Given that
metadata
Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...
is a set of descriptive, structural and administrative
data about a group of
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
data (for example such as a
database schema
The database schema is the structure of a database described in a formal language supported by the database management system (DBMS). The term "schema" refers to the organization of data as a blueprint of how the database is constructed (divide ...
), Java Metadata Interface (or JMI) is a platform-neutral specification that defines the creation, storage, access, lookup and exchange of metadata in the
Java programming language.
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History
The JMI specification was developed under the
Java Community Process and is defined by
JSR 40 (a JSR is the formal document that describe proposed specifications and technologies for adding to the
Java platform).
JMI is based on the
Meta-Object Facility (or MOF) specification from the
Object Management Group (or OMG). The MOF is a
metamodel (a
model of any kind of metadata) used notably to define the
Unified Modeling Language (or UML).
It supports the exchange of metadata through
XMI. XMI is a standard for exchanging metadata information via
Extensible Markup Language (or XML). The MOF/XMI specifications are used for the exchange of UML models.
Usage
Essentially, JMI can be used to write tools in Java for manipulating UML models, which can be used in
Model Driven Architecture and/or
Model Driven Development
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 Representati ...
. There are many implementations of JMI, including the Reference Implementation from
Unisys,
SAP NetWeaver and
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...
's open-source implementation from the
NetBeans group. JMI is compatible with
Java SE 1.3 and above through:
* Standardized mappings from the MOF modeling constructs to Java;
* Reflective APIs for generic discovery and navigation of metadata models and instances.
See also
External links
JSR 40
Metadata Interface
Metadata
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