Re: expressing DTDs with UML

You might look at the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) specification adopted
by the OMG.  It includes a standard set of production rules for generating a
DTD from any UML model (or, technically, from a MOF-compliant model).  Also,
IBM has released an XMI Toolkit on their alphaworks web site that will take
a Rational Rose model file and generate a DTD, following the XMI mapping
rules.  I've had pretty good luck creating a UML model in Rose and
generating a DTD using the XMI Toolkit.  The XMI mapping is a bit verbose,
but it appears useful for data interchange applications of XML.

Dave

----- Original Message -----
From: Vun Kannon, David <dvunkannon@xxxxxxxx>
To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 13, 1999 9:05 AM
Subject: RE: expressing DTDs with UML


> To your example:
> package - document type
> I prefer namespace at this point. I'm still working out what nested
> packages imply for namespaces.
>
> class - a tag
> attribute - a tag parameter
> Heading down the path of "all content in attribute values" here. I
> suppose you could stereotype one class attribute as <<Content>>.
>
> association - hyperlink
> UML can show navigation, so you can show which end implies an ID
> attribute, which end an IDREF. It is time to start thinking about
generating
> XLink link attributes as well, so we need to stereotype the association as
> <<ID/IDREF>> or <<XLINK>>
>
> aggregation - allows expression of tag hierarchy e.g. <car> ... <wheel
> location="left_rear"></wheel></car>
> UML has a hard time with ordered content. A DTD often expresses a
> content model with sequence constraints "(head,para*)". Notice how easy it
> is to find an example from the XML-as-document space rather than the
> XML-as-data space.
>
> inheritance - a means for sharing / inheriting attributes, relationships
>
> DTDs as defined today don't need/use methods.
>
> Overall, though, I think it is less interesting to figure out how to
> model DTDs with UML than it is to map business models developed in UML
into
> DTDs, without bending the business model to fit a preconceived notion of
> what a good DTD should look like.
> Cheers,
> David vun Kannon
>
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