W3C

Charter: Browser Testing and Tools Working Group

The mission of the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group, part of the Testing Activity, is to produce technologies for use in testing, debugging, and troubleshooting of Web applications running in Web browsers.

Join the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group.

End date 31 December 2015
Initial Chair Wilhelm Joys Andersen
Initial Team Contact
(FTE %: 10)		 Michael[tm] Smith
Usual Meeting Schedule
IRC-only meetings: On an as-needed basis, up to once per week.
Teleconferences: On an as-needed basis, up to once a week.
Face-to-face meetings: On an as-needed basis, up to twice per year.

Scope

The scope of the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group includes:

APIs for use in automated testing of Web applications

For the purpose of automating testing of Web applications running in browsers, there is a specific need to simulate user actions such as clicking links, entering text, and submitting forms. The Browser Testing and Tools Working Group will produce a specification for a “Web Driver” API to meet that need.

APIs for use in troubleshooting and debugging of Web applications

For the purpose of troubleshooting and debugging Web applications, many Web browsers provide either a built-in set of “developer tools” or have a set of such tools that are available as a plug-in. Examples include:

The purposes of these developer tools include:

Those developer tools sometimes expose APIs that give developers programmatic access to certain parts of the development environment. For example, many expose a console API which, among other things, enables developers to programatically control logging of particular messages to an error console.

The Browser Testing and Tools Working Group will produce a specification for such a “Console” API, as well as consider any other potential APIs useful in performing troubleshooting and debugging of Web applications.

Success Criteria

In order to advance to Proposed Recommendation, each specification developed by the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group is expected to have at least two independent implementations of every feature defined in the specification.

Deliverables

The Browser Testing and Tools Working Group will deliver the following W3C Recommendations:

Web Driver API
The Web Driver API provides methods that allow automated simulation of user actions, such as clicking links, entering text, and submitting forms.
Console API
The Console API provides methods that allow Web developers to, among other things, programatically write messages and data to a developer-tools console component. The messages include generic log messages, as well as error, warning, and info messages. The data includes stack traces and interactive “tree view” representations of objects. Other methods provide ways to start and stop timers, to clear all content from the console, and more.

Other Deliverables

Other deliverables that the group may also consider developing include a normative specification for a protocol for use in remote debugging of Web applications.

Furthermore, the group may produce any number of non-normative documents, such as:

  • Use case and requirement documents
  • Test suites for each specification
  • Primer or Best Practice documents, or other types of how-to/tutorial documentation
  • Script libraries

Milestones

Milestones
Note: The group will document significant changes from this initial schedule on the group’s home page.
Specification FPWD LC CR PR Rec
Web Driver Interface July 2012 August 2014 September 2014 February 2015 March 2015

Dependencies and liaisons

W3C groups

External groups

Existing technologies of possible relevance

Participation

To be successful, the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group is expected to have ten or more active participants for its duration. The Chairs and specification Editors are expected to contribute one day per week toward the group. There is no minimum requirement for other participants.

The Browser Testing and Tools Working Group will also allocate the necessary resources for building Test Suites for each of its specifications.

The group encourages questions and comments on its public mailing lists, as described in Communication.

The group also welcomes non-Members to contribute technical submissions for consideration, with the agreement from each participant to Royalty-Free licensing of those submissions under the W3C Patent Policy.

Communication

Any Browser Testing and Tools Working Group teleconferences deemed needed will focus on discussion of particular specifications, and will be conducted on an as-needed basis, up to once per week.

The Browser Testing and Tools Working Group primarily conducts its work on the public mailing list public-browser-tools-testing@w3.org (archive), and on the #testing IRC channel on irc.w3.org:6665. The public is invited to post messages to that mailing list and to participate in discussions on that IRC channel.

Information about the group (deliverables, participants, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group home page.

Decision Policy

In accordance with the W3C Process Document (section 3.3), the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group will seek to make decisions when there is consensus and with due process. The expectation is that typically, an editor or other participant makes an initial proposal, which is then refined in discussion with members of the group and other reviewers, and consensus emerges with little formal voting being required. However, if a decision is necessary for timely progress, but consensus is not achieved after careful consideration of the range of views presented, the Chairs should put a question out for voting within the group (allowing for remote asynchronous participation—using, for example, email and/or web-based survey techniques) and record a decision, along with any objections. The matter should then be considered resolved unless and until new information becomes available.

Any decisions or resolutions made by the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group will be made in a way that allows for remote, asynchronous participation—using, for example, e-mail and/or Web-based survey techniques.

This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the W3C Process Document and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.

Patent Policy

The Browser Testing and Tools Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February 2004 Version). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis.

For more information about disclosure obligations for W3C working groups, please see the W3C Patent Policy Implementation.

About this Charter

This charter has been created according to section 6.2 of the W3C Process Document. In the event of a conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence.

Note: this charter was updated in June 2014 to reflect the new end date and the update of the milestones.

Michael[tm] Smith <mike@w3.org>

Copyright© 2011 W3C ® (MIT , ERCIM , Keio), All Rights Reserved.

$Id: browser-testing-charter.html,v 1.32 2014-06-25 15:46:59 plehegar Exp $

  翻译：