The XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) is an Object Management Group (OMG) standard for exchanging metadata information via Extensible Markup Language (XML). It can be used for any metadata whose metamodel can be expressed in Meta-Object Facility (MOF). The most common use of XMI is as an interchange format for

UML The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system. The creation of UML was originally ...

models, although it can also be used for serialization of models of other languages (metamodels).

Overview

In the

OMG OMG may refer to: * Oh my God (sometimes also Oh my Goodness or Oh my Gosh), a common abbreviation, often used in SMS messages and Internet communication Acronyms * OMG is the IATA code for Omega Airport, Omega, Namibia * Operational manoeuvre ...

vision of modeling, data is split into abstract models and concrete models. The abstract models represent the semantic information, whereas the concrete models represent visual diagrams. Abstract models are instances of arbitrary MOF-based modeling languages such as

or SysML. For diagrams, the Diagram Interchange (DI, XMI I standard is used. There are currently several incompatibilities between different modeling tool vendor implementations of XMI, even between interchange of abstract model data. The usage of Diagram Interchange is almost nonexistent. This means exchanging files between

modeling tools using XMI is rarely possible. One purpose of XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) is to enable easy interchange of metadata between UML-based modeling tools and MOF-based metadata repositories in distributed heterogeneous environments. XMI is also commonly used as the medium by which models are passed from modeling tools to software generation tools as part of

model-driven engineering Model-driven engineering (MDE) is a software development methodology that focuses on creating and exploiting domain models, which are conceptual models of all the topics related to a specific problem. Hence, it highlights and aims at abstract ...

. Examples of XMI, and lists of the XML tags that make up XMI-formatted files, are available in the version 2.5.1 specification document.Object Management Group
XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) Specification
version 2.5.1, June 2015

Integration of industry standards

XMI integrates 4 industry standards: *

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. ...

– Extensible Markup Language, a W3C standard. *

– Unified Modeling Language, an

modeling standard. * MOF – Meta Object Facility, an

language for specifying

metamodels A metamodel or surrogate model is a model of a model, and metamodeling is the process of generating such metamodels. Thus metamodeling or meta-modeling is the analysis, construction and development of the frames, rules, constraints, models and ...

. * MOF – Mapping to XMI The integration of these 4 standards into XMI allows tool developers of distributed systems to share object models and other metadata. Several versions of XMI have been created: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0, 2.1, 2.1.1, 2.4, 2.4.1, 2.4.2. and 2 5.1. The 2.x versions are radically different from the 1.x series. The Diagram Definition OMG project is another alternative for metadata interchange, which can also express the layout and graphical representation. XMI is an international standard: ;XMI 2.4.2 : ISO/ IEC 19509:2014 Information technology — XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) ;XMI 2.0 : ISO/ IEC 19503:2005 Information technology — XML Metadata Interchange (XMI)

References

External links

OMG XMI Specification
{{ISO standards XML-based standards Unified Modeling Language Systems Modeling Language ISO standards

Overview

Integration of industry standards

See also

References

External links