XML Metadata Interchange Research Articles

Toward reasoning with unified modeling language diagrams based on extensible markup language declarative description theory

A practical framework for representing knowledge and reasoning in the domain of Unified Modeling Language (UML) is proposed. In this framework, graphical diagrams in a UML model are encoded as Extensible Markup Language (XML)/Metadata Interchange (XMI) elements, which are regarded as facts about a specific problem instance in a knowledge base, and the general knowledge on UML, such as inherent interrelationships among diagram components and implicit properties of diagrams, is represented as a set of XML definite clauses. Equivalent transformation (ET) is used as a fundamental computation mechanism for reasoning with the represented diagrams. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Emerging OCL tools

The Object Constraint Language (OCL) is a notational language for analysis and design of software systems, which is used in conjunction with the Unified Modelling Language (UML) to specify the semantics of the building blocks precisely. OCL can also be used by other languages, notations, methods and software tools in order to specify restrictions and other expressions of their models. Likewise, OCL is used by the Object Management Group (OMG) in the definition of other fast spreading industrial standards such as Meta Object Facility (MOF) or XML Metadata Interchange (XMI). Support tools aimed at making this language easier to use are becoming available. These tools are capable of supporting and handling OCL expressions. This paper presents a comparative study of the main tools currently available, both commercial and freely available ones. The study is very practical, with the advantages and disadvantages of the different tools being pointed out. The evaluations made may be of use in helping those developers and analysts who already use the language, as well as those who intend to use it in the near future, to choose the OCL tool which best adapts to their requirements.

Small-Scale XMI Programming: A Revolution in UML Tool Use?

The main motivation for the development of the OMG's XML Metadata Interchange Format (XMI) was the need to have a standard way for UML tools to interchange UML models. However, the fact that UML models, saved as XML documents, are now accessible to standard XML tools, opens up new possibilities to which less attention has so far been paid. This paper discusses how XMI can be exploited for performing model analysis and housekeeping tasks and for the integration of third party or in-house tools. With the help of examples we focus on what can be achieved with small-scale XMI programming by a single developer in hours rather than days. We suggest that this new capability may have important and positive implications for the future of UML modelling using tools.

BOX: Browsing objects in XML

The latest Internet markup languages support the representation of structured information and vector graphics. In this paper we describe how these languages can be used to publish software engineering diagrams on the Internet. We introduce BOX, a portable, distributed and interoperable approach to browsing UML models with off-the-shelf technology. Our approach to browsing UML models leverages XML and related specifications, such as the Document Object Model (DOM), the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) and the Vector Markup Language (VML). BOX translates a UML model that is represented in XMI into VML. VML can be directly displayed in Internet browsers, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5. BOX enables software engineers to access and review UML models without the need to purchase licenses of tools that produced the models. BOX has been successfully evaluated in two industrial case studies. The case studies used BOX to make extensive domain and enterprise object models available to a large number of stakeholders over corporate intranets and the Internet. We show how XML and the BOX architecture can be applied to other software engineering notations. We also argue that the approach taken in BOX can be applied to other domains that have already started to adopt XML and have a need for graphic representation of XML information. These include browsing gene sequences, chemical molecule structures and conceptual knowledge representations. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.