specberus
Advanced tools
Specberus is a checker used at W3C to validate the compliance of Technical Reports with publication rules.
Specberus is a checker used at W3C to validate the compliance of Technical Reports with publication rules.
Specberus is a Node.js application, distributed through npm. Alternatively, you can clone the repository and run:
$ npm install -d
In order to get all the dependencies installed. Naturally, this requires that you have a reasonably recent version of Node.js installed.
Currently there is no shell to run Specberus. Later we will add both Web and CLI interfaces based on the same core library.
$ W3C_API_KEY="<YOUR W3C API KEY>" npm start [PORT]
Specberus relies on the W3C API to run a few checks. You will need to provide your key in an environment variable W3C_API_KEY
Meaning of positional parameters:
PORT: where Specberus will be listening for HTTP connections.
(Default 80.)Examples:
$ W3C_API_KEY="<YOUR W3C API KEY>" npm start
$ W3C_API_KEY="<YOUR W3C API KEY>" npm start 3001
Set the environment variable DEBUG to run in debug mode instead:
$ DEBUG=true W3C_API_KEY="<YOUR W3C API KEY>" npm start
This modifies the behaviour of certain parts of the application to facilitate debugging.
eg, CSS and JS resources will not be loaded in their minified/uglified forms
(the web UI will load bootstrap.css, bootstrap.js and jquery.js instead of bootstrap.min.css, bootstrap.min.js and jquery.min.js).
If Specberus is not going to be served from the root directory of a domain, or if it will be served through a proxy,
set also BASE_URI pointing to the public root URI of Specberus; eg
$ BASE_URI=https://spec-store.com/check/ W3C_API_KEY=deadbeef npm start
$ BASE_URI=/hostname/can/be/omitted/ W3C_API_KEY=deadbeef npm start 88
Run npm run live when developing. The app will automatically reload when changes happen.
$ W3C_API_KEY="xxx" npm run live
$ W3C_API_KEY="xxx" npm run live 3001
Testing is done using mocha. Simply run:
$ W3C_API_KEY="<YOUR W3C API KEY>" mocha
from the root and you will be running the test suite. Mocha can be installed with:
$ npm install -g mocha
Some of the tests can on occasion take a long time, or fail outright because a remote service is unavailable. To work around this, you can set SKIP_NETWORK:
$ SKIP_NETWORK=1 W3C_API_KEY="<YOUR W3C API KEY>" mocha
The testcase document can run independently
$ npm run testserver
Add process env before npm run test and describe.only() to run single test.
// test/rules.js
describe.only('Making sure Specberus is not broken...', () => {
The following example only run test for the http://localhost:8001/doc-views/TR/Recommendation/WD?rule=copyright&type=noCopyright document.
$ RULE=copyright TYPE=noCopyright PROFILE=WD npm run test
The following example run tests to all the documents, but limit to copyright rule and using the noCopyright data.
$ RULE=copyright TYPE=noCopyright npm run test
The interface you get when you require("specberus") is that from lib/validator. It returns a
Specberus instance that is properly configured for operation in the Node.js environment
(there is nominal support for running Specberus under other environments, but it isn't usable at this time).
(See also the REST API.)
const { Specberus } = require('specberus');
const specberus = new Specberus(apiKey);
// specberus.validate(...)
// specberus.extractMetadata(...)
validate(options)This method takes an object with the following fields:
url: URL of the content to check. One of url, source, file, or document must be
specified and if several are they will be used in this order.source: A String with the content to check.file: A file system path to the content to check.document: A DOM Document object to be checked.profile: A profile object which defines the validation. Required. See below.events: An event sink which supports the same interface as the Node.js EventEmitter. Required. See
below for the events that get generated.extractMetadata(options)This method eventually extends this with metadata inferred from the document.
Once the event end-all is emitted, the metadata should be available in a new property called meta.
