Release history
The current section provides an overview of the changes in each GITB TDL release.
Release numbers follow global numbering covering all Test Bed components, meaning that certain releases may have not
actually introduced changes to the GITB TDL. The current page lists only the releases that introduced changes, whereas
those not included are global maintenance releases that made no changes to the GITB TDL.
The latest GITB TDL release is 1.27.1.
Release 1.27.0 - 24/06/2025
Release 1.26.0 - 12/06/2025
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.26.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
New JsonValidator handler for verify steps to validate JSON against JSON Schema. |
JsonValidator |
New ShaclValidator handler for verify steps to validate RDF models against SHACL shapes. |
ShaclValidator |
New YamlValidator handler for verify steps to validate YAML against JSON Schema. |
YamlValidator |
Support the delegation of an interact step to an external handler service instead of the default UI-based approach, that will be conditionally triggered to complete the interaction. |
Delegating to external handler services |
Extend all test steps with a skipped attribute to allow them being conditionally skipped during test execution. |
Skip test steps |
Introduce a RdfUtils handler for process steps to manipulate (merge , convert ) and query (ask , construct , select ) RDF models. |
RdfUtils |
Add a find operation to CollectionUtils to support searching for and returning a value from a list or map (with case-sensitive matching or not). |
CollectionUtils - find |
Extend the contains operation of CollectionUtils to support lookups that ignore casing. |
CollectionUtils - contains |
Extend the append operation of CollectionUtils to support appending only missing items (case-sensitive or not) to the target map or list . |
CollectionUtils - append |
Support the generation of multiple test case output messages based on condition matching logic defined by the match attribute (set as first , all or cascade ). |
Output |
Consider the type of test case and scriptlet imports optional, with binary as the default. |
Imports |
Extended the StringValidator , NumberValidator , ExpressionValidator , RegExpValidator and XPathValidator with optional successMessage and failureMessage inputs to add user-friendly messages in the resulting report. |
StringValidator, NumberValidator, ExpressionValidator, RegExpValidator, XPathValidator |
Applied consistent naming (with backwards compatibility through aliases) for the NumberValidator , StringValidator , XPathValidator , XsdValidator , SchematronValidator , XsltProcessor and JsonPointerProcessor built-in step handlers. |
Built-in handlers |
Allow scriptlet inputs for flags used at test case load time to refer to configuration properties. |
Dynamic presentation in scriptlets, Dynamic steps in scriptlets |
Extend the interact step with a blocking attribute (by default “false”) to automatically proceed to the next step in case only instruct elements are defined. |
Displaying data using instruct elements |
Extend the request elements of interact steps to allow specifying inputs as required (optional remaining the default). |
Requesting inputs using request elements |
Consider as optional the from and to of receive steps defaulting, respectively, to the SUT and non-SUT actors. |
Explicitly specifying from and to actors |
Consider as optional the from and to of send steps defaulting, respectively, to the non-SUT and SUT actors. |
Explicitly specifying from and to actors |
Extend the assign step with the byValue attribute to allow choosing by-value or by-reference assignment for maps and lists. |
Assignment by-reference and by-value |
Remove the scope isolation requirement for remotely loaded scriptlets, making them identical behaviour-wise to local ones. |
Scriptlets |
Release 1.25.0 - 31/01/2025
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.25.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Support test case groups within which only a single successful result is needed to ensure conformance. |
Test case groups |
Allow the send , receive and process steps to be configured with their severity level in case of failures via the level attribute. |
receive, send, process |
Allow the send , receive , process and verify steps to have their outcome inverted via the invert attribute. |
receive, send, process, verify |
The DisplayProcessor can now be used without parameters to only display an overall result. |
DisplayProcessor |
Support test case output messages also for undefined outcomes. |
Output |
Optionally record the original file name for files uploaded via interact steps. |
interact |
Support exit steps terminating test sessions with an undefined outcome. |
exit |
Steps defining children support the stopOnChildError flag to stop processing upon child error but not terminate the test session. |
Skip child steps in case of error |
The group step’s boundary can now be hidden by means of the hiddenContainer flag. |
group |
New XPathProcessor processing handler to extract content from XML using XPath. |
XPathProcessor |
Release 1.24.0 - 15/10/2024
