1.

Any Test Criterion such as Test Requirement or Test Case should be identified with a URI using the Dublin Core dc:identifier property. A Test Criterion may be a single test, or part of a larger compound test suite. These relations may be described using Dublin Core's dct:hasPart or dct:isPartOf properties. Additionally, a title or description for the Test Criterion may be included by using the Dublin Core dc:title or dc:description properties.

[Editor's note: The earl:Testable, earl:TestRequirement, and earl:TestCase classes are included for convenience, since this allows various useful properties to be described in simple standard RDF. The working group will deprecate these classes if they find an appropriate replacement from a language designed for describing Test Criterion (including test requirements and test cases), something which is beyond the scope of the current specification.]

Example 8: instance of a test case that is described with a title and its relationship to a test suite.

<earl:TestCase rdf:about="#testcase">
  <dc:title xml:lang="en">HTML Test 282</dc:title>
  <dc:description xml:lang="en">Test 282 of the HTML test suite</dc:description>
  <dct:isPartOf rdf:resource="http://example.org/tests/html/"/>
  <dct:hasPart rdf:resource="http://example.org/tests/html/#617"/>
  <dc:identifier>http://example.org/tests/html/#282</dc:identifier>
</earl:TestCase>

2.5. Test Mode

The (optional) Test Mode information is used to simplify some commonly used queries on how the testing was carried out. When provided, it must reflect the information provided by the Assertor, and it must be exactly one of the following pre-defined values (or subclasses of them):

earl:manual: Where the test was performed based on a person's judgement. This includes the case where that judgement was aided through the use of a software tool, although this should be additionally noted through the earl:compoundAssertor class of the Assertor.
earl:automatic: Where a software tool has carried out the test automatically without any human intervention.
earl:semiauto: Where a software tool was primarily responsible for generating a result, even if with some human assistance. This should be additionally noted through the earl:compoundAssertor class of the Assertor.
earl:mixed: Where a combination of persons and software tools was used to carry out the test, but there is no detailed information about the primary responsibility for determining the outcome of the test. This includes when testing is carried out by organizations or groups of assertors, and the exact testing process is not disclosed.
earl:heuristic: This property was designed to cover assertions which are made by inference, for example based on several existing test results.

Example 9: the assertion from example 3 was carried out in semi-automatic mode.

<earl:Assertion rdf:about="#assertion">
  <earl:mode rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#semiauto"/> 
</earl:Assertion>

2.6. Test Result

The actual result of the test. It includes both machine-readable values as well as human-readable description of the results (typically error messages).

A Test Result must have exactly one validity property as follows:

earl:outcome: The Outcome is a machine-readable value that describes the result.

A Test Result should include the following properties:

dc:title: A short title for the result, for example the error code generated by an evaluation tool.
dc:description: A human-readable text or markup (for example HTML included as an XML Literal), and should therefore include an identification for the natural language.

A Test Result may also include any number of the following properties:

earl:instance: Each instance property uses the [Pointer Vocabulary] to identify locations within the Test Subject that triggered the result.; [Editor's note: the working group is developing a separate document to describe this pointer vocabulary.]
earl:info: Additional information beyond the description of the result. For example warnings or other informative messages that may help a reader better understand the result.

Example 10: A test result with a validity of fail and a description of the problem in English, and encoded in XHTML format.

<earl:TestResult rdf:about="#result">
  <earl:outcome rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#fail"/>
  <dc:title xml:lang="en">Invalid Markup (code #353)</dc:title>
  <dc:description rdf:parseType="Literal" xml:lang="en">
    <div 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:instance rdf:resource="#instance"/>
</earl:TestResult>

2.6.1. Outcome

Outcome of a test must be one of the following pre-defined values (or subclasses of them):

earl:pass: An assertor claims a test passed successfully.
earl:fail: The Test Subject did not meet the Test Criterion.
earl:cannotTell: An Assertor can not tell for sure what the outcome of the test is. Usually this happens when an automated test requires human judgement to make a definite decision.
earl:notApplicable: The Test Criterion is not applicable to the given Test Subject.
earl:notTested: Test has not been carried out. This is useful for reporting as well as for other uses of progress monitoring.

