Several contributions have been made this week to the work of UN/CEFACT's UML2XML Project, whose project team has been meeting to draft requirements for the mapping specification. One of several projects recently approved under the UN/CEFACT Electronic Business Transition Working Group is the UML to XML Design Rules Project. Its goal is "to produce a set of formal syntax production rules, describing in a very detailed and strict way how to convert standardized business messages, which are defined in UMM-compliant UML class diagrams, into physical XML representations." As input to the drafting of requirements, David Frankel submitted the OMG's XMI2 draft specification, recently approved by the OMG Architecture Board. This specification "defines MOF-XML Schema mapping rules, MOF being essentially a subset of the part of UML that supports class modeling." On behalf of SWIFT, Frank Vandamme has submitted the "SWIFTStandards XML Design Rules" document; it "defines in a very detailed and strict way how a physical XML representation is derived from the business message in the UML class diagram." Phil Goatly of Bolero submitted a document "Bolero Document Modeling Conventions" which presents the modeling conventions used by Bolero in phase one of UML to XML conversion (BoleroXML).

The UML to XML Design Rules Project was approved as an activity under the UN/CEFACT Electronic Business Transition Working Group. The purpose of the UML2XML project is "to produce a set of formal syntax production rules, describing in a very detailed and strict way how to convert standardized business messages, which are defined in UMM-compliant UML class diagrams, into physical XML representations. The project deliverables include a Technical Specification describing the set of formal design rules needed to convert the UML class diagram representing a standardized business message into a physical XML representation. This Technical Specification will also include specifications for the UML representation of a standardized business message... The project team will consist of a group of experts who have broad knowledge in the area of Electronic Business (ebXML, UN/EDIFACT, and national EDI/eBusiness), XML technologies, XML implementation, use of UML and technical specification development. Each UN/CEFACT head of delegation may designate one or more experts to the project team. In doing so, they may delegate this task to one or more organizations, which may be national, regional or international. Experts are expected to contribute to the work based solely on their expertise..." [description 2001-10-10]

Summaries of the submissions are provided in the main reference page.