The options accepted are equal to those in validate(), except that a profile is not necessary and will be ignored (finding out the profile is one of the
goals of this method).
this.meta will be an Object and may include up to 16 properties described below:
profiletitle: The (possible) title of the document.docDate: The date associated to the document.thisVersion: URL of this version of the document.latestVersion: URL of the latest version of the document.previousVersion: URL of the previous version of the document (the last one, if multiple are shown).editorsDraft: URL of the latest editor's draft.delivererIDs: ID(s) of the deliverer(s); an Array of Numbers.editorIDs: ID(s) of the editor(s) responsible for the document; an Array of Numbers.informative: Whether the document in informative or not.process: The process rules link.sameWorkAs: The previous shortlink if any.implementationFeedbackDue: The implementation review date for CRs.prReviewsDue: The review date for PRs.implementationReport: Implementation report link for CRs, PRs and RECs.errata: The errata link of the document.substantiveChanges: Whether the document is a REC and has proposed amendmentsnewFeatures: Whether the document is a REC and has proposed additionsIf some of these pieces of metadata cannot be deduced, that key will not exist, or its value will not be defined.
This is an example of the value of Specberus.meta after the execution of Specberus.extractMetadata():
{
"profile": "WD",
"title": "Title of the spec",
"docDate": "2016-2-3",
"thisVersion": "https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/WD-foobar-20160203/",
"latestVersion": "https://www.w3.org/TR/foobar/",
"previousVersion": "https://www.w3.org/TR/2015/WD-foobar-20150101/",
"editorsDraft": "https://w3c.github.io/foobar/",
"delivererIDs": [123, 456],
"editorIDs": [ 12345 ],
"informative": false,
"process": "https://www.w3.org/2015/Process-20150901/" }
}
Similar to the JS API, Specberus exposes a REST API via HTTP too.
The endpoint is <host>/api/.
Use either url or file to pass along the document (neither source nor document are allowed).
Note: If you want to use the public W3C instance of Specberus, you can replace <host> with https://www.w3.org/pubrules.
There are three GET methods available.
versionReturns the version string, eg 1.5.3.
metadataExtract all known metadata from a document; see below for information about the return value.
validateCheck the document (syntax).
Many of the options understood by the JS method validate are accepted.
The special profile auto is also available.
https://www.w3.org/pubrules/api/version
e.g. https://www.w3.org/pubrules/api/version
https://www.w3.org/pubrules/api/metadata?url=https://example.com/doc.html
Metadata is a bunch of data extracted from the document. It includes the type (profile) of the document, publish date, editors' names, Patent Policy version the document is under, etc...
e.g. https://www.w3.org/pubrules/api/metadata?url=https://www.w3.org/TR/2021/WD-i18n-glossary-20210708/
https://www.w3.org/pubrules/api/validate?url=https://example.com/doc.html&profile=auto
auto profile is the easiest way to validate a document. The validation relies on the automatically extracted data.
The validation result contains both the metadata and the errors/warnings regarding the document.
https://www.w3.org/pubrules/api/validate?url=https://example.com/doc.html&profile=WD&validation=simple-validation&patentPolicy=pp2020
Pubrules supports advanced configs to make the validation more accurate.
| Config | Explanation | Supported value |
|---|---|---|
| validation | Recursively validate multipart documents | no-validation, simple-validation, recursive |
| informativeOnly | If the document is informative | true, false |
| echidnaReady | Check that the document is valid for automatic publication with Echidna | true, false |
| patentPolicy | Patent Policy version | pp2020, pp2004 |
Methods metadata and validate return a JSON object with these properties:
success (boolean): whether the operation succeeded, or not.errors (array): all errors found.warnings (array): all warnings.info (array): additional, informative messages.metadata (object): extracted metadata; see structure here.If there is an internal error, the document cannot be retrieved or is not recognised, or validation fails, both methods would return HTTP status code 400.
Also, in the case of validate, success would be false and errors.length > 0.