2.7. Software Tool

A Software Tool is any software such as an authoring tool, browser, or evaluation tool. Software should have a title using the Dublin Core property dc:title; and may have descriptions, version information, and a home page using the Dublin Core terms dc:description, dct:hasVersion, as well as the FOAF term foaf:homepage.

While the software class is often used to describe evaluation tool assertors, a software could also be a Test Subject (for example to test compliance of an authoring tool to the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines). In this case, it inherits the optional properties dc:date, dct:isPartOf and dct:hasPart from the Test Subject class.

Example 11: The software which was an Assertor in example 5 could also be used as a Test Subject.

<earl:Assertion rdf:about="#assertion">
  <earl:subject>
    <earl:Software rdf:about="#subject">
      <dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#date">2005-06-25</dc:date> 
      <dct:isPartOf rdf:resource="http://example.org/tools/"/>
      <dct:hasPart rdf:resource="http://example.org/tools/cool/#module-1"/>
    </earl:Software>
  </earl:subject>
</earl:Assertion>

2.8. Web Content

Information on the World Wide Web. This should include enough information to identify the content actually tested, taking account of content type and language negotiation and similar factors that can change the content actually served. This class is intended to be used as a test subject but can be reused for other purposes (outside EARL) as well.

Web Content must have the following properties:

dc:date: Date on which the Web content was retrieved, for example the date and time on which an HTTP GET request was issued to the Web server.
Term for URI: [Editor's note: the Working Group will be defining a term to identify the Web location (a.k.a. URL).]

Web Content may have the following optional properties:

dc:format: Format of the Web content. This reflects the mime type returned from the Web server such as "text/HTML", "image/PNG", etc.
earl:httpRequest: HTTP request sent by the client to the server in order to initiate a response
earl:httpResponse: HTTP response (except the actual payload of the date) sent by the server to the client

Note: an instance of the Web Content class may include several request/response sequences to document the content and language negotiation that took place before the content was finally sent.

[Editor's note: the request/response properties of this class are intended to make use of HTTP vocabulary in RDF that will be published in a separate document.]

Example 14: TBD

TBD

Appendix A: EARL 1.0 Schema in RDF/XML

[Editor's note: need to 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:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
         xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
         xmlns:owl="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#"
         xmlns:xmls="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#">

  <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>
        <!--// @@@ EDITORS' NOTE: decision regarding maxCardinality restriction pending //-->
      </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>
        <!--// @@@ EDITORS' NOTE: decision regarding maxCardinality restriction pending //-->
      </owl:Restriction>
      <owl:Restriction>
        <owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#test"/>
        <owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#nonNegativeInteger">1</owl:minCardinality>
        <!--// @@@ EDITORS' NOTE: decision regarding maxCardinality restriction pending //-->
      </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>
        <!--// @@@ EDITORS' NOTE: decision regarding maxCardinality restriction pending //-->
      </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">Is 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#subject">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Has Test 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#test">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Has Test Criterion</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#Testable"/>
  </rdf:Property>
  <rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#result">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Has Test 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#mode">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Has Test 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</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Persons or evaluation tools that claim assertions</rdfs:comment>
    <owl:oneOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
      <owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#SingleAssertor"/>
      <owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#CompoundAssertor"/>
    </owl:oneOf>
  </rdfs:Class>

  <rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#SingleAssertor">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Single Assertor</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">One 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://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person"/>
      <owl:Thing rdf:type="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Agent"/>
    </owl:oneOf>
  </rdfs:Class>

