The purpose of the SML tooling is to view and edit SML-IF documents, and to validate the content of SML and SML-IF documents. The SML-IF tooling plug-in also provides export and import wizards that are integrated into the Eclipse SDK Platform.
The export operation packages and validates a set of documents representing an SML model to be interchanged into a single XML-based document in a standard way. The set of documents to be interchanged is called the SML-IF document's interchange set. The documents in the interchange set constitute the SML model being interchanged.
Note: During the import operation, there would normally be some loss of data when an SML-IF document is broken into its respective SML model units. For example, the aliases associated with a document or schematron rule binding are not preserved in SML model units. To preserve this information, a meta-data file is generated with every SML-IF document import.
The SML-IF validator helps to ensure an SML-IF document meets the following criteria.
The SML-IF specification defines the format for a single XML-based document that can be used to exchange SML models between other consumers of SML models.
The SML-IF tooling plug-in includes a multi-page editor that contains three tabs.
Summary
SML is an important step to drive significant, cross-platform business modeling improvements for IT professionals and their business platforms. SML provides an industry-agreed foundation for model-based management. SML allows developers to build modeling information for applications, devices and services that can be used during all stages of applications or service lifecycle, including configuration, problem, change, and release management.
As a common modeling language, SML simplifies IT management in multi-vendor environments. This provides a way for information to be shared across diverse tools and applications. It reduces both the cost and complexity associated with delivering the levels of service and responsiveness businesses need from IT today.
The SML tooling provides an editor for an SML-IF document. The tool also provides the ability to import SML-IF document into a project and export SML model units to an SML-IF document. A SML-IF document packages the collection of SML documents to be interchanged as a single XML document. All exported SML-IF documents conform to the schema defined by the SML-IF specification.
Term Definitions
The following list contains some basic terms you should know to make using this documentation easier.
SML resources
Additional resources for SML arefound at these locations:
Opening an SML-IF document in an editor
The SML tooling provides an editor that allows you to view and edit an SML-IF file. Use one of two ways to open an SML-IF document in this editor:
The SML-IF editor has these three main sections.
To view a specific section, select one of the tabs located at the bottom of the editor.
Overview section
Table 3. Fields on the Overview section of the SML-IF document editor
Validate the entire document function on the Overview section
To validate the SML-IF document, click Validate the entire document. This function validates the entire SML-IF document and reports any errors in the Problems view of your workbench. See Validating an SML-IF document for more information on validation.
Import model into repository function
To import the SML-IF document, click Import model into repository. This function imports the SML resources represented in the SML-IF document into the SML repository. See Importing an SML-IF document into the repository more information on importing.
Documents section
The SML-IF editor Documents window displays an SML-IF document's definition and instance elements and their aliases, with elements organized in a logical tree.
You can view a tree display of definition and instance documents, and
change the aliases of an individual document by selecting a resource and
clicking the Add or Remove button. You can also view the subset of the
SML-IF file that defines a document or instance element by selecting that
element in the tree view, and that element's source will be displayed in
the XML Representation field
Table 4. Fields on the Documents section of the SML-IF document editor
Field | Description |
---|---|
Documents | Two types of documents are supported by SML-IF.
|
Logical Representation | Two types of logical representations are contained in an SML-IF
document.
|
XML Representation | XML source of the selected element |
Source section
The Source section of the editor is displayed by clicking the Source tab. The Source section displays the text content of the SML-IF document with color syntax highlighting.