ZedVal Frequently Asked Questions

The information on this page relates to the latest release of ZedVal. If you are using an earlier version, the information provided here may or may not apply.

How do I run ZedVal?

Your first option is to run ZedVal as a commandline application. As you expand the zip archive that you downloaded from the download section, you will find a batch file (zedval.bat) for use in Windows, and a shell script (zedval.sh) for use in Linux.

Windows users: Open a command prompt, move to the directory where zedval.bat resides, type zedval.bat [packagefilepath], where packagefilepath is for example D:/myDTBs/myDTB.opf.

You can add other parameters to your call, in order to finetune ZedVals behavior. See Commandline parameters.

Your second option is to locate and use one of the GUIs that has been written for ZedVal. Links to such GUIs will appear here soon.

Where do I report bugs or feature requests?

Use the following trackers to report a bug, or to request a feature.

ZedVal BugTracker
ZedVal Feature Requests
Where do I get general support on the usage of ZedVal?
Use the Daisy Consortium support emailing list if you have access to it. Else, use zedval-users@lists.sourceforge.net.
On what operating systems can I run ZedVal?

At the time of writing (September 2006), ZedVal 2.0 has been verified to run on Windows on Linux.

Want to see support for another operating system? Add a feature request.

What versions of the Java runtime is ZedVal supporting?

At the time of writing (March 2008), ZedVal 2.0 has been verified to run on JRE 5.0.x. and later.

How can I customize ZedVals behavior using commandline parameters?

When you run ZedVal with its default behavior, the only parameter you specify is the path to the packagefile.

Other parameters can be specified to customize ZedVals behavior. To get a listing and explanation of these parameters, run ZedVal with the -help parameter.

What changed in the latest version?

If the latest version is a minor version update, it most likely contains only bugfixes, see the release notes for the particular release.

Major version update information:


How does ZedVal detect which DTB version (2002, 2005) my input DTB is?

ZedVal looks in the Dc:Format metadata item in the packagefile. If this metadata item is not present or contains an unrecognized value, the validation process will be prematurely terminated, giving the message "unrecognizable specversion".

I get an "out of memory" error while running ZedVal. Why, and what can I do?

ZedVal prioritizes speed, and pays for it by increased memory usage. For large DTBs in particular, ZedVals memory usage may exceed the default chunk of memory that your operating system has allocated to the Java runtime.

To increase the amount of memory that ZedVal can use, you can modify the -Xms and -Xmx values in the provided batch (Windows) or shell (Linux) scripts.

As an example, the line in zedval.bat that reads 

 java -Xms128m -Xmx256m
could be changed to 
 java -Xms256m -Xmx512m

(See further http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2001/08/22/optimization.html.)

I fixed one error, and now I get twenty errors I didnt get before. What happened?

There are two possible reasons: the first is that the fix you did was incorrect, and caused new errors. The second reason is what is called "masking": the fact that one error can hide, or "mask" other errors. If an XML file is malformed for example, it is in a state where no other tests can be performed on it until the malformedness has been corrected. The malformedness "masks" all other possible errors within that file.