Creating a readable language for checking XML

Abstract: Today sharing data is done everywhere. Doctors might want to share patient journal information. Patient journals may contain sensitive information that doctors do not want to share. The journals needs to be checked before they are shared. In this thesis, data and journals are coded in XML and checking journals and data is the same as validating XML. Validating XML documents is usually done by following rules from a validator. A validator processes XML documents and checks that the XML documents follows the validation rules. The issue with most validators today is that they cannot compare arbitrary elements in the XML document with each other and there are no mathematical operations to supply these comparisons. Sometimes there is a need to verify the validation rules. This might be done by someone who has little programming skills. The validator has to be readable so that this someone can verify that the validator matches the requirements. This thesis attempts to solve the issue with existing solutions by creating a readable language for validating XML documents. The solution is done in three steps: investigating similar solutions, implementing a validator, and testing the readability of the validator with a usability test.