Actually we have a test rig but few test cases and they are getting stale. We have an XML test file format which lets one create self contained test files ie you can put some binary data as a hex dump, text data, or even binary bit dumps, along with the XML equivalent of it (the natural xml peojection of the data) as XML data. The inverse for output as well. The test file references a DFDL schema so that the schema is exactly as it would be for "real" use. I'll find the links. ...mikeb On May 31, 2008, at 9:08 PM, "RPost" <rp0428@pacbell.net> wrote:

Hi,

I finally managed to connect to the DFDL site long enough to download a copy of ogf-dfdl-v1.0-Core-030.doc, the draft 30 doc.

In reviewing the doc and recent emails at the archives, http://www.ogf.org/pipermail/dfdl-wg/ , there are references to sample data and use cases that are being used to help refine the specification.

Can I get copies of any use cases and/or specific sample date that are being used? I would like to start creating a ‘DFDL sample’ companion doc that would contain a richer set of examples than what would be appropriate for the specification itself.

For example there was a recent discussion from the archives about Nulls and Defaults (Tue Apr 8 19:31:52 CDT 2008). Parts of the discussion regard what properties must be specified and what the allowable property/data combinations are.

I would like to create actual sample data for some of these cases (e.g. required field that is missing but has a default) and perhaps a truth table that shows explicitly what combination of properties must be specified to be valid.

This doc would not be concerned with exactly how (or where in the DFDL schema) a specific property is specified but only how the property/properties can be used for a specific test case.

Such a doc could help bring some clarity to the interaction of the properties and, at some future time, assist implementers in creating proper validation test sets.

If someone could forward me some sample use cases, or data scenarios (e.g. Cobol OCCURS data) and let me know which ones would be most useful to have some more detailed property examples for I could start the doc with those.

Thanks for any info.

Rick

p.s. The link I have been largely unsuccessful using to access the DFDL site is

http://www.ggf.org/ggf_areas_data.htm

Most of the links from this page, including the DFDL one, give proxy or maintenance errors.

I have emailed the webmaster about the problem but haven’t heard any thing back.

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