While the development of dataspace technologies has progressed in recent years, a comprehensive way of testing and verifying compliance with normative requirements and APIs is missing. The goal of the open-source Eclipse Dataspace TCK is to provide a testing framework that promotes compliance and interoperability in a transparent way.
Eclipse Dataspace TCK provides a modular test framework to verify interoperability and compliance with Dataspace standards normative requirements, rules, and APIs. The initial target of the TCK will be to develop a compliance kit for the IDS Dataspace Protocol. The TCK will be expanded in the future to include additional dataspace-related standards and initiatives.
The Eclipse Dataspace TCK will consist of a modular test harness that can be extended to verify multiple Dataspace protocols and standards. The core framework is written in Java but can verify runtimes and services implemented in other programming languages. The framework is designed to be run in various contexts, such as a development command line, a continuous integration pipeline, or an online service.
The Eclipse Dataspace TCK's first compliance extension will be for the IDS Datasapce Protocol (https://github.com/International-Data-Spaces-Association/ids-specification). This compliance extension will test all normative statements in the protocol specifications. Specification implementors will be able to run the tests against their software to assist in development and to provide an independent mechanism to validate conformance.
Since the TCK is intended to be a neutral verification framework for dataspace-related standards, it should be hosted as an independent, open-source project. Eclipse Foundation is a natural home for the TCK as the former already hosts multiple projects related to dataspaces. The TCK will facilitate interoperability between those projects.
We do not see any legal issues.
We plan to begin work immediately after public review and have an initial milestone release within a few months.
Our initial efforts will be focused on providing compliance extensions for the IDS Dataspace Protocol. This will naturally grow the community of interested developers as those specifications are submitted to a formal standards body. In addition, we are currently in discussion with a number of dataspace initiatives that wish to use the TCK and build on it to verify their industry-specific extensions.