Editing XML Metadata Interchange

{{Short description|Standard of Object Management Group}}
{{redirect-distinguish|.xmi|XMI (disambiguation){{!}}XMI}}
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{{More footnotes|date=April 2009}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2014}}
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{{Infobox file format

| name = XMI
| icon = 
| iconcaption = 
| screenshot = 
| caption = 
| extension = .xmi
| mime = [https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/vnd.xmi+xml application/vnd.xmi+xml]
| magic = 
| released = <!-- {{Start date and age|YYYY|mm|dd|df=yes/no}} -->
| standard = MOF 2 XMI Mapping
| open = yes
| url = {{URL|http://www.omg.org/spec/XMI}}
| logo = 
| type code = TEXT
| uniform type = 
| conforms to = 
| owner = [[Object Management Group]]
| latest release version = 2.5.1
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2015|06||df=yes}}
| genre = [[Markup language]]
| container for = 
| contained by = 
| extended from = [[XML]]
| extended to = 
}}
The '''XML Metadata Interchange''' ('''XMI''') is an [[Object Management Group|Object Management Group (OMG)]] standard for exchanging [[metadata]] information via [[XML|Extensible Markup Language (XML)]].

It can be used for any metadata whose metamodel can be expressed in [[Meta-Object Facility|Meta-Object Facility (MOF)]], a platform-independent model (PIM).

The most common use of XMI is as an interchange format for [[Unified Modeling Language|UML]] models, although it can also be used for serialization of models of other languages (metamodels).

== Overview ==
In the [[Object Management Group|OMG]] 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 [[Unified Modeling Language|UML]] or [[SysML]]. For diagrams, the Diagram Interchange (DI, XMI[DI]) 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 [[Unified Modeling Language|UML]] 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]].

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.<ref>Object Management Group. [https://www.omg.org/spec/XMI/2.5.1/PDF XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) Specification], version 2.5.1, June 2015</ref>

== Integration of industry standards ==
XMI integrates 4 industry standards:
* [[XML]] – Extensible Markup Language, a [[W3C]] standard.
* [[Unified Modeling Language|UML]] – Unified Modeling Language, an [[Object Management Group|OMG]] modeling standard.
* [[Meta-Object Facility|MOF]] – Meta Object Facility, an [[Object Management Group|OMG]] language for specifying [[Metamodeling|metamodels]].
* 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.
{| class="wikitable"
!Version
!Release date
!URL
|-
|2.5.1
|June 2015
|<nowiki>http://www.omg.org/spec/XMI/2.5.1</nowiki>
|-
|2.4.2
|April 2014
|<nowiki>http://www.omg.org/spec/XMI/2.4.2</nowiki>
|-
|2.4.1
|August 2011
|<nowiki>http://www.omg.org/spec/XMI/2.4.1</nowiki>
|-
|2.4
|March 2011
|<nowiki>http://www.omg.org/spec/XMI/2.4</nowiki>
|-
|2.1.1
|December 2007
|<nowiki>http://www.omg.org/spec/XMI/2.1.1</nowiki>
|-
|2.1
|September 2005
|<nowiki>http://www.omg.org/spec/XMI/2.1</nowiki>
|}

The Diagram Definition OMG project is another alternative for metadata interchange, which can also express the layout and graphical representation.<ref name="DD">{{cite web|author=OMG|title=Diagram Definition, Version 1.0|url=http://www.omg.org/spec/DD/1.0/|date=2012-07-01|access-date = 2013-02-21}}</ref>

XMI is an international standard:
;XMI 2.4.2
:[[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]]/[[International Electrotechnical Commission|IEC]] 19509:2014 Information technology — XML Metadata Interchange (XMI)
;XMI 2.0
:[[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]]/[[International Electrotechnical Commission|IEC]] 19503:2005 Information technology — XML Metadata Interchange (XMI)

== See also ==
* [[Common Warehouse Metamodel]]
* [[Web Ontology Language]]
* [[Generic Modeling Environment]] (GME)
* [[Eclipse Modeling Framework]] (EMF)
* [[Domain Specific Language]] (DSL)
* [[Domain-specific modelling]] (DSM)
* [[Meta-modeling]]
* [[Meta-Object Facility]] (MOF)

== References ==

<references />

== External links ==
* [http://www.omg.org/spec/XMI/ OMG XMI Specification]

{{ISO standards}}

[[Category:XML-based standards]]
[[Category:Unified Modeling Language]]
[[Category:Systems Modeling Language]]
[[Category:ISO standards]]