NIST's XML Schema Quality of Design (QoD) Software Release

May 22, 2008

NIST is pleased to announce a new release of the XML Schema Quality of Design Tool -- QOD.

QOD assists in consistently using XML Schema for the specification of information. QOD is intended for both people developing guidelines for writing high quality XML schemas and those writing XML schemas.  The purpose of QOD is to inprove the quality of the XML schemas.   The system allows users to define rules for writing quality XML Schemas and to test schemas against those rules.  This release of the tool includes improvements to the user interface, performance, and display of results, support for ISO Schematron for writing tests, and the addition of an import and export capability to facilitate off-line development of tests.

The QOD site also contains a number of sample sets of tests for XML Schema Naming and Design Rule (NDR) specifications. In addition to the improvements to the tool, the number of tests available also has been expanded.   Extensive sets of test based on the following specifications are available:

• The OAGIS*^® * 9.0 XML Naming and Design Rules Standard , Open Applications Group, September 30, 2005.
• "IRS XML Standards and Guidelines." Edited by Sol Safran (IRS, Enterprise Data Management). Draft document. From Volume 4, IRS Enterprise Data Standards and Guidelines (Special Tools and Techniques), September 2006.
• Department of the Navy XML Naming and Design Rules . Final Version 2.0. Office of the DON, Chief Information Officer. January 2005.

As a guest user, you may use these rules to check whether a schema that you are developing or uses meets those guidelines. More advanced users are able to create their own rules and make sets of rules available to their communities.

For more information, check it out at http://nist.gov/qod

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Date Create: August 6, 2008
Last Modified: August 6, 2008