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.24.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Support for optional scriptlet parameters and parameters set as empty by default. |
Params |
New VariableUtils built-in processor for common operations (exists , type ) on variables. |
VariableUtils |
New operation for the CollectionUtils built-in processor to append collections. |
CollectionUtils |
New inputs for the HttpMessagingV2 built-in messaging handler to set maximum timeouts (connection and request) when calling a remote service. |
Use in send steps |
Release 1.23.0 - 20/06/2024
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.23.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
New HttpMessagingV2 handler for HTTP messaging, replacing and improving upon the deprecated HttpMessaging and HttpsMessaging . |
HttpMessagingV2 |
New SoapMessagingV2 handler for SOAP messaging, replacing and improving upon the deprecated SoapMessaging . |
SoapMessagingV2 |
New $SYSTEM{apiKey} variable available in test sessions with the unique API key of the system under test. |
System configuration parameters |
The HttpMessaging , HttpsMessaging and SoapMessaging handlers now return a http_status entry in the receive step’s report. |
HttpMessaging, HttpsMessaging, SoapMessaging |
Test session logging level set to INFO by default. |
Test case logging |
Release 1.22.0 - 08/04/2024
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.22.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Interaction steps now support the admin attribute to specify that they should be completed by an administrator. |
interact |
Interaction steps now support the timeout attribute to automatically complete them after the timeout period. |
interact |
Interaction steps can now be minimised and also completed asynchronously. |
interact |
The interaction step’s mimeType attribute can now be set via variable reference. |
interact |
Test suites and test cases support the definition of structured normative reference information. |
reference (test suite), reference (test case), |
The DisplayProcessor can now be set with a configurable result to mark its report as a success, failure or warning. |
DisplayProcessor |
The documentation on service handlers for test steps was extended to list reusable external services available to test developers. |
Reusable external handlers |
Release 1.21.0 - 06/10/2023
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.21.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Interaction steps now support the forceDisplay attribute to ensure an inline display of their content. |
interact |
The TokenGenerator now allows the generation of random numbers via the new random operation. |
TokenGenerator |
New DelayProcessor to make it simpler to pause test sessions for a given duration. |
DelayProcessor |
New JSONPointerProcessor to extract data from JSON content using JSON Pointer expressions. |
JsonPointerProcessor |
Test cases can now be defined as optional and disabled restricting whether they can be executed and how their results are considered. |
Test cases |
Test suite and test case definitions now support an update metadata element to define how to carry out the update of existing test suites and test cases. |
update (test suite), update (test case) |
Test cases can now define tags as part of their metadata to classify them and visually distinguish them for users. |
tags |
Release 1.19.0 - 17/03/2023
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.19.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Extensions to step status checks (STEP_SUCCESS , STEP_STATUS ) to uniquely refer to steps within scriptlets. |
Status checks for scriptlet steps |
New operations (contains , randomKey , randomValue , remove ) for the CollectionUtils processor. |
CollectionUtils |
Release 1.18.0 - 17/10/2022
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.18.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
New XmlValidator validation handler to validate XML against both XSDs and Schematrons. |
XmlValidator |
New ExpressionValidator validation handler to check arbitrary expressions. |
ExpressionValidator |
The TokenGenerator now accepts an optional prefix and postfix to add to generated UUIDs. |
TokenGenerator |
The SimulatedMessaging and DisplayProcessor handlers can now also specify the content types of data in their reports. |
SimulatedMessaging, DisplayProcessor |
The reply attribute of messaging steps can now be set dynamically within scriptlets. |
Dynamic presentation in scriptlets |
The call step can now also be set as hidden to hide all steps of the referenced scriptlet. |
call |
The SchematronValidator can now show the assertions made for each finding. |
SchematronValidator |
The XSDValidator and SchematronValidator can now present findings sorted by their severity. |
XsdValidator, SchematronValidator |
The XSDValidator and SchematronValidator can now hide from their report the XSD or Schematron used for the validation. |
XsdValidator, SchematronValidator |
Scriptlet parameters can now be set with default values. |
Params |
flow steps can now have individually hidden thread blocks.
