Re: expressing DTDs with UML

[Chris Holmes <cholmes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ISO Technical Committee 211 is defining their data models for Geographic
Information using UML.  TC211 has specified a method for converting a schema
defined in UML into a DTD.  This allows transfer of the data instances via XML
documents.  The approach is inspired by XMI.

An overview presentation on the approach can be found at:
ftp://harp.gsfc.nasa.gov//incoming/encoding/EncodingWalkth.ppt

The draft ISO document can be found at:
ftp://harp.gsfc.nasa.gov//incoming/encoding/211n709.PDF

A tool which accepts an .mdl file and creates a DTD using the rules:
http://www.informatics.sintef.no/UML2XML/

- Chris

"Vun Kannon, David" wrote:

> 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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Chris Holmes
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