An XML eAIP is said to be valid if:
it is valid against the eAIP DTD and
it follows the additional rules.
A software product may be declared compliant with the XML eAIP if it can handle/produce/edit/etc. valid XML eAIP documents.
The XML eAIP may be informally validated using the tools available in the eAIP Core Toolbox.
To formally validate an XML eAIP comprises validating it against the official DTD published on EUROCONTROL's website, at the address defined in the location section in the eAIP Editor's Manual and then checking the eAIP for additional rules compliance.
The eAIP may be formally validated using the tools available in the eAIP Core Toolbox:
MakeAIP-core is a batch script provided within the eAIP Core
Toolbox. It allows compliance to both the eAIP Document Type
Definition (DTD) and the additional rules to be checked. Please
refer to the MakeAIP-core Documentation for more
details. If MakeAIP-core is configured correctly, typing
MakeAIP-core validator will check compliance
with the DTD and report any errors; it will then automatically run
MakeAIP-core schematron, which is described
below. The Validator will not explicitly report compliance.
Note that MakeAIP-core validates an eAIP against the DTD declared in the eAIP itself, which is generally a local copy of the DTD.
Most XML editing software is able to validate an eAIP against its DTD, but not against the additional rules. Therefore, the eAIP Core Toolbox includes an interactive tool, based on Schematron, which is able to list additional rules validation errors. To use it, follow these two steps:
Run MakeAIP-core schematron;
Open or reload the file ../../tools/Validator/schematron-frame.html.
This tool shows the list of errors in the upper part of the browser window and the whole XML source of the eAIP in the bottom part. When an error is clicked on, the bottom part is scrolled to the exact location where the error occurs. Each error is presented with a link to the eAIP additional rules, and the exact rule related to the error.
To view such a report please see the eAIP Specimen's
additional rules validation report. When downloading the
eAIP Core Toolbox, it is necessary to generate the report for the
first time: open a command-prompt window, change the directory to
the eAIP Core Toolbox installed directory and type
MakeAIP-core schematron. The eAIP Specimen
contains many errors as a result of the additional rules; most of
them are there to check the validation process.
The additional rules are described in plain English in the eAIP Editor's Manual. An implementation of these rules, in Schematron language, is provided in the eAIP Core Toolbox, in the file ../../tools/Validator/eAIP-schematron.xml, which is located in the tools/Validator directory in the eAIP Core Toolbox. Schematron is another XML grammar language, like DTD and XML Schema. It is undergoing International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standardisation to become "ISO/IEC 19757 - DSDL Document Schema Definition Language - Part 3: Rule-based validation - Schematron". A Schematron grammar is written in XML and is able to express certain rules that DTDs and XML Schemas cannot. For more information about Schematron, please refer to the Schematron home page.