|
flow |
Steps’ hidden attribute can now be set in scriptlets via variable reference. |
Dynamic steps in scriptlets |
if steps can be set as static for dynamic inclusion of steps within scriptlets.
|
Displaying contained steps without a boundary, Dynamic steps in scriptlets |
if steps can now be set as hidden with visible child steps.
|
Displaying contained steps without a boundary |
New SESSION map allowing access to test session metadata (session identifier, test case identifier, TDL version). |
Accessing test session metadata |
Actor configuration (endpoint) parameters can now be set with default values and user friendly names. |
Actors |
Using a process step via its simplified syntax now supports mapping of the input to a parameter based on the defined types. |
Simplified processing steps |
Allow the assign step to create on-the-fly maps and lists at any nesting level. |
assign |
New TestCaseOverviewReport root element of type TestCaseOverviewReportType in the gitb_tr.xsd for an XML test case overview report. |
Specification links |
Release 1.17.0 - 20/07/2022
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.17.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Steps’ desc , from , to , title and inputTitle values can be set as constant variable references when used within scriptlets. |
Dynamic presentation in scriptlets |
New TemplateProcessor embedded processing handler for complex generation of data based on templates. |
TemplateProcessor |
New XSLTProcessor embedded processing handler for XSLT transformations of XML content. |
XsltProcessor |
New DisplayProcessor embedded processing handler for displaying arbitrary content to users in a non-obtrusive manner. |
DisplayProcessor |
New SimulatedMessaging embedded messaging handler to add simulated message exchanges between actors. |
SimulatedMessaging |
Messaging transactions (defined via btxn ) are no longer mandatory for send and receive messaging steps. |
send, receive |
Non-transactional, non-embedded (external) process , send and receive steps can now also specify authentication properties for the handler service call. |
Authentication for external handlers |
The GITB TDL’s expression language is now upgraded from XPath 1.0 to XPath 3.0. |
Expressions |
Release 1.16.0 - 18/03/2022
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.16.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Namespaces can now be defined to simplify XPath expressions in GITB TDL steps and the XPathValidator. |
Namespaces |
Actors defined in test cases are considered by default as SIMULATED. |
Actors |
Introduction of the STEP_STATUS variable to record and query the specific status of each step. |
Checking the status of a specific step |
Reuse of steps’ desc attribute to identify them in the test session log to make log entries more meaningful. |
Test steps |
Support for test session log contributions from custom test services used as remote service handlers. |
log |
Support for the parallel or sequential execution of a test suite’s test cases when a test suite is executed in the background. |
Test cases |
Test cases now feature the supportsParallelExecution attribute that can be used to enforce a test case’s execution in isolation. |
Test cases |
Release 1.15.0 - 29/11/2021
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.15.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Messaging steps now support the reply attribute to indicate that they should be presented as reply messages. |
send, receive, listen |
Support for automatically converting non-list values to lists (as single-item lists containing the value). |
Type conversions |
Support for automatically converting lists and maps to strings. |
Type conversions |
The log step now supports a level attribute to define the message’s severity level. |
log |
Test cases now support the logLevel attribute to control which messages are included in test session logs. |
Steps |
The severity level of verify steps can be now be provided dynamically via variable reference. |
verify |
The process step now enables simplified usage through the input , operation and output attributes. |
Simplified processing steps |
The call step now enables simplified usage through the input and output attributes. |
Simplified call steps |
Release 1.14.0 - 17/08/2021
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.14.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
