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Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) Overview

Evaluation and Report Language (EARL)

The Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) is a machine-readable format for expressing test results. The primary motivation for developing EARL is to facilitate the processing of test results, such as those generated by Web accessibility evaluation tools, using a vendor-neutral and platform-independent format.

Web authoring tools and quality assurance software can use EARL to aggregate test results obtained from different testing tools including Web accessibitity evaluation tools, validators, and other types of content checkers. EARL uses the Resource Description Framework (RDF) to define the terms for expressing test results.

Who EARL is for

EARL is primarily intended for developers of:

• Web accessibility evaluation tools
• Web quality assurance and validation tools
• Web authoring and development tools
• Web content description and labeling frameworks

What is in EARL 1.0

The EARL documents include:

• Requirements for the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 - Working Draft 11 July 2005 - describes the requirements for the scope, design, and features of EARL.
• Evaluation And Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Schema - Last Call Working Draft 23 March 2007 - is the technical definition of the formal vocabulary. It is planned to become a Web standard, called a W3C Recommendation.
  • HTTP Vocabulary in RDF - Editor's Draft 26 May 2008 - provides an extension to record HTTP messages that have been exchanged between a client and a server in. It is planned to become a W3C Note.
  • Representing Content in RDF - Editor's Draft 27 March 2008 - provides an extension to represent content (such as HTTP body entities) in RDF. It is planned to become a W3C Note.
  • Pointer Methods in RDF - Editor's Draft 17 February 2007 - provides an assortment of methods to identify and point to portions of content. It is planned to become a W3C Note.
• Evaluation And Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Guide - Editor's Draft 2 August 2007 - describes the motivations for EARL and provide a tutorial introduction on how to use the terms. It is planned to become a W3C Note.

The difference between W3C Recommendations and W3C Notes are described in How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process.

EARL 1.0 reuses other RDF terms such as those provided by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) and the Friend Of A Friend (FOAF) project. EARL terms can also be reused for other purposes, such as for content description and content labeling.

What is the status of EARL 1.0

In March 2007, the ERT WG published EARL 1.0 Schema as a Last Call Working Draft and HTTP Vocabulary in RDF as a Working Draft. The comments received from this publication have been collected in the document EARL 1.0 Schema: Known Issues, and are being processed by the working group. In June 2008, the ERT WG intends to publish an updated working draft of HTTP Vocabulary in RDF as well as a first public working draft of Representing Content in RDF.

The ERT WG Charter lists the deliverables and milestones that the Working Group expects to accomplish, see also How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process for more information on how these deliverables are accomplished.

Technical document format

The EARL 1.0 documents follow the W3C format for technical specifications, which includes several sections at the beginning: links to different versions, editors, copyright, abstract, and status with the link to errata and the email address for comments. Most WAI specifications have a link at the top to the Table of Contents.

Who develops EARL

EARL documents are developed by the Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG), which is part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). For more information about the Working Group, see the ERT WG home page.

The ERT Working Group encourages feedback about EARL by developers and researchers who have interest in software-supported evaluation and validation of Web sites. Feedback from developers and researchers who have interest in Semantic Web technologies for content description, annotation, and adaptation is also strongly encouraged. Please send comments to public-wai-ert@w3.org, a publicly archived mailing list.

In addition to feedback on an on-going basis there are formal periods for public review, which are described in How WAI Develops Accessibility Guidelines through the W3C Process: Milestones and Opportunities to Contribute. Opportunities for review and comment of WAI documents are announced on the WAI home page and WAI Interest Group (IG) mailing list. An email address for sending comments is included in the "Status of this Document" section. For more information about the development of EARL or to be added to a EARL reviewer list of people who want to get direct notification of EARL documents for review, contact the ERT WG Team Contact.

Opportunities for contributing to ERT WG and other WAI work are introduced in Participating in WAI.

Document Information

Content last updated: 29 May 2008
Editors: Shadi Abou-Zahra and Shawn Lawton Henry. Developed with the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) and the Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group Working Group (ERT WG).

[Contacting WAI] Feedback welcome to wai-eo-editors@w3.org (a publicly archived list).

File (not content) last updated on $Date: 2008/12/18 14:23:54 $ by $Author: dom $