Alces A Tool for Testing JDF Software Claes Buckwalter Linköping University Sunday, November 6, 2005 Strasbourg

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

Interoperability Conformance 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 System under 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 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: –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 Buckwalter