Extensible Markup Language (XML) Conformance Test Suites

Table of contents

  1. Overview
  2. This Document
  3. Releases
  4. News about releases
  5. Documents
  6. Meetings and telephone conferences
  7. Source files and CVS
  8. What's currently Going On?
  9. Would you like to participate?
  10. Acknowledgments

Overview

The XML Conformance Test Suite (XML TS) provides a set of metrics for determining conformance to the XML and XML namespace Recommendations:

The Test suite is occasionally updated to reflect the current work of the W3C XML Core Working Group. All releases of the XML TS will be available from this page.

The XML TS contains over 2000 test files and an associated test report that contains background information on conformance testing for XML as well as test descriptions for each of the test files included in this release. All interpretations of this Recommendation are subject to confirmation by the W3C XML Core Working Group.

Implementors are encouraged to write a harness around these tests to test their implementation for XML conformance.

This Document

This document serves as a first point of information for all interested parties. A general account of current activities, finalized work, and pointers to further information is given. In the sections below, you will be able to get a good view of the status of the XML TS, and if you are interested in something in particular you are invited to follow the appropriate link given below.

Releases

XML W3C Conformance Test Suite 20031210 The XML W3C Conformance Test Suite 20031210 has been released. You can download it in zip or
tar form.
XML W3C Conformance Test Suite 20080205 The XML W3C Conformance Test Suite 20080205 has been released. You can download it in zip,
gzipped tar or
tar form.
XML W3C Conformance Test Suite 20080827 The XML W3C Conformance Test Suite 20080827 has been released. You can download it in zip,
gzipped tar or
tar form.
XML W3C Conformance Test Suite 20130923 The XML W3C Conformance Test Suite 20130923 has been released. You can download it in zip,
gzipped tar or
tar form.

News about releases

The 2013 release is a minor release, including a small number of corrections and additions in response to feedback: see the test suite email archive for details.

The 2008 releases included tests for the updates to XML 1.0 for the fifth edition. A new EDITION attribute was added to the TEST element, for edition-dependent tests. Some older tests are now distinguished with EDITION="1 2 3 4" and the new tests all have EDITION="5". The 20080827 release included tests for 5th edition changes other than the major character set change, which were not included in the 20080205 release.

Documents

The development of the XML TS will be in accordance with the XML Conformance Test Suite Process Document.

There is also a FAQ for the XML TS. Please visit this page if this is your first visit and you want to gather basic information.

For background information on conformance testing for XML as well as test descriptions for each of the test files included in this release see the The XML Test Suite Report.

The W3C XML Group maintains issues related to the XML TS in the XML TS Issues Document (member-confidential).

Meetings and telephone conferences

We use the mailing list for developing the XML TS.

Source files and CVS

We are using the W3C public CVS for storing and tracking our source files. The project is called XML-Test-Suite.

What's currently going on?

Activity

For an up to date view of what is being done, visit the XML TS CVS repository.

For details, see the XML TS archive mailing list.

Would you like to participate?

Anyone who is interested in participating in this public framework is welcome. Please feel free to join our mailing list (see below) or send a mail to the W3C XML WG representative to the XML Conformance Test Suite.

General Mailing List

The W3C XML Conformance Test Suites has its own mailing list. This forms the primary platform for discussing issues regarding the XML TS.

Acknowledgments

The XML 1.0 (Second Edition) Conformance Test Suite was transferred from OASIS to W3C forming the basis for the XML W3C Conformance Test Suite.

A team of volunteer members have participated in the development of this work. Contributions have come from the W3C XML Core Working Group and The OASIS XML Conformance Technical Committee.


Liam Quinn, W3C staff contact

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