Jack, Jack Schwartz wrote: > > On 05/18/09 04:22, William Schumann wrote: > ... >> Sematic validation: >> This could be done in a separate library so that it can be used by AI >> both on the client and on the AI server. The semantics will be >> identical on both. > Please elaborate. What would go into this library? First, I would like to further classify validation. A) RelaxNG validation - very basic datatypes B) semantic validation - validity checking according to data types beyond RelaxNG C) application-specific validation - e.g., checking for mutually-exclusive elements and elements that are required in certain combinations by the application - in this instance, AI D) install-time validation - when Target Discovery information is available
Now, optimally, the server should have A, B, and C, where the client needs also D. RelaxNG has a very limited set of datatypes. URLs, for example, are not recognized. This is where the semantic validation would come in. Since there is no URL datatype, any elements that are URLs would have to be known by the semantic parser. Possible approaches to handling semantic validation (B) and maybe application-specific validation (C): 1- extend RelaxNG schema by adding new datatypes such as URL, and make ManifestServ handle the new datatypes 2- have code that ManifestServ calls to do the extra validation based on user-specific elements. The IPS repository, for example, is an URL, and it is used in two different elements: the primary repository and the mirror. ai_repo_name and ai_mirror_name would be validated here 3- have a separate library that handles semantic (B) and application-specific (C) validation outside of ManifestServ I propose a separate library to handle semantic validation (B) that also has code for application-specific validation (C) (could also be 2 separate libraries). installadm and auto-install consume this library (on server and client). The library is a layer between AI and ManifestServ. It uses ManifestServ to do basic RelaxNG parsing, performs semantic and application-specific validation, and services requests such as, return the element X, return list elements in X[], return all child elements of X, etc. install-time validation (D) is performed by auto-install, only. William
