jsUnit and the DOM TS

I would like to start a thread here in the DOM TS mailing list where we 
can discuss the application of the upcoming jsUnit 1.3.0 to the DOM TS.

Some topics include:

How to incorporate the new version into the DOM TS and if any patches to 
jsUnit will be required to do so.

The explicit exposure of test function names in order to increase the 
number of supported browsers.

How to distinguish the default behavior of a browser from that provided 
by plugins which are not exposed as part of the browser's native 
document? For example, the DOM support provided by Internet Explorer's 
document object is quite distinct from that provided by the MSXML 
ActiveX control. This is somewhat similar to the situation with the 
Adobe SVG plugin.

The use of non-proprietary, standards based methods to load test 
documents.

For example, how can jsUnit's new asynchronous Document loading be used 
in the DOM TS? The new version of jsUnit provides a Document Loader 
which can load documents into an IFRAME from where they can be accessed 
by a test function. This is probably the most cross browser solution 
possible since it relies only on basic HTML 4, JavaScript and DOM 0 
support.

I think this approach should be the default method of loading test 
documents for the ECMAScript based tests, however there are issues with 
this approach. For example, Internet Explorer 5 on Windows transforms a 
raw XML Document into a DHTML Document when loaded into a browser 
document. Is there any way to turn this feature of Internet Explorer 
off? This may mean that Internet Explorer will require a different XML 
Document loading mechanism for the DOM CORE TS, but should not preclude 
supporting other browsers which do not have this problem. I do not 
believe this affects Internet Explorer's ability to load HTML Documents 
and should not affect the ability of the DOM HTML TS to use this 
approach when loading test documents.

Unfortunately, not all browsers support this approach. In particular, IE 
5.1 on Mac OS 9 and OS X do not appear to support this document loading 
approach. It remains to be seen whether other browsers support this 
approach as well. It is important that jsUnit 1.3.0 alpha be tested in 
as many browsers as possible so that we can determine the best document 
loading strategy. I encourage everyone to participate in the testing of 
jsUnit 1.3.0.

Is there a different approach which will provide better cross browsers 
document loading support?

/Bob

Received on Monday, 15 April 2002 16:08:20 UTC