The receive elements of interact steps support the inputType and mimeType attributes to determine the type of input control to use. |
interact |
The instruct elements of interact steps support the mimeType attribute to determine downloaded file extensions and editor syntax highlighting. |
interact |
Release 1.13.0 - 01/07/2021
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.13.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
The process step can now be displayed in the test case’s presentation. |
process |
Support for the hidden attribute to define steps that are not included in the test case’s presentation. |
Hide test steps |
Support for the collapsed attribute on group steps to have them displayed as initially collapsed. |
Collapse sets of test steps |
Extended group steps to allow them to be included in the test case’s presentation. |
group |
Release 1.12.0 - 03/03/2021
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.12.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Support for test suites without actor definitions nor test cases, as shared resource holders. |
Test suites as shared resource holders |
Support for sharing resources (scriptlets, artifacts, documentation) across test suites. |
Sharing resources across test suites |
Support for sharing scriptlets across test cases, scriptlet output expressions, optional parameters, variables and outputs. |
Scriptlets (standalone), Scriptlets (test case), call |
New embedded processing handler RegExpProcessor to process texts using regular expressions. |
RegExpProcessor |
New embedded processing handler CollectionUtils providing utility functions for maps and lists. |
CollectionUtils |
The TokenGenerator processing handler now allows manipulation of dates based on existing, formatted, date values. |
TokenGenerator |
The SchematronValidator validation handler now supports defining the Schematron file type (XSLT or SCH) as an input. |
SchematronValidator |
Release 1.11.1 - 11/12/2020
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.11.1 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Referencing a missing variable evaluates as an empty string. |
Missing variables |
Release 1.11.0 - 13/11/2020
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.11.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Support for stopping a test session immediately upon a step’s failure. |
Stop the test session in case of error, Steps |
Support for custom output messages as the overall result of a test session’s execution. |
Output |
Allow a verify step to optionally store its report’s context data. |
verify |
New TEST_SUCCESS variable used to track the overall status of the test session at any point. |
Checking the result of test steps |
Support for custom titles for the user input popups linked to the interact step. |
interact |
Release 1.10.0 - 07/09/2020
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.10.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Test case imports can now be defined dynamically using variable references. |
Imports, Where can expressions be used? |
Support for a custom title for if , interact , while , repuntil , foreach and flow steps. |
if, interact, while, repuntil, foreach, flow |
Actors’ endpoint parameters can now be defined as hidden to have them visible only to administrators. |
Actors |
Actors’ endpoint parameters now support the definition of allowed values with optional labels (allowedValues and allowedValueLabels ). |
Actors |
Actors’ endpoint parameters now support defining other parameters as prerequisites (dependsOn and dependsOnValue ). |
Actors |
New log step to add arbitrary information to the test session’s log output. |
log |
The documentation content for test suites, test cases and test steps can now be provided via imported resource. |
Metadata, Metadata, Rich documentation per step |
The ID of test suites and test cases is now considered in the GITB software for referencing and matching. |
Test suites, Test cases |
Release 1.9.0 - 30/04/2020
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.9.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Rich text documentation can now also be set for test suites via the documentation element. |
Metadata |
Rich text documentation can now also be set for test cases via the documentation element. |
Metadata |
Assign steps can now automatically create variables to store expression output.
