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This specification proposes that XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) is used to interchange data warehouse metadata based on the
CWM metamodel. The CWM metamodel is specified using the Meta Object Facility (MOF) Model, allowing XMI to be used to
• transform the CWM metamodel into a CWM Document Type Definition (DTD),
• transfer instances of warehouse metadata that conform to the CWM metamodel as XML documents, based on the CWM DTD, and
• transform the CWM metamodel itself into an XML document, based on the MOF DTD, for interchange between MOF-compliant repositories.
Thus these specifications work together to allow warehouse metadata and the CWM metamodel to be interchanged using W3C’s Extensible
Markup Language (XML).
This specification additionally proposes that IDL is used for specifying programmatic access to data warehouse metadata based
on the CWM metamodel. Other programming language APIs may be generated based on the CWM IDL and specific IDL-programming language
mappings (for example, IDL-Java, CORBA-COM).
This specification specifically defines the CWM metamodel. The CWM DTD, CWM XML, and CWM IDL specifications are automatically
generated from the CWM metamodel, as defined by the MOF and XMI specifications.
Note – Equivalent models have the same data structures and relationships. Equivalent XML documents are documents equivalent
models when the Stream Consumption rules are applied to the two documents.