This is the fourth in a series of blog posts aimed at documenting the development of an XCRI-CAP 1.2 validator.  The entire series can be found by visiting the validator blog post list.  My aim is to post a new blog post every week until the development is complete, then at least once every month to document both the usage of the validator as well as any community-highlighted modifications or issues.

Firstly: an update on the validation code's changes since last week's blog post:

• XML rulebase
  Thanks to some invaluable feedback from Alan Paull and co., some modifications have been highlighted and are currently being implemented.  These changes encompass both feedback shown to the user, the XCRI-CAP 1.2 standard, plus the work the Course Data Programme are doing.  Approximately 40% of the changes have been done with the others hopefully to be completed over the next week.
• API
  In discussion with K-Int, the team producing the XCRI-CAP 1.2 aggregator, a basic API structure has been agreed and a first iteration implemented and provided across to K-Int.  Calls to the validator are made using HTTP POST requests, with validation results returned in a JSON format.

Secondly, I'd like to take this opportunity to ask for feedback on the UI and UX of the validator.  The current development version of the validator is available at http://xcricapvalidator.apphb.com.  Please note that this is a development version of the validator and is subject to change. If you would like to comment on the design or usability of the validator, please either comment on this blog post or feel free to contact me directly .

The XCRI-CAP 1.2 validation library and an online tool to validate feeds are expected to be completed by the end of February 2012.