Alces
A Tool for Testing JDF Devices/Workers
http://elk.itn.liu.se/alces
Claes Buckwalter
Linköping University, Sweden
Sunday, November 5, 2006
Quebec City, Canada
Alces
• Alces takes the role of a Manager
• Alces is used to test Workers/Devices, such
as a RIP, a printing press, a binding
machine, etc.
Alces
(Manager)
JDF/JMF
JDF/JMF
System
under test
(Worker)
Testing a Worker
• Alces sends JMF/JDF to the Worker
• Alces reads JMF/JDF returned by the
Worker and uses CheckJDF to verify that
the JMF/JDF is valid
JMF/JDF JMF/JDF
Black box
testing
Worker
Other output
(ignored)
Alces
• Alces is a Java application that runs on
Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
• Alces is CIP4 open source
• Alces comes in two flavors:
– Interactive Alces — graphical user interface
– Automated Alces — command-line interface
Interactive Alces
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Graphical user interface (GUI)
Automatic discovery of supported JMF messages
Send automatically generated JMF messages
Send manually edited JMF messages
Submit JDF job tickets and MIME packages
Receives Signal messages (subscriptions)
Receives Acknowledge messages (asynchronous Responses)
CheckJDF validation of all sent and received JMF
Plug-in architecture for adding custom tests
View all messages sent and received
Queue view
Writes an test report (XML) that can be viewed in a web
browser
Automated Alces
• Command-line interface
• Automatically sends all JMF/JDF/MIME files in a
specified directory
• Receives Signal messages (subscriptions)
• Receives Acknowledge messages
(asynchronous Responses)
• CheckJDF validation of all JMF messages sent
and received
• Plug-in architecture for adding custom tests
• Writes an test report (XML) that can be viewed in a
web browser
Demo
Use Cases
• Learning and understanding JMF messaging
• Troubleshooting
• Product testing
• Continuous integration testing (Automated
Alces)
• Product certification
More Information
• Project homepage: http://elk.itn.liu.se/alces
– Source and binary distributions
– Documentation
• Current project team
– Claes Buckwalter, Linköping University, Sweden
• Related papers
– A Tool for Testing Compliance with CIP4’s Interoperability
Conformance Specifications, DPP2005 Proceedings
– Alces—A Tool for Testing JDF Compliance, Printing Future
Days Proceedings
Thank you for listening
Claes Buckwalter
[email protected]