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Background

ActivityPub §4.1 Actor Objects:

Actor objects MUST have... the following properties: inbox... outbox...

About this Test

This is a Test Case describing a rule to determine whether an ActivityPub Object is in partial conformance with the following behaviors required by ActivityPub.

• Actor Objects must have inbox property cc3f730a-37a9-4af9-948f-7c8a0b7f6c41
• Actor Objects must have outbox property b8647b47-defb-483c-b468-8602d1124169

Identifier

The identifier of this test is urn:uuid:acaacb5f-8f7e-4f28-8d81-c7955070a767.

Test Subject

The subject of this test is any data claiming to conform to the specification of an ActivityPub Actor Object.

This test is not directly applicable to an ActivityPub Server. An ActivityPub Server serves 0 or more Actor Objects. An ActivityPub Server for a big community might serve hundreds of ActivityPub Actor Objects. An ActivityPub Server for a single human may serve only that person's ActivityPub Actor Object.

This test applies to Actor Objects, but not all Actor Object are addressable by an HTTPS URL. The URI that addresses an Actor Object is not the same as the Actor Object. A given URL may resolve to different Actor Objects in different contexts, and a given Actor Object may not be universally addressable across context by any one URL.

Inputs

This test requires the following inputs:

• actor - the actor object that should be tested
  • type: binary data
  • constraints
    • will be interpreted as JSON. If not parseable as JSON, the test result MUST be inapplicable.

Applicability

This test applies directly to the actor input.

If actor is not an Actor Object, the outcome MUST be inapplicable.

• see assumption "How to Determine Whether Input is an Actor Object" below

If actor JSON does not have a type property, the outcome MUST be inapplicable.

Test Targets

• inbox - the inbox property (or lack thereof) in the input actor JSON object
• outbox - the outbox property (or lack thereof) in the input actor JSON object

Expectations

1. actor JSON has a property whose name is inbox.

   • If there is no inbox property, the outcome is failed for test target inbox

2. actor JSON has a property whose name is outbox

   • If there is no outbox property, the outcome is failed for test target outbox

Assumptions

1. How to Determine Whether Input is an Actor Object

For the purposes of determining whether the input actor is in fact an actor object and whether this test is applicable to that input, this test assumes that a valid way of determining whether the input is an Actor Object is:

• the input is valid JSON
• the input, once parsed as JSON
  • has a type property
  • has a type property value that is either a string or array of strings
  • one of those type value strings is one of Application, Group, Organization, Person, Service
    • rationale:
      • ActivityPub 4.3 Actors:

        The Activity Vocabulary provides the normative definition of five specific types of Actors: Application | Group | Organization | Person | Service.

2. No property value expectations

This test does not assert any expectations about the values of these required properties. The requirement being tested only requires that they are present.

For test cases about the values of these properties, see:

• inbox-must-be-an-orderedcollection
• outbox-must-be-an-orderedcollection

Test Cases

These are test cases for this test case, and can be used to verify that an implementation of this test case specification will be consistent with other implementations.

simple valid actor

inputs

• actor

    {
      "type": "Person",
      "inbox": "https://bengo.is/inbox",
      "outbox": "https://bengo.is/outbox"
    }
  

test targets

• inbox: present
  • outcome: passed
• outbox: present
  • outcome: passed

missing inbox

inputs

• actor

    {
      "type": "Person",
      "outbox": "https://bengo.is/outbox"
    }
  

test targets

• inbox: not present
  • outcome: failed
• outbox: present
  • outcome: passed

missing outbox

inputs

• actor

    {
      "type": "Person",
      "inbox": "https://bengo.is/inbox",
    }
  

test targets

• inbox: present
  • outcome: passed
• outbox: not present
  • outcome: failed

actor type, but no inbox nor outbox

inputs

• actor

    {
      "type": "Person"
    }
  

test targets

• inbox: not present
  • outcome: failed
• outbox: not present
  • outcome: failed

not json

inputs

• actor

  abc
  

test targets

• inbox: not present
  • outcome: inapplicable
• outbox: not present
  • outcome: inapplicable

json with no properties

inputs

• actor

  {}
  

test targets

• inbox: not present
  • outcome: inapplicable
    • because it is not an Actor Object
• outbox: not present
  • outcome: inapplicable
    • because it is not an Actor Object

actor with no other properties

inputs

• actor

  {
    "type": "Person"
  }
  

test targets

• inbox: not present
  • outcome: failed
    • rationale: the object is an Actor, but is missing the required property
• outbox: not present
  • outcome: failed
    • rationale: the object is an Actor, but is missing the required property

object with inbox but no type

inputs

• actor

  {
    "inbox": "https://bengo.is/inbox"
  }
  

test targets

• inbox: present
  • outcome: inapplicable
    • because it is not an Actor Object. There is no type property indicating this is an Actor Object.
• outbox: not present
  • outcome: inapplicable
    • because it is not an Actor Object. There is no type property indicating this is an Actor Object.

Glossary

outcome

An outcome is a conclusion that comes from evaluating a test on a test subject. An outcome can be one of the three following types:

• inapplicable: No part of the test subject matches the applicability
• passed: A test target meets all expectations
• failed: A test target does not meet all expectations

Requirements Mapping

• ActivityPub requirement cc3f730a-37a9-4af9-948f-7c8a0b7f6c41 - actor objects must have an inbox property

  • Required for Conformance to ActivityPub
  • Outcome Mapping
    • when test target inbox has outcome passed, requirement is satisfied
    • when test target inbox has outcome failed, requirement is not satisfied
    • when test target inbox has outcome inapplicable, further testing is needed to determine requirement satisfaction

• ActivityPub requirement b8647b47-defb-483c-b468-8602d1124169 - actor objects must have an outbox property

  • Required for Conformance to ActivityPub
  • Outcome Mapping for test target outbox
    • when test target outbox has outcome passed, requirement is satisfied
    • when test target outbox has outcome failed, requirement is not satisfied
    • when test target outbox has outcome inapplicable, further testing is needed to determine requirement satisfaction

Change Log

• 2023-11-03T03:41:20.725Z - first draft
• 2023-12-29T20:48:45.838Z - update test cases with consistent formatting, headings, and fix some mistakes

Issues List