Epub Checker specification

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Dear all forum users,

I would like to know how idpf validates any epub file with the EpubChecker... Everytime I tried to do negative testing with one of the epub files by epubchecker, it throws a lots of erros. But It would be helpful for me to know how each and every content of the epub (May be the content or the package hierarchy) is validated and what are the guidelines and specifications for that. So that, I can have a rough look on the package before conversion or can manage the epub file by making it errorless before validating against the epubchecker..I would feel great if any of you help me in finding out any relevant documents on this.

Your feedbacks and suggestions would be really appreciable..

Thanks,
Ravi Kumar

Epubcheck wraps up a number of validation steps into a single callable tool, so you really need to make sure you understand the specification and the technologies used to figure out where any given message is coming from.

For example, the container gets validated to check whether it has been put together properly (contains the mimetype file and META-INF directory, that the rootfile element in the container.xml file points to a package file, etc.). Beyond checking that the package document is valid to the schema, epubcheck will also test that all local resources referenced in the package document have been included in the EPUB, and that they're all valid to include (or have fallbacks). It checks that the package content is valid, too (e.g., that you have included the required metadata, that the properties you specify on manifest items are correct, etc.).

At a lower level it also checks that your content conforms to the relevant specification. If you include XHTML content documents in an EPUB 3, for example, it will validate those against the XHTML5 RelaxNG schema and also run various schematron assertions.

But that's just a quick idea to what's going on under the hood. I'm not aware of specific resources dealing with these kinds of technical details, beyond the specifications themselves. In essence, epubcheck is trying to test all the "must"s and report on as many "should"s and "may"s in the specification as possible. It would be useful to drill down into more detail, and more generally explain the process, but that unfortunately won't be today. :)

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you were asking for, but hopefully it helps.

Thank you for the reply garrish... Will look into this further

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