Until such time as the NGDF Management Board establish a process of accreditation and certification, including software validation, conformance to these NGDF Guidelines must rely on self-certification. If users wish to claim conformance then they should, as a minimum, comply with the conformance clause given at 0. The approach adopted here follows that given in draft international standard ISO 15046 - Geographic Information - Part 5: Conformance and Testing [5].

7.2.1 Statement of conformance

Any metadata claiming conformance to these NGDF Guidelines shall pass all the requirements described in the following abstract test suite.

7.2.2 Abstract Test Suite

The abstract test suite contains two sub-clauses:

The requirements of both these sub-clauses shall be met in full for a product to claim conformance to the NGDF Guidelines.

7.3.1 Applicability of data resource to the NGDF Guidelines

Purpose of test: to check whether the data resource is within scope of the NGDF Guidelines.

Test method: ascertain that the data resource:

• is either:

• contains data which is geospatially referenced either by coordinates or geographic identifiers, or both, to the United Kingdom or bounding seas.

The dataset may be in a digital, textual or graphical form.

7.3.2 Completeness of metadata content

Purpose of test: to check completeness of metadata relating to a valid data resource.

Test method: verify that the metadata conforms to the requirements set out in sub-clause 3.2 by ascertaining that:

1. values for all metadata elements which are mandatory are present;
2. values for all metadata elements which are conditional are present where that condition applies;
3. all repeating groups which are mandatory are present and the values for the metadata elements within the repeating groups which are (1) mandatory or (2) conditional (where the condition applies), are present;
4. all repeating groups which are conditional are present, where the condition applies, and the values for the metadata elements within the repeating groups which are (1) mandatory or (2) conditional (where the condition applies), are present;
5. for each completed metadata element there is no more than one value where the maximum occurrence is stated as "1";
6. for each completed metadata element there is at least one value where the maximum occurrence is stated as "N";
7. the data type for each value of a completed metadata element is as stated;
8. the value for each completed metadata element is within the domain stated;
9. where the value is "Not Known" or "Not Applicable" or "None" this is recorded according to the stated requirement.

Purpose of test: To test that data may be exported and imported using the NGDF transfer protocol.

It is the intention to develop a test data set that any conforming software must be able to ingest and export using the NGDF transfer format such that the ingest file set is identical to the export file. At the time of writing this work has yet to be done.

This section is subdivided into two compatibility tests, a software developer may chose to develop software that is compatible wither either or both tests depending on the software’s purpose. Purpose of test: To test that data may be queried from an external database and that data may be supplied in response to an external request using the Z39.50 based protocol defined for NGDF.

It is the intention to develop a test data set and transaction sequences and expected outcomes that any conforming software should be able to support and complete. At the time of writing this work has yet to be done.