Re: RDF validator error

(Would value comment from other WG members)


Charlie Abela wrote:


> I am trying to parse some DAML with the validator. The parsing of this 
> file used to give no complaint except that lately I am being faced with 
> this error: Error: {W130} Base URI is "", relative URIs left as relative 
> and I can?t figure out why?


Also this example from Art Barstow:

<rdf:Description rdf:ID="Profile">
<dc:title>World Wide Web Consortium</dc:title>
</rdf:Description>

generating the same error.

At some point I upgraded ARP to correctly identify the use of relative URIs 
in documents given with relative URIs as a problem.
The RDF graph uses absolute URI refs, and if no absolute URI can be 
established then there is an issue. Whether this is a warning or an error 
depends on the use case, and ARP supports either. The validator I believe 
runs in strict mode, and so most problems are treated as errors.

Recently the validator has had the ARP engine upgraded. At which point this 
behaviour was introduced.

I agree that it is a bug in the validator, since while no base URI can be 
determined for text pasted into a web form, it is unhelpful to complain 
about this. It is however not a bug in a compliant parser.

I suggest one of the following fixes in the validator code:
a) specify an arbitrary base URI instead of ""
or
b) tell ARP to ignore this condition
   setErrorMode(
      ARPErrorNumbers.WARN_RESOLVING_URI_AGAINST_EMPTY_BASE,
      ARPErrorNumbers.EM_IGNORE );

Personally I think option (b) is better.

A workaround until the validator is updated is to have the file to be 
tested as web accessible and use the validate URL option.

Jeremy

Received on Wednesday, 27 August 2003 10:56:33 UTC