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MAR Validator

The aim of this document is to explain briefly how the Module Validator (MAR Validator) tool works.

Content

Introduction

MAR Validator is a graphical tool available with WSO2 Web Services Application Server that allows the user to validate a Web Services Module (known as a MAR file, due to the .mar extension).

Usage

Validating a module before is deployed can come quite handy, because it will provide an assurance of the validity of the module in question. Using MAR Validator is quite easy, and as with the other tools provided on the WSO2 Web Services Application Server front page, you don't even need to sign in. Click on MAR Validator and you will be taken to the following screen.

Figure: MAR Validator Screen 1

There are two different ways in which we can provide the tool with the module which needs to be validated. We can either provide a module archive (a .mar file) or a module descriptor (a module.xml file).

First lets consider the scenario of validating a module archive (MAR file).

click on the Browse on the "Select a MAR" box to search your file system for the .mar file which represents the module archive you want to validate. Once you have selected it, click on the Validate MAR button to validate the module.xml inside it.

Note: In case of a MAR Validation what actually happens is that the module.xml file inside the archive is extracted and validated.

Next, lets consider the other option, namely, directly pointing to a module.xml file to validate.

Click on the Browse button in the "Select a module.xml" box to search your file system for the module.xml file which you want to validate. Once you have selected it, click on "Validate Module.xml" button to validate the module descriptor.

Figure: MAR Validator Results Screen

In both of the above methods, when the validation process has completed, you will be taken to the results page. This page will display the validation results in tabular form.

If we take a closer look at the inner workings of the validation process, in module.xml validation, the tool parses the input module.xml against a schema and looks for any invalidities. If any are found, they are presented in a tabular form.

Conclusion

MAR validation provides a handy method of validating a MAR archive or a module.xml file and viewing the results in a tabular form.