Re: [FeedValidator] RSS 1.0: problems with feed, validator, CPAN module or specification?

Brian Kelly wrote:
> Hi Olivier, Sam
>    Many thanks for your speedy response to my query, identifying the problem
> and deployed a fix.  Much appreciated.
>    However as validators are of such importance to W3C and as the QA group
> has an interest in the QA processes for ensuring standards and (I assume)
> related applications such as validators, I think it would be useful to
> identify what went wrong in this case and what can be done to make
> improvements  (note a colleague who is a software developer felt that most
> developers wouldn't have such a faith in validators as I do - but if you
> can't trust the validators, what's the point of validation?).
>    I appreciate that this may be overstating things - and in terms of the
> speed of the response, the system is working fine.
>    Anyway I've written something about this at:
> 
> http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2007/02/07/validators-dont-always-work/
> 
> Comments welcome.

My response can be found here:

http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/2007/02/07/Validating-the-Validators

- Sam Ruby

> Thanks
> 
> Brian
> --------------------------------
> Brian Kelly
> UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK, BA2 7AY
> Email: B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
> Phone: +44 1225 383943
>  
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: www-qa-request@w3.org [mailto:www-qa-request@w3.org] On 
>> Behalf Of olivier Thereaux
>> Sent: 06 February 2007 08:18
>> To: Brian Kelly
>> Cc: QA IG; Users of the FeedValidator; danbri@danbri.org
>> Subject: Re: RSS 1.0: problems with feed, validator, CPAN 
>> module or specification?
>>
>> Hello Brian, all.
>>
>> On Feb 5, 2007, at 16:45 , Brian Kelly wrote:
>>> My organisation has an RSS 1.0 news feed - 
>>> http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/news/feed/rss/
>>>
>>> When we validate this against the Feedvalidator hosted at 
>> W3C we get 
>>> an
>>> error:
>>>
>>> line 26, column 0: Undefined channel element: taxo:topics [help]
>>>     <taxo:topics>
>>> http://validator.w3.org/feed/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%
>>> 2Fwww.ukoln.ac.uk%2Fne
>>> ws%2Ffeed%2Frss%2F
>>>
>>> I've been trying to get this fixed, but it has proved difficult to 
>>> track down the root cause.
>> There are, as you mention, a number of problems, but 
>> ultimately I think there was a bug in the feed validator.
>>
>>
>>
>>> It was pointed out to me that the RSS 1.0 taxonomy specification is 
>>> flawed i.e. the example at 
>>> http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/modules/taxonomy/
>>> contains invalid XML.
>> Yes, the examples appear to not even be well-formed.
>> I'm copying Dan, whom I know was involved in the spec - Dan, 
>> could you bring that to the RSS-Dev group's attention?
>>
>>> We don't know if the problem is:
>>>
>>>   1 In our feed
>> Your feed appears to be fine. I see that its content-type is 
>> application/xml. While this is what the spec over at http:// 
>> web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec says, I think the recommended 
>> media type is "application/rdf+xml", since RSS1.0 and 1.1 are 
>> RDF. Other than that, I think your feed is fine.
>>
>>>   2 In the module used to create the feed
>> Faultless AFAICT.
>>
>>>   3 In the RSS 1.0 Taxonomy specification
>> The examples are wrong. Can't say anything about the rest of the spec.
>>
>>>   4 In the validator itself.
>> There is a bug here, I think.
>>
>> The spec at
>> http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/modules/taxonomy/
>> mentions that the element <taxo:topics> "may be included in 
>> channel, item or taxo:topic" elements. The feed validator, 
>> however, appears to only recognize it within <item>.
>>
>> I am not enough of an expert in RSS or its modules, but I 
>> think the attached patch for the feed validator's code and 
>> test case should improve the situation (not entirely though, 
>> it would, I think, make <taxo:topics> authorized within 
>> <item> and <channel> but not <taxo:topic>). I'm copying the 
>> feedvalidator list so that the patch can be reviewed.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> --
>> olivier Thereaux - W3C - http://www.w3.org/People/olivier/ 
>> W3C Open Source Software: http://www.w3.org/Status
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
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Received on Wednesday, 7 February 2007 19:56:02 UTC