[Firebird-test] Example of xml format tests

[David J. <dav...@ea...>]

Hi,

I am attaching a simple example of the xml testing format I am thinking
about, with the dtd.  This has 3 tests from TCS in it.  The xml file
structure is kind of like this:

target
  transaction
    statement
      sql
      resultset (from statement, for comparison with future runs)
        row-spec(metadata)
          column-spec*
        rows(the data)
          row*
            column*
      diffs
        diff*(path to reference and comparison elements, and message about
difference)


I messed with some reference data by hand to generate a diff.  

Obvious future enhancements (in java) include:
using xpath for diff paths to elements, to enable tools to find it
automatically.
Extending target-ref to refer to other files.
Parallel execution.
Expanding databasemetadata support.(currently getTables and getColumns are
supported)

Problems include handling binary blobs, such as are found in the system
tables. They generate characters illegal in xml.

Perhaps these can be base64 encoded?

Does anyone have an idea how hard it would be to make a fake jdbc driver
wrapper for e.g. ibo? (just implementing statement and simple transaction
stuff should be ok.)

Anyone have experience using jdbc-odbc bridge? Maybe this would work with
Jim's odbc driver to get tests of c platform functionality.

I will try to get the code for this to my website soon.

Hoping for comments
Thanks
David Jencks