Issue 8709: translation rules should be better documented                                                                                                                                                           (snp-ftf)
Source: Japan Biological Informatics Consortium (Mr. Martin Senger, martin.senger@gmail.com)
Nature: Uncategorized Issue
Severity: 
Summary: The use of UML to describe the conceptual model in UML (i.e PIM)
and the data interchange model in XML Schema (i.e PSM) is good.  It
would be better if the translation rules are better documented (some
of this is listed, but others are hidden in the tool implementation
that is used to produce the schema).


Discussion:


At the monent we see two alternatives. Both of them, however, need
first to solve the issue with UML tools interoperability (see above,
number 1). They are:


a) Keep the current way of transformation from the XMI to the XML
Schema but:
   i) Better document the rules used in the manual translation from
the XMI to the Excel spreadsheet, and 
   ii) Make available the software tool used to transform the Excel
spreadsheet to the final XML Schema.


b) Write (and make available, including reasonable documentation) a
new tool that would transform directly from the XMI to XML Schema.


Actually, there is also the third way. We will use it if the resulting
XMI (coming from the new version of Umbrello 1.4) is too different
from the current XMI. In that case, we remove from the specification
the description how to get from the XMI to XML Schema completely, and
we will only keep there a statemant that that both XMI and XML Schema
are normative.


Proposed solution:


none yet

Resolution: 
Revised Text: 
Actions taken:
April 26, 2005: received issue
November 1, 2005: closed issue
Discussion: 

At the monent we see two alternatives. Both of them, however, need
first to solve the issue with UML tools interoperability (see above,
number 1). They are:


a) Keep the current way of transformation from the XMI to the XML
Schema but:
   i) Better document the rules used in the manual translation from
the XMI to the Excel spreadsheet, and 
   ii) Make available the software tool used to transform the Excel
spreadsheet to the final XML Schema.


b) Write (and make available, including reasonable documentation) a
new tool that would transform directly from the XMI to XML Schema.


Actually, there is also the third way. We will use it if the resulting
XMI (coming from the new version of Umbrello 1.4) is too different
from the current XMI. In that case, we remove from the specification
the description how to get from the XMI to XML Schema completely, and
we will only keep there a statemant that that both XMI and XML Schema
are normative.

There is no need to add any statement from the author of this code regarding its legal status because the author is an employee of  a submitting company - which is already covered by the general copyright notice at the beginning of the specification.

Resolution:
There is a new tool that converts XMI files into XSD schema (a schema that defines PML). The changes are:
·	Add XSDMaker.java file into accompanying files.
·	Add XSDMaker.txt file - a file documenting how to use the new tool - into accompanying files. 
The XML Schema expressing this platform specific model was obtained by converting a normative XMI file into XSD file using a SNP specific tool XSDMaker. The tool is freely available, and it is also included in the accompanying file of this specification, including its documentation.
Several XML samples were manually created. They have been validated by the XML Schema created in the previous step.

End of Annotations:=====
e of UML to describe the conceptual model in UML (i.e PIM)
and the data interchange model in XML Schema (i.e PSM) is good.  It
would be better if the translation rules are better documented (some
of this is listed, but others are hidden in the tool implementation
that is used to produce the schema).


Discussion:


At the monent we see two alternatives. Both of them, however, need
first to solve the issue with UML tools interoperability (see above,
number 1). They are:


a) Keep the current way of transformation from the XMI to the XML
Schema but:
   i) Better document the rules used in the manual translation from
the XMI to the Excel spreadsheet, and 
   ii) Make available the software tool used to transform the Excel
spreadsheet to the final XML Schema.


b) Write (and make available, including reasonable documentation) a
new tool that would transform directly from the XMI to XML Schema.


Actually, there is also the third way. We will use it if the resulting
XMI (coming from the new version of Umbrello 1.4) is too different
from the current XMI. In that case, we remove from the specification
the description how to get from the XMI to XML Schema completely, and
we will only keep there a statemant that that both XMI and XML Schema
are normative.


Proposed solution:


none yet