Memento validator: a toolset for memento compliance testing

Bhanuka Mahanama, Lyudmila Balakireva, Sampath Jayarathna, Michael L. Nelson, Martin Klein

Abstract: Web archiving is serving the task of knowledge preservation for the ever changing state of the web. The Memento protocol provides a unified approach to access versions of web resources across heterogeneous archives and repositories. The discovery of archived content relies on data providers' correct implementation of the Memento protocol, which extends the HTTP protocol with content negotiation over the dimension of time. Implementation inconsistencies can impede the overall time-based content negotiation process and render the resources not usable. We introduce a novel tool set, an API, and a web interface that allow data providers to test their Memento protocol compliance and improve the time-travel experience for users. We offer all our tools as open source to help adoption by the web archiving community.