XSpec Plugin for Maven

A very simple plugin for Maven that will execute your XSpec tests as part of the test phase of your Maven build, reports are generated and if any tests fail the build will be failed. The XSpec Maven plugin is licensed under the BSD license. The plugin bundles aspects of the XSpec processor implementaion (written in XSLT) from https://github.com/xspec/xspec which is released under the MIT license.

Note at present only XSpec tests written in XSLT are supported. It should not be too difficult to add support for XQuery as well for a future release.

By default the plugin expects to find your tests in src/test/xspec and both XML and HTML reports will be generated into target/xspec-reports. In addition the XSLT compiled version of your XSpecs will be placed in target/xspec-reports/xslt for reference if you need to debug your tests.

Goals

The plugin binds to the verify phase by default and there is only one goal: run-xspec. The plugin has been published to Maven Central

Plugin declaration

<build>
  <plugins>
    <plugin>
      <groupId>io.xspec.maven</groupId>
      <artifactId>xspec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>2.0.0</version>
      <dependencies>
        <!-- if you have a license, feel free to add Saxon-PE
           or Saxon-EE instead of Saxon-HE -->
        <dependency>
          <groupId>net.sf.saxon</groupId>
          <artifactId>Saxon-HE</artifactId>
          <!-- Saxon from 9.7.0-14 up until 10.1 have been tested and work correctly -->
          <version>10.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <!-- Saxon >= 10.0 requires XSpec 1.6. The bundled XSpec 1.5
             works correctly with Saxon 9.x, and you don't need this
             extra dependency -->
        <dependency>
          <groupId>io.xspec</groupId>
          <artifactId>xspec</artifactId>
          <version>1.6.0</version>
        </dependency>
      </dependencies>
      <configuration>
        <catalogFile>catalog.xml</catalogFile>
        <generateSurefireReport>true</generateSurefireReport>
        <saxonOptions>See https://github.com/xspec/xspec-maven-plugin-1/wiki</saxonOptions>
      </configuration>
      <executions>
        <execution>
          <phase>test</phase>
          <goals>
            <goal>run-xspec</goal>
          </goals>
        </execution>
      </executions>
    </plugin>
  </plugins>
</build>

Configuration

There are several configuration options that you may specify:

• xspecCompiler This is the path to the XSpec Compiler XSLT i.e. the compiler/generate-xspec-tests.xsl as provided by the de-facto XSpec processor implementation. By default the XSpec compiler bundled in the XSpec Plugin in used, however this configuration option allows you to specify a custom version.

• xspecReporter This is the path to the XSpec Reporter XSLT i.e. the reporter/format-xspec-report.xsl as provided by the de-facto XSpec processor implementation. By default the XSpec reporter bundled in the XSpec Plugin in used, however this configuration option allows you to specify a custom version.

• testDir This is the path to a folder containing your XSpec tests. The tests are expected to be named such that they end with the file extension .xspec. By default the folder src/test/xspec is used.

• excludes You may specify one or more filenames (or partial filenames), which when matched against XSpec paths in testDir are excluded from being executed.

• reportDir This is the path to a folder where the XSpec tests reports will be stored. By default the folder target/xspec-reports is used.

• catalogFile This is the path to a catalog file, as defined in https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/entity/spec-2001-08-06.html. There is no default value, and is ignored if empty or if catalog file does not exist.

• surefireReportDir This is the path where to write surefire reports, if '${generateSurefireReports} is 'true'. Default value is '${project.build.directory}/surefire-report'.

• generateSurefireReport If set to true, generates a surefire report in '${surefireReportDir}'.

• saxonOptions Allows to specify saxon configuration options. See Wiki for more details.

FAQ

• Where should I put my XSLT?

You can put it anywhere you like, although within src/ would make the most sense! We would suggest keeping your XSLT files in src/main/xsl/. If you do that, then to reference the XSLT from your XSpec, you should set the @stylesheet attribute to a relative path to that folder. For example, given src/main/xsl/some.xslt and src/test/xspec/some.xspec, your some.xspec would reference some.xslt like so:

<x:description xmlns:x="http://www.jenitennison.com/xslt/xspec"
  stylesheet="../../main/xsl/some.xslt">
  
  ...

• How can I skip the XSpec tests?

XSpec will adhere to the Maven option -DskipTests. If you are doing this in a forked execution such as that used by the Maven Release plugin you may also have to use the Maven option -Darguments="-DskipTests".

• Must I define the Saxon dependency ?

Yes, you must. This is to allow to choose between Saxon-HE, Saxon-PE or Saxon-EE, if you have licences. As Maven doesn't provide a mechanism for a default dependency, you must specify it. You can also choose another releases of Saxon ; 9.7.0-x works correctly.

• Must I define the XSpec dependency ?

The plugin bundles XSpec 1.5, but that isn't compatible with Saxon >= 10.0.

Saxon 10.x requires XSpec >= 1.6, which you need to add as a dependency.

If you're using Saxon 9.x, you don't need to specify the XSpec dependency.

• How are surefire reports generated ?

Surefire report is generated from the XSpec report, via a XSL. At this time, transformation should be improved, to have a good report in Jenkins. Any help will be appreciated.