Oracle has joined Unisys and IBM to present the final proposal of the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) format, an industry standard that could streamline the way application development groups work together over the web. XMI capitalizes on three standards already in use by major software vendors: XML; Unified Modeling Language (UML), which is a common language for specifying objects and business models; and the Meta Object Facility (MOF), a standard for distributing object repositories and managi ng metadata. XMI is a vendor-independent streaming metadata interchange format (SMIF), built to replace proprietary tools like those from Platinum Technology, Rational Software and Select Software Tools. With it, development teams using different tools from different vendors should still be able to collaborate on application development, using the web to exchange their data. This could significantly reduce development costs and time to market. XMI was one of several SMIFs presented to the Object Management Group in July (CI No 3,463). Since then, XMI backers say, support for their submission has grown and other companies have withdrawn their own proposals in order to join the XMI push. Part of Wednesday’s announcement was a demonstration during which Oracle, IBM, Unisys and Select showed how VisualAge for Java, VisualAge TeamConnection, WebSphere Enterprise Application Server, DB2, Rational Rose, Select Component Facto ry, Unisys UREP repository, Oracle Repository and Oracle Database Designer can be made to work together using XMI.
