W3C mobileOK Checker Alpha Release
This morning Sean Owen from Google announced an alpha release of the W3C mobileOK Basic Tests reference checker. Ruadhan and I have contributed to this open source effort to provide a baseline testing infrastructure. A lot of work has gone into producing it and while it’s not complete, or bug free, it’s great to see this work taking its next step.
The mobileOK Basic test suite is itself set to take its next step – to “Candidate Recommendation”. Our version of the checker, ready.mobi is well-known to most of you, and though not based on the reference code at the moment, tracks the mobileOK tests closely, as well as providing significant value-add on top of those tests.
If you’re interested in this work, check out the mobileOK checker task force home page and the CVS repository which contains the alpha jar file and user manuals.
Posted by Jo Rabin 2 years 45 weeks ago
CTO at dotMobi, co-Chair of the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group, co-Organiser of MobileMonday London.
Posted by MobilePublisher 2 years ago
Dear Jo Rabin,
If you say in your post "[...] ready.mobi [...] not based on the reference code [...]", what else is the checker/validator ready.mobi based on then? On an older reference?
I am asking, beause on http://mobiforge.com/node/197#comment-2099 ("DotMobi Mobile Web Developer's Guide") I can find a line which says "[...] It layers on the advice from the W3C's Mobile Web Initiative Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 document, but takes it further [...]".
Based on this information I assumed, the checker/validator ready.mobi would orientate on the same sources as the DotMobi Mobile Web Developer's Guide. This assumption should be right, shouldn't it?
But, I assume (again), that, since there are more changes going on, the new version of the validator/checker ready.mobi will orientate on the new reference / reference code? This should be the case ... I guess ...
--> Finally it is just important to get the [Swiss-]German news on http://mpub.mobi/node/123 right. Basically I used YOUR words in this news / posting. So there shouldn't be anything wrong. Only that it could be more precise & useful to tell the readers on which foundation the ready.mobi is based!!! So others can compare a bit. It is not always easy to follow all the changes in this and other fields !!!
Posted by Jo Rabin 2 years ago
I'm sorry about any possible confusion:
The starting point is the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices - the dotMobi Web Developer Guide builds on these Best Practices to provide more complete guidance for developers.
mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 develops the Best Practices into some machine-verifiable tests. The tests that ready.mobi carries out are based on those specified in mobileOK Basic. The alpha release of the reference checker code I referred to in my post is also based on the same set of tests.
Though they implement the same tests, the ready.mobi code is not based on the reference checker code at the moment.
Hope that clarifies.
Jo
Posted by MobilePublisher 2 years ago
Thank you, Jo Rabin, for the further explanation. My abstract of your abstract:
--> ready.mobi's base/foundation: mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0.
--> Alpha release of the new Checker/Validator: based on mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 as well.
--> BUT the coding of the two systems is different !!
# Hmm... then there's one question left: WHY develop a NEW checker/validator, if both systems use the same foundation?
# And: Will "ready.mobi" be renewed as well? When?
# And: Will the alpha-release find its way into "ready.mobi"?
Thank you for your answers! I know, there are three questions, not only one. I hope you can live with it ;-)
Posted by MobilePublisher 2 years ago
... by the way, is it possible that the trackback-function here doesn't work? I use the same CMS as dev.mobi, Drupal. And, probably, I use even the same trackback-module as dev.mobi. But the trackback-message hasn't shown up here so far.
And: I have just updated the German news about the alpha-release of the new checker/validator on MobilePublisher. NOW things should be clearer for the readers !!!
Posted by Jo Rabin 2 years ago
ready.mobi is based on proprietary code developed by Ruadhan.
The new checker is an open source effort that has been undertaken within the W3C Best Practices Working Group Checker Task Force. Contributors are dotMobi (Ruadhan and me), Google (Sean and Laura - Sean is the Task Force Leader), CTIC (Nacho, Abel and Miguel), Sevenval (Roland) and W3C (Dom). The motivation is to produce a reference implementation - i.e. one that can produce a definitive result, rather than necessarily acting as a basis for a product. It is currently an alpha release, and hence can't be viewed as bug free or stable.
It's likely that ready.mobi will continue on its current code base for some time. We will continue to contribute to the reference checker and will keep under review its suitability to act as the basis for future versions of ready.mobi.