  <rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#CompoundAssertor">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Compound Assertor</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Group of persons or evaluation tools that claim assertions</rdfs:comment>
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
      <owl:Restriction>
        <owl:onProperty rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#mainAssertor"/>
        <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#mainAssertor">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Has Main Assertor</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Assertor mainly responsible for determining assertion result</rdfs:comment>
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#CompoundAssertor"/>
    <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#helpAssertor">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Has Help Assertor</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Assertor assisting to determine assertion result</rdfs:comment>
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#CompoundAssertor"/>
    <rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertor"/>
  </rdf:Property>
	
  <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:Class>

  <rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Testable">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Test Criterion</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">A testable statement against which subjects are tested</rdfs:comment>
  </rdfs:Class> 

  <rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestRequirement">
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Testable"/>
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Test Requirement</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">A requirement against which subjects are tested</rdfs:comment>
  </rdfs:Class>

  <rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestCase">
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Testable"/>
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Test Case</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">A test case against which subjects are tested</rdfs:comment>
  </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</rdfs:label>
        <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test was performed by a human only</rdfs:comment>
      </owl:Thing>
      <owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#automatic">
        <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Automatic</rdfs:label>
        <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test was performed by a tool only</rdfs:comment>
      </owl:Thing>
      <owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#semiauto">
        <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Semi-Automatic</rdfs:label>
        <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test was performed primarily by a tool, and human assistance</rdfs:comment>
      </owl:Thing>
      <owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#mixed">
        <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Mixed</rdfs:label>
        <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">Test was performed by a combination of persons and tools</rdfs:comment>
      </owl:Thing>
      <owl:Thing rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#heuristic">
        <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Heuristic</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://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#validity">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Has Validity Level</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>
  <rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#confidence">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Has Confidence Level</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#instance">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Has Location Instance</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#TestResult"/>
  </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#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>
    </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://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/date"/>
        <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#httpRequest">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">With 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">With HTTP Response</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#WebContent"/> 
  </rdf:Property>

  <!-- Deprecated Terms -->
  <rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#evidence">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">evidence</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertion"/>
  </rdf:Property>
  <rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#methodology">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">methodology</rdfs:label>
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#Assertion"/>
  </rdf:Property>
  <rdf:Property rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/EARL/nmg-strawman#requirement">
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Has Requirement</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#TestRequirement"/>
  </rdf:Property>

  <!-- Replaced Terms -->
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="#singleAssertor">
    <owl:sameAs rdf:resource="#SingleAssertor" />
  </rdf:Description>
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="#compoundAssertor">
    <owl:sameAs rdf:resource="#CompoundAssertor" />
  </rdf:Description>

</rdf:RDF>

Classes in the EARL namespace
Name	Label	Allowable types	required properties	recommended properties	optional properties
`earl:Assertion`	Assertion		`earl:assertedBy` `earl:subject` `earl:test` `earl:result`		`earl:mode`
`earl:Assertor`	Assertor	`earl:SingleAssertor` `earl:CompoundAssertor`
`earl:SingleAssertor`	Single Assertor	`earl:Software` Any `foaf:Agent`, especially `foaf:Person` and `foaf:Organization`
`earl:CompoundAssertor`	Compound Assertor		`earl:mainAssertor`		`dc:title` `dc:description` `earl:helpAssertor`
`earl:TestSubject`	Test Subject	`earl:WebContent` `earl:Software`			`dc:title` `dc:description` `dc:date` `dct:hasPart` `dct:isPartOf`
`earl:Testable`	Test Criterion	`earl:TestRequirement` `earl:TestCase`			`dc:title` `dc:description` `dct:hasPart` `dct:isPartOf`
`earl:TestRequirement`	Test Requirement				`dc:title` `dc:description` `dct:hasPart` `dct:isPartOf`
`earl:TestCase`	Test Case				`dc:title` `dc:description` `dct:hasPart` `dct:isPartOf`
`earl:TestMode`	Test mode	`earl:manual` `earl:automatic` `earl:semiauto` `earl:mixed` `earl:heuristic`
`earl:TestResult`	Test Result		`earl:outcome`	`dc:title` `dc:description`	`earl:instance` `earl:info`
`earl:Outcome`	Outcome	`earl:pass` `earl:fail` `earl:cannotTell` `earl:notApplicable` `earl:notTested`
`earl:Software`	Software Tool			`dc:title`	`dct:hasVersion` `dc:description` `foaf:homepage`
`earl:WebContent`	Web Content		`dc:date`	`dc:format` `earl:httpRequest` `earl:httpResponse`