|
assign, Variables, Defining variables from expressions |
New Base64Processor for the handling of Base64 and data URL encoding in test cases. |
Base64Processor |
Release 1.8.0 - 20/01/2020
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.8.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Actors can now be set as hidden to prevent them from being used in new conformance statements. |
Actors |
Support for different severity levels for the validation carried out by verify steps. |
verify |
Rich text documentation can now be set for test steps via the documentation element to provide further information or instructions. |
Test steps, Rich documentation per step |
Release 1.7.2 - 11/12/2019
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.7.2 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Any expression can now be set with asTemplate to be used as a template for placeholder replacement. |
Expressions and templates |
Release 1.7.0 - 07/10/2019
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.7.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Support for organisation and system level configuration parameters. |
Referring to configuration parameters |
Support for binary values in all levels of configuration parameters. |
Referring to configuration parameters |
Support for endpoint configuration parameters to be defined as editable only by administrators (adminOnly ) and make their inclusion in test sessions optional (notForTests ). |
Actors |
Endpoint configuration parameters can now have secret values. |
Actors |
Release 1.6.1 - 14/06/2019
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.6.1 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Additional documentation for the use of templates. |
Expressions and templates |
Extensions to the TokenGenerator handler to fine-tune timestamp generation. |
TokenGenerator |
Release 1.6.0 - 29/05/2019
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.6.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Documented the embedded UDPMessaging messaging handler. |
UDPMessaging |
Introduced a new STEP_SUCCESS map variable to record the status of executed steps. |
Checking whether a specific step succeeded |
Step attributes now allow definition of text values including spaces, and numbers that are signed or floating point. |
Test steps |
Support for single and multiple selection lists to receive input in user interaction steps. |
interact |
Processing transactions are now optional allowing for simpler use of stateless processing steps. |
bptxn, process |
New embedded TokenGenerator processing handler to generate text tokens. |
TokenGenerator |
New embedded XmlMatchValidator validation handler for template-based matching of XML documents. |
XmlMatchValidator |
Test case variable values now correctly allow the definition only of a type and name. |
Variables |
Release 1.5.0 - 06/11/2018
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.5.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
The XPathValidator is now updated to support XPath 3.0 expressions (from the previous limitation to XPath 1.0) |
XPathValidator |
Support for any type of input that can be converted to string``s can now be passed to the ``XPathValidator and StringValidator |
XPathValidator, StringValidator |
Added a new RegExpValidator to test text against a regular expression |
RegExpValidator |
Improved default handling of the with , type and contentType properties linked to user interactions |
interact, Preliminary |
Allowed user interactions to present binary content for download |
interact, Preliminary |
The test suite name can now be ommitted in the value provided for test case import elements |
Imports |
It is now possible to define an actor as the specification’s default to have it automatically selected for new conformance statements |
Actors |
The display order of actors in test execution diagrams can now be set at test suite and test case level |
Actors (test suite), Actors (test case) |
The exit step is now correctly reflected on the user interface and can be set to be either a success or a failure |
exit |
The if step now considers the else block as optional |
if |
Release 1.4.1 - 28/09/2018
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.4.1 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
The HttpMessaging handler now supports HTTPS via configuration as well as handling of multipart forms |
HttpMessaging |
Release 1.3.0 - 25/05/2018
The documentation for GITB TDL release 1.3.0 is available here.
Description of changes |
Relevant sections |
Transactions (messaging and processing) now support config elements to customise transaction creation |
btxn, bptxn |
Configuration elements (config ) now support variable references |
btxn, send, receive, listen, bptxn, verify |
User instructions now consider “string” as the default type and can be fully empty in case of simple messages |
interact |
User requests now consider “STRING” as the default content type |
interact |
The foreach step now allows its boundaries (start and end) to be set using variable references |
foreach |
Actors can now be defined in test suites without endpoints |
Actors |
Service handler implementations can now be specified with variable references |
Specifying the handler implementation |
The receive step now allows a timeout to be specified |
receive |
Communication with service handlers now supports authentication (HTTP Basic and UsernameToken) |
Specifying the handler implementation |
The SoapMessaging embedded messaging handler now supports HTTPS |
SoapMessaging |
Value ‘CONFORMANCE’ is now correctly considered as the default test case type |
Metadata |
The actor name defined in a test case does not have to match the actor ID |
Actors |
Domain-level configuration parameters can now be used in expressions |
Domain configuration parameters |
Release 1.2.0 - 18/03/2018
Initial release of the documentation for the GITB TDL (release 1.2.0), available here.