<s>
The	O
XML	B-Language
Metadata	I-Language
Interchange	I-Language
(	O
XMI	O
)	O
is	O
an	O
Object	B-Architecture
Management	I-Architecture
Group	I-Architecture
(	O
OMG	B-Architecture
)	O
standard	O
for	O
exchanging	O
metadata	O
information	O
via	O
Extensible	B-Protocol
Markup	I-Protocol
Language	I-Protocol
(	O
XML	B-Protocol
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
for	O
any	O
metadata	O
whose	O
metamodel	O
can	O
be	O
expressed	O
in	O
Meta-Object	B-Application
Facility	I-Application
(	O
MOF	B-Application
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
most	O
common	O
use	O
of	O
XMI	O
is	O
as	O
an	O
interchange	O
format	O
for	O
UML	B-Language
models	O
,	O
although	O
it	O
can	O
also	O
be	O
used	O
for	O
serialization	O
of	O
models	O
of	O
other	O
languages	O
(	O
metamodels	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
OMG	B-Architecture
vision	O
of	O
modeling	O
,	O
data	O
is	O
split	O
into	O
abstract	O
models	O
and	O
concrete	O
models	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Abstract	O
models	O
are	O
instances	O
of	O
arbitrary	O
MOF-based	O
modeling	O
languages	O
such	O
as	O
UML	B-Language
or	O
SysML	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
means	O
exchanging	O
files	O
between	O
UML	B-Language
modeling	O
tools	O
using	O
XMI	O
is	O
rarely	O
possible	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
One	O
purpose	O
of	O
XML	B-Language
Metadata	I-Language
Interchange	I-Language
(	O
XMI	O
)	O
is	O
to	O
enable	O
easy	O
interchange	O
of	O
metadata	O
between	O
UML-based	O
modeling	O
tools	O
and	O
MOF-based	O
metadata	O
repositories	O
in	O
distributed	O
heterogeneous	O
environments	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
XMI	O
is	O
also	O
commonly	O
used	O
as	O
the	O
medium	O
by	O
which	O
models	O
are	O
passed	O
from	O
modeling	O
tools	O
to	O
software	O
generation	O
tools	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
model-driven	B-Language
engineering	I-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Examples	O
of	O
XMI	O
,	O
and	O
lists	O
of	O
the	O
XML	B-Protocol
tags	O
that	O
make	O
up	O
XMI-formatted	O
files	O
,	O
are	O
available	O
in	O
the	O
version	O
2.5.1	O
specification	O
document	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
XML	B-Protocol
–	O
Extensible	B-Protocol
Markup	I-Protocol
Language	I-Protocol
,	O
a	O
W3C	O
standard	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
UML	B-Language
–	O
Unified	B-Language
Modeling	I-Language
Language	I-Language
,	O
an	O
OMG	B-Architecture
modeling	O
standard	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
MOF	B-Application
–	O
Meta	B-Application
Object	I-Application
Facility	I-Application
,	O
an	O
OMG	B-Architecture
language	O
for	O
specifying	O
metamodels	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Diagram	O
Definition	O
OMG	B-Architecture
project	O
is	O
another	O
alternative	O
for	O
metadata	O
interchange	O
,	O
which	O
can	O
also	O
express	O
the	O
layout	O
and	O
graphical	O
representation	O
.	O
</s>