Properties in the EARL namespace
Name	Label	Domain	Range
`earl:assertedBy`	Is Asserted By	`earl:Assertion`	`earl:Assertor`
`earl:subject`	Has Test Subject	`earl:Assertion`	`earl:TestSubject`
`earl:test`	Has Test Criterion	`earl:Assertion`	`earl:Testable`
`earl:result`	Has Test Result	`earl:Assertion`	`earl:TestResult`
`earl:mode`	Has Test Mode	`earl:Assertion`	`earl:TestMode`
`earl:mainAssertor`	Has Main Assertor	`earl:CompoundAssertor`	`earl:Assertor`
`earl:helpAssertor`	Has Help Assertor	`earl:CompoundAssertor`	`earl:Assertor`
`earl:outcome`	Has Outcome	`earl:TestResult`	`earl:Outcome`
`earl:info`	Has Information	`earl:TestResult`	Literal
`earl:instance`	Has Location Instance	`earl:TestResult`	[Editors' note: to be specified.]
`earl:httpRequest`	With HTTP Request	`earl:WebContent`	[Editors' note: to be specified.]
`earl:httpResponse`	With HTTP Response	`earl:WebContent`	[Editors' note: to be specified.]

Values in the EARL namespace
Name	Label	Used In
`earl:manual`	Manual	`earl:TestMode`
`earl:automatic`	Automatic	`earl:TestMode`
`earl:semiauto`	Semi-Automatic	`earl:TestMode`
`earl:mixed`	Mixed	`earl:TestMode`
`earl:heuristic`	Heuristic	`earl:TestMode`
`earl:pass`	Pass	`earl:ValidityLevel`
`earl:fail`	Fail	`earl:ValidityLevel`
`earl:notTested`	Not tested	`earl:ValidityLevel`
`earl:cannotTell`	Cannot tell	`earl:ValidityLevel`
`earl:notApplicable`	Not Applicable	`earl:ValidityLevel`

Appendix C: Document Changes (Non-Normative)

This section records current changes and future plans for changes as the the working draft matures to Recommendation level.

Difference to the previous published Working Draft

This section describes differences between this draft and the EARL 1.0 Schema draft of 9 September 2005.

The former Appendix B: EARL 1.0 Schema in N3 has been removed.
Redundant constraints on optional properties have been removed from the schema.
Added a subsection on the expected audience of this document.
Made namespace and use of RFC 2119 terms normative.
Added earl:mixed and earl:semiauto values for the earl:TestMode class.
Made the earl:mode property of earl:Assertion optional.
Made the dc:date property of earl:TestSubject optional.
Made the dc:title property of earl:Software recommended.
Removed the (high, medium and low) values from earl:confidence.
Added foaf:Agent to the list of allowable Assertor types.
Added earl:Testable as a super class of earl:TestCase and added earl:TestRequirement as a further subclass of earl:Testable.
Replaced dc:location with dc:identifier in earl:Testable (and its subclasses) and with foaf:homepage in earl:Software.
Added several types of location pointers in the earl:TestResult class.
Made dc:date a required attribute of the earl:WebContent class.
Added table column for recommended properties in the terms section.
Several typographical edits including naming of the property and class labels, checking and optimizing the examples, as well as rewording of several sections.

Difference to the first published Working Draft

This section describes the changes made since the EARL 1.0 draft of 12 December 2002.

