[OAI-implementers] Schema Validation

[Hussein Suleman]

hi Ramon

i guess the short answer is that validation is not required either by a 
harvester or service provider (if these are separated). however, in 
quality-critical applications it is a good idea to do it.

that said, i think some of us assume the responses are more-or-less 
valid if we know that the archive has passed the RE and OAI Registry 
tests - so we don't test while harvesting. philosophically, in the 
extreme case, if a static archive was tested properly once, why should 
every service provider have to test it again?

but if you really want to ... to test for post-registration changes that 
make the archive non-compliant, you would have to do schema validation 
on every response/record obtained. to test for validity of every single 
record (rather than a sample like the RE checks) you could write a 
simple harvester that obtains and validates all the records of an 
archive (i have heard of such programs but havent seen one listed on the 
OAI website yet).

ttfn,
----hussein


Ramon Martins Sodoma da Fonseca wrote:
> Dear implementers,
> 
> I'm searching the previous messages too, but I haven´t found an answer yet.
> Asking it now may be faster..
> 
> I need to know if the protocol validates XML Schemas. I mean does the
> Service Provider program do that or the Harvester do it, and if either does
> it, how it´s accomplished. Apparently it doesn´t. There is no log of
> accessing the XSD file, and the code only outputs a valid header for the
> record...
> 
> The only place I have seen a schema validation is testing the repository in
> the OAI Explorer.
> 
> We are using the Protocol and the Harvesting program from Hussein Suleman,
> for OAI 2.0.
> 
> ............................................................................
> .................................................
> Ramón Martins S. da Fonseca
> Desenvolvimento Web
> IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia
> +55 61 217 6443 / 6347
> ............................................................................
> .................................................
> 
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hussein suleman ~ hussein@cs.uct.ac.za ~ http://www.husseinsspace.com
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