If there’s a schema for your target XML then you may be able to validate your output against it. In some cases, even though a schema is available this type of testing may not be practical, for example, if your iXML creates content to be inserted into a larger document and the schema is designed to only validate in the context of that larger document.

Schema validation can alert you to errors such as a misspelt element or attribute name, a missing wrapper element or elements in the wrong order. This is especially pertinent to testing an iXML grammar as this is where many of (sometimes all) the element and attribute names are written.

However, most schemas check the markup but not the content that is being marked up so, for example, if a word or URL is unintentionally changed during the conversion, a schema is unlikely to detect it.

A schema also won’t catch content that is unintentionally lost during the conversion unless the lost content is mandatory.