identifying test subjects

Dear Group,

There is an open issue that the Test Subject class does not have a (built in) mechanism to identify what it is describing (a handle). For example if a local file is tested, then it doesn't make sense to use a WebContent class to describe it. At the same time, the TestSubject class does not provide a consistent mechanism to describe the filename (nor do we recommend a method).

There are currently two proposals on the table:

* PROPOSAL 1: Add an optional dc:identifier property to the TestSubject class.
* PROPOSAL 2: Add an optional uri:uri property to the TestSubject class.

The disadvantage of proposal 1 is that the dc:identifier property would be inherited by any class that is used as a test subject (for instance WebContent). This would potentially overlap with other properties (such as the uri:uri property of the WebContent class) and cause confusion.

The disadvantage of proposal 2 is that it restricts the identifier of any test subject to be a URI which may not always be the case. For example when testing a software (such as the compliance of a browser with UAAG), the uri:uri property would equally overlap with foaf:homepage property.

My suggestion would be to go ahead with proposal 1 and introduce the dc:identifier to the TestSubject class. For the WebContent and Software classes we will need to emphasize thst the uri:uri and foaf:homepage respectively are used as identifiers (thus making dc:identifier for these classes a secondary supplement). Other TestSubject types should use the dc:identifier as appropriate. For example to record the filenames of local files.

What do others think?

Regards,
 Shadi


-- 
Shadi Abou-Zahra     Web Accessibility Specialist for Europe | 
Chair & Staff Contact for the Evaluation and Repair Tools WG | 
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)           http://www.w3.org/ | 
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI),   http://www.w3.org/WAI/ | 
WAI-TIES Project,                http://www.w3.org/WAI/TIES/ | 
Evaluation and Repair Tools WG,    http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/ | 
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Received on Monday, 25 September 2006 08:41:21 UTC