The Wadl normalizer (normalizeWadl.sh and the associated xslts) is a tool that takes as input a wadl file that is spread out into several files and has been written with methods split out and reused (e.g. ) and produces a version of the wadl flattened into a single file and with all of the references expanded. As part of this process, the tool flattens any xsds included in the wadl (or in any wadls pulled in to the source wadl) and any xsds imported into any of those xsds. These flattened xsds are written out as xsd-1.xsd, xsd-2.xsd, etc. All references to the xsds are updated.

After producing the flattened wadl and xsds, the tool validates them against the appropriate w3c schema using xmllint.

The flattened version of the wadl is easier to process, especially if the source wadl takes advantage of authoring convenience features such as resource_types. Even tools with bugs and limitations in their ability to handle wadls like SoapUI can consume a normalized wadl.

In addition to flattening the wadl out, the normalizer also simplifies other constructs that are known to cause problems for tools like SoapUI. For example, give a wadl:param like the following where auth:UserType is an enumeration with three possible values:

<param name="type"      
      style="query"
      required="false" 
      type="auth:UserType"
      default="CLOUD" />

The normalizer converts the wadl:param to a string:

<param name="type" 
  style="query" required="false" default="CLOUD"
      type="xsd:string">
      <option value="CLOUD"/>
      <option value="NAST"/>
      <option value="MOSSO"/>
</param>

The wadl normalizer is a bash script and requires that xmllint be in your path. Windows users should use the script with Cygwin.

These scripts require an xslt 2.0 processor such as Saxon. Saxon 9.1.0.8, released under the Mozilla Public License is provided bundled with the scripts as a convenience.

Wadls with matrix parameters are not supported if you use "path" format.

Clone the git repository a convenient location on your system and create a symlink to bin/normalizeWadl.sh in a directory that is in your path (e.g. /usr/bin).

If you use oXygen XML Editor, create a symlink to the wadl-tools directory in your oXygen frameworks directory. When placed in the frameworks directory, wadl-tools adds functionality to oXygen so that it validates as you type against both the wadl xsd schema and a set of schematron rules. In addition, wadl-tools adds a transformation scenario to oXygen to normalize wadls. Note that oXygen is a commercial tool available from http://www.oxygenxml.com/

Note that the transformation scenario in oXygen currently does not validate the wadl or xsds as the shell script does.

Invoke the script as follows:

normalizeWadl.sh -w /path/to/file.wadl

The script creates a normalized version of the wadl in /path/to/file-normalized.wadl. In addition to the wadl file name, you can pass in other parameters:

Usage: normalizeWadl.sh [-?fvx] -w wadlFile

OPTIONS:
   -w wadlFile: The wadl file to normalize.
   -f Wadl format. path or tree
      path: Format resources in path format, 
            e.g. <resource path='foo/bar'/>
      tree: Format resources in tree format, 
            e.g. <resource path='foo'><resource path='bar'>...
      If you omit the -f switch, the script makes no 
      changes to the structure of the resources.
   -v XSD Version (1.0 and 1.1 supported, 1.1 is the default)
   -x true or false. Flatten xsds (true by default).
   -r keep or omit. Omit resource_type elements (keep by default).

The -f argument controls the format of the path attributes on the resource elements:

• Omitting the second argument leaves the structure of the resource elements unchanged.

• Using "path" as the second argument causes the normalizer to flatten out the path attributes on resources. So:

  becomes:

• Using "tree" as the second arguments causes the normalizer to expand any flat path attributes on resource elements. So:

  becomes

For example, if you are in the normalizeWadl directory, running:

./bin/normalizeWadl.sh -f path -w samples/resources/admin.wadl

Creates the file samples/resources/normalized/admin.wadl which is a normalized version of the input file with the path attributes flattened out.

Typing normalizeWadl.sh -? prints out a brief usage summary.

• Wadl Specification: http://www.w3.org/Submission/wadl
• Cygwin: http://www.cygwin.com/
• Oxygen XML Editor: http://www.oxygenxml.com/
• SoapUI: http://www.soapui.org/

These scripts are released under the Apache 2 license. See LICENSE for more information.

Saxon 9.1.0.8, released under the Mozilla Public License is provided with the scripts as a convenience.