Document split into a specification (this document) and a companion document. Most content stripped out of specification document, and new issues under discussion noted.
Schema presented without the use of XML entities.
Typographical errors in schema fixed, so it validates.
Re-ordering of the Schema and document. Instead of being organised as a list of classes, then properties, then instance classes, the document and the schema are both organised around the key classes as the framework for defining their use.
Redundant (rdf:Resource) and incorrect (rdfs:Resource) sub-class declarations removed.
Schema labels given xml:lang attributes as appropriate.
Labels converted to grammatical english (from camelCaseAlmostWords).
Schema encoded in default UTF-8.
Removed earl:Platform class.
Replaced earl:message, earl:format, earl:Person, earl:name, earl:email, and earl:contactInfo with equivalent terms from the Dublin Core and FOAF vocabularies.
Added earl:Software class to replace the deprecated earl:Tool and earl:UserAgent classes. It can be used to decribe a assertor tools or test subjects.
Added earl:SingleAssertor, earl:CompoundAssertor, earl:mainAssertor, and earl:helpAssertor to better describe different kinds of assertors.
Added earl:WebContent to replace the deprecated earl:ReprOf class.
Added earl:httpRequest and earl:httpResponse properties in earl:WebContent class to describe the request/response sequences that were exchanged.

New terms

New terms have been introduced to the vocabulary, sometimes as replacements for deprecated terms that existed in earlier drafts, sometimes to introduce new funtionality

Terms added since the previous published Working Draft

earl:mixed and earl:semiauto: These values extend the range of allowed values of the test earl:TestMode.
earl:test and earl:Testable: Super class of earl:TestCase and earl:TestRequirement.
earl:instance and several location pointers: Several classes and properties to provide different means of pointing to parts of the test subject that were significant for determining the result.

Terms added since the first published Working Draft

earl:Software: This class replaces the deprecated earl:Tool. It can be used to decribe a assertor tools or test subjects.
earl:SingleAssertor, earl:CompoundAssertor: These classes are derivatives of an Assertor to help describe complex groups of person and/or tool evaluators.
earl:mainAssertor, earl:helpAssertor: These properties of a compound assertor can be used to describe the specific roles of evaluators within a group.
earl:httpRequest, earl:httpResponse: These are placeholder properties for describing WebContent (or a Delivery Unit on the Web).

Deprecated terms

A number of terms that existed in earlier drafts 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:

earl:evidence: This was intended to provide a method for describing the justification used to infer a claim based on other claims. It has been deprecated for now.
earl:methodology: This was intended to provide a link for what method was used for a particular test. It has been deprecated as unnecessary.
earl:requirement: This term was deprecated in favor of a more generic approach with a Test Criterion super class
high, medium and earl:low: These values for the earl:confidence property were deprecated in favour of authors defining their usage in a way that encourages interoperability.
earl:reprOf: This term was deprecated in favour of a more comprehensive approach to describing Web content.
earl:UserAgent, earl:Tool: These terms were deprecated in favour of the more generic earl:Software class.
earl:platform: This term was deprecated as it did not seem to be widely accepted and implemented.
earl:message, earl:format: These terms were deprecated in favour of the Dublin Core terms dc:description and dc:format.
earl:Person, earl:name, earl:email, earl:contactInfo: These terms were deprecated in favour of equivalent terms from the FOAF vocabulary.

Working group change plans

No significant changes are currently planned by the Working Group. However, there are several open questions and modifications that need to be made before Last Call. The currently known issues are highlighted within this document and indicated as "Editors Notes".

Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Schema

Appendices

1. Introduction (Non-Normative)

1.1. Structure of EARL Results (Non-Normative)

Editorial Comments (Non-Normative)

Audience of this document (Non-Normative)

1.3. About RDF Vocabularies (Non-Normative)

Appendix B: EARL 1.0 Terms (Non-Normative)

Appendix C: Document Changes (Non-Normative)

Difference to the first published Working Draft

Terms added since the previous published Working Draft

Terms added since the first published Working Draft

Appendix D: References (Non-Normative)

Appendix E: Contributors (Non-Normative)

Contributors to this and/or previous Working Drafts