AlcesA Tool for Testing JDF

Softwarehttp://elk.itn.liu.se/alces

Claes BuckwalterLinköping University

Sunday, November 6, 2005Strasbourg

Alces

• Alces plays the role of a Manager and is used for testing the JDF compliance of a Worker, such as a RIP, a printing press, a binding machine, etc.

• Java application

• CIP4 open source license

• Two flavors

– Interactive Alces — GUI

– Automated Alces — command-line interface

InteroperabilityConformance Specifications

• The JDF Specification defines the format and semantics of data exchanged between JDF-enabled systems

• The ICSs define requirements on the behavior of JDF-enabled systems

• Conformance requirements depend on

– Product role: Manager or Worker

– Product sector: prepress, digital printing,

postpress, etc

– Product complexity: three levels of complexity,

Conformance Levels 1–3

Testing a Worker

• Alces is a Manager—it implements the Manager Interface

• The system under test is a Worker—it implements the Worker Interface

Alces(Manager)

JDF/JMF

JDF/JMF

Systemunder test(Worker)

Testing a Worker

• Probe the Worker with JMF/JDF input

• Verify that the outputted JMF/JDF is valid

• Verify that the functionality defined by the ICSs the Worker claims conformance with is supported

Worker

JMF/JDF JMF/JDF

Other output(ignored)

Black box testing

Interactive Alces

• Graphical user interface• Automatic discovery of supported JMF messages• Submit JDF job tickets• Queue view• Send automatically generated JMF messages• Send hand-coded JMF messages• Receives Signal messages (subscriptions)• Receives Acknowledge messages (asynchronous

Responses)• CheckJDF-validation of all sent and received JMF• Pluggable custom tests• View all messages sent and received

Automated Alces

• Command-line interface

• Automatically sends all JMF/JDF/MIME files in a specified directory

• Receives Signal messages (subscriptions)

• Receives Acknowledge messages (asynchronous Responses)

• CheckJDF-validation of all JMF messages sent and received

• Pluggable custom test

• Generates a test report in XML-format (including style sheet for viewing in XSLT-capable web browser)

Use Cases

• Learning and understanding JMF messaging

• Troubleshooting

• Product testing

• Automated build testing

• Product certification?

More Information

• Project homepage: http://elk.itn.liu.se/alces– Source and binary distributions

– Documentation

• Current project team– Claes Buckwalter, Linköping University

– Marco Kornrumpf, arvato systems

• Related papers– A Tool for Testing Compliance with CIP4’s Interoperability Conformance Specifications, DPP2005 Proceedings

– Alces—A Tool for Testing JDF Compliance, Printing Future Days Proceedings

Thank you for listening

Claes Buckwalterclabu@itn.liu.se