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Details of Triple-S
Validation Program Requirements
The Triple-S Group has
received funding from MR companies to produce a program
that will “validate” Triple-S export files. This is
envisaged to be of use both to developers who wish to
check that their Triple-S implementations work properly
and to users who want to check the validity of a
particular Triple-S export. There is not an “iron-clad”
spec for this project, and we are happy to entertain
different ideas and approaches. Some of our preliminary
thoughts might however be useful to interested parties.
We could imagine the program
running as either a web service or a standalone program,
or both. If it runs standalone, it must be able to run
on MS-Windows machines (this does not exclude also
running on others). The program should be able to check
Triple-S metadata files on their own or in conjunction
with Triple-S data files, accepting both fixed format
and csv files. We envisage the program having different
modes, with greater or lesser strictness. One mode
should be able to check not only the syntactic
correctness of the metadata, but that the actual data
file appears to be well-described by the metadata file.
The program should accept Triple-S XML v2.0 files. It
would also be desirable to accept Triple-S XML v1.2 and
v1.1 files. It is not necessary to accept pre-XML
Triple-S files. The program should check all Triple-S
facilities, including the hierarchical features in v2.0.
It should accept Triple-S Unicode specs. While we
obviously cannot specify future file formats, we would
want the program to be designed so that further
developments of Triple-S XML could be built into the
program with comparatively little effort.
While the technical spec is
rather open, there are a number of definite formal
requirements:
1) The
program and the source code will become the property of
the Triple-S Group, which must be free to modify or
redistribute it without the need to make any further
payments or execute any further licensing agreements.
The program must be easily compilable/buildable by the
Triple-S group without recourse to the vendor.
2) Proposals
must be received by Friday 29th February 2008. We expect
to choose a vendor by the end of March, and for the
project to be completed no later than 30th September
2008. Completion must include thorough and documented
testing. During the period from March until delivery, a
specified member of the Triple-S Group will be available
for consultation/resolution of any issues or
uncertainties, and should be kept informed of progress.
3) The
total cost of the project must be no more than £10,000.
This figure includes any VAT payable or any other
fees/taxes payable.
If you
are interested in this opportunity, please email your
proposals to
info@triple-s.org by Friday 29th February 2008. |