This is an example of a successful validation of a document, with profile auto:
{
"success": true,
"errors": [],
"warnings": [
"headers.ol-toc",
"links.linkchecker",
"links.compound",
"headers.dl"
],
"info": [
"structure.display-only",
"structure.display-only",
"structure.display-only",
"validation.wcag"
],
"metadata": {
"profile": "WD",
"title": "Character Model for the World Wide Web: String Matching and Searching",
"docDate": "2016-4-7",
"thisVersion": "https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/WD-charmod-norm-20160407/",
"latestVersion": "https://www.w3.org/TR/charmod-norm/",
"previousVersion": "https://www.w3.org/TR/2015/WD-charmod-norm-20151119/",
"editorsDraft": "https://w3c.github.io/charmod-norm/",
"delivererIDs": [32113],
"editorIDs": [33573],
"informative": false,
"process": "https://www.w3.org/2015/Process-20150901/",
"url": "https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/WD-charmod-norm-20160407/"
}
}
When the profile is given by the user (instead of being set to auto), fewer items of metadata are returned.
metadata returns a similar structure, where all values are empty arrays, except for the key metadata which contains the metadata object.
Profiles are simple objects that support the following API:
String being the name of this profile.Array of rule objects which are checked in this profile.A profile is basically a configuration of what to check. You can load a specific profile from under
lib/profiles or create your own.
Here follows the current hierarchy of profiles. Each profile inherits all rules from its parent profile. Profiles that are identical to its parent profile, ie that do not add any new rules, are marked too.
base
TR
WD
WD-EchidnaFPWD (identical)PRCR
CR-EchidnaCRD
CRD-EchidnaRECREC-OBSOLETEREC-RSCNDREC-SUPERSEDEDDNOTEDNOTE-EchidnaNOTENOTE-EchidnaSTMTDRYCRYCRYDRYSubmission
SUBMMEM-SUBMFor a given checking run, the event sink you specify will be receiving a bunch of events as indicated below. Events are shown as having parameters since those are passed to the event handler.
start-all(profile-name): Fired first to indicate that the profile's checking has started.end-all(profile-name): Fired last to indicate that the profile's checking has completed. When
you receive this you are promised that all testing operations, including asynchronous ones, have
terminated.done(rule-name): Fired when a specific rule has finished processing, including its asynchronous
tasks.ok(rule-name): Fired to indicate that a rule has succeeded. There is only one ok per rule.
There cannot also be err events but there can be warning events.err(error-name, data): Fired when an error is detected. The data contains further details,
that depend on the error but should feature a message field. There can be multiple errors for
a given rule. There cannot also be ok events but there can be warnings.warning(warnings-name, data): Fired for non-fatal problems with the document that may
nevertheless require investigation. There may be several for a rule.info(info-name, data): Fired for additional information items detected by the validator.metadata(key, value): Fired for every piece of document metadata found by the validator.exception(message): Fired when there is a system error, such as a File not found error. message
contains details about this error. All exceptions are displayed on the error console in addition to
this event being fired.Rules are simple modules that just expose a check(sr, cb) method. They receive a Specberus object
and a callback, use the Specberus object to fire validation events and call the callback when
they're done.
The Specberus object exposes the following API that's useful for validation:
loader. The loader object that loaded the content, which exposes the content's url and
source if they are known.sink. The event target on which to fire validation events.version. The Specberus version.checkSelector(selector, rule-name, cb). Some rules need to do nothing other than to check that a
selector returns some content. For this case, the rule can just call this method with the selector
and its callback, and Specberus will conveniently take care of all the rest.norm(text). Returns a whitespace-normalised version of the text.getDocumentDate(). Returns a Date object that matches the document's date as specified in the
headers' stateElement (id="w3c-state").getDocumentStateElement(). Returns the element that contains the document's date.FAQs
Specberus is a checker used at W3C to validate the compliance of Technical Reports with publication rules.
The npm package specberus receives a total of 35 weekly downloads. As such, specberus popularity was classified as not popular.
We found that specberus demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 0 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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