Distributed Management Task Force, Inc.

Specification for the Representation of CIM in XML

Version 2.0

June 2^nd, 1999

Participants

This list shows the names of the companies and organizations that have participated in the Distributed Management Task Force - CIM TDC XML Sub-Committee whose contributions made this document possible.

• Agranat Systems
• Hewlett-Packard Company
• Microsoft Corporation
• Tivoli Systems, Inc.
• Customer Support Consortium
• Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Change History

Version 1.0a	Tuesday, July 14th, 1998	First Draft Release
Version 1.0b	Friday August 7th, 1998	Draft Release
Version 1.0c	Friday August 28th, 1998	Updated Version during Company review
Version 1.0	Tuesday, September 15th, 1998	Final version
Version 1.0.1	Friday, January 22nd, 1999	METHOD subelement removed from ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE
Version 1.1a	Wednesday, April 28th, 1999	Changes for support of HTTP protocol
Version 2.0b	May 7th, 1999	Updates after first Working Group Review
Version 2.0c	May 11th, 1999	DTD Corrections, changes to DECLGROUP and removal of IMPLICITKEY element
Version 2.0d	May 20th, 1999	Corrected error in definition of LOCALINSTANCEPATH
Version 2.0e	May 25th, 1999	Corrected LOCALNAMESPACEPATH definition Corrected CIMName entity definition Changed LOCAL to PROPAGATED Added VALUETYPE attribute to KEYVALUE Added explanatory text concerning pragmas
Version 2.0f	May 28th, 1999	Corrected VALUE.REFERENCE, KEYVALUE.REFERENCE and PARAMVALUE.REFERENCE so that they could contain relative and absolute paths
Version 2.0	June 2nd, 1999	Updated document references Removed references to CIM_Object

Contents

Abstract

1. Introduction

1.1. A Note on Rendering to MOF

1.2. Terminology

1.3. Style

2. A Note On Mapping Choices 

2.1. CIM Terminology

3. The CIM XML Schema Reference

3.1. Entity Descriptions

3.1.1. CIMName

3.1.2. CIMType

3.1.3. QualifierFlavor

3.1.4. ClassOrigin

3.1.5. Propagated 

3.1.6. ArraySize

3.1.7. SuperClass

3.1.8. ClassName

3.1.9. ReferenceClass

3.2. Element Descriptions

3.2.1. Top Level Elements 

3.2.1. CIM

3.2.2. Declaration Elements

3.2.2.1. DECLARATION

3.2.2.2. DECLGROUP

3.2.2.3. DECLGROUP.WITHNAME

3.2.2.4. DECLGROUP.WITHPATH

3.2.2.5. QUALIFIER.DECLARATION

3.2.2.6. SCOPE

3.2.3. Value Elements 

3.2.3.1. VALUE

3.2.3.2. VALUE.ARRAY

3.2.3.3. VALUE.REFERENCE

3.2.3.4. VALUE.REFARRAY

3.2.3.5. VALUE.OBJECT 

3.2.3.6. VALUE.NAMEDOBJECT

3.2.3.7. VALUE.OBJECTWITHPATH

3.2.3.8. VALUE.OBJECTWITHLOCALPATH

3.2.4. Naming and Location Elements

3.2.4.1. NAMESPACEPATH

3.2.4.2. LOCALNAMESPACEPATH 

3.2.4.3. HOST

3.2.4.4. NAMESPACE

3.2.4.5. CLASSPATH

3.2.4.6. LOCALCLASSPATH

3.2.4.7. CLASSNAME 

3.2.4.8. INSTANCEPATH

3.2.4.9. LOCALINSTANCEPATH

3.2.4.10. INSTANCENAME

3.2.4.11. OBJECTPATH 

3.2.4.12. KEYBINDING

3.2.4.13. KEYVALUE

3.2.4.14. KEYVALUE.REFERENCE

3.2.5. Object Definition Elements

3.2.5.1. CLASS

3.2.5.2. ASSOCIATION.CLASS

3.2.5.3. INSTANCE

3.2.5.4. ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE

3.2.5.5. QUALIFIER

3.2.5.6. PROPERTY

3.2.5.7. PROPERTY.ARRAY

3.2.5.8. PROPERTY.REFERENCE

3.2.5.9. METHOD

3.2.5.10. METHODPARAMETER

3.2.5.11. PARAMETER

3.2.5.12. PARAMETER.REFERENCE

3.2.5.13. PARAMETER.ARRAY

3.2.5.14. PARAMETER.REFARRAY

3.2.6. Message Elements

3.2.6.1. MESSAGE

3.2.6.2. MULTIREQ

3.2.6.3. SIMPLEREQ

3.2.6.4. METHODCALL

3.2.6.5. IMETHODCALL 

3.2.6.6. PARAMVALUE

3.2.6.7. PARAMVALUE.REFERENCE

3.2.6.8. PARAMVALUE.ARRAY

3.2.6.9. PARAMVALUE.REFARRAY

3.2.6.10. PARAMVALUE.OBJECT

3.2.6.11. PARAMVALUE.NAMEDOBJECT

3.2.6.12. PARAMVALUE.INSTNAME

3.2.6.13. PARAMVALUE.OBJNAME

3.2.6.14. PARAMVALUE.QUALDECL 

3.2.6.15. MULTIRSP

3.2.6.16. SIMPLERSP

3.2.6.17. METHODRESPONSE

3.2.6.18. IMETHODRESPONSE 

3.2.6.19. ERROR

3.2.6.20. RETURNVALUE 

3.2.6.21. IRETURNVALUE

4. References

Abstract

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simplified subset of SGML that offers powerful and extensible data modeling capabilities. An XML Document is a collection of data represented in XML. An XML Schema is a grammar that describes the format of an XML Document. An XML Document is described as valid if it has an associated XML Schema to which it conforms.

The Common Information Model (CIM) is an object-oriented information model defined by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) which provides a conceptual framework for describing management data.

This document defines a standard for the representation of Common Information Model (CIM) elements and messages in XML.

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1. Introduction

This document defines an XML grammar, written in DTD (Document Type Definition), which can be used both to represent CIM declarations (Classes, Instances and Qualifiers) and CIM Messages for use by the CIM mapping onto HTTP [9].

For convenience the complete unannotated DTD is available as a separate document [11].

There are potentially many different ways in which CIM information could be represented within XML. In the interests of interoperability between different implementations of CIM there is an obvious requirement for standardization of this representation. The following criteria have been applied in the design of the representation presented here:

• Fully standardized technologies are used wherever possible, in preference to Working Drafts. Where use is made of a Working Draft, the intention is to track the changes to the Working Draft in this specification.
• Completeness is favored over conciseness (all aspects of CIM should be modeled).

Whilst this document makes no restrictions on the use of this mapping, it is recognized that a number of possible usage scenarios exist for which the mapping should cater:

1. XML documents conforming to this mapping that express CIM declarations should be capable of being rendered or transformed using standard techniques into other formats.  In particular the mapping should contain sufficient information to be rendered into MOF (Managed Object Format) syntax [1].
2. The mapping should be applicable to the wire-level representation of CIM Operations defined by the CIM mapping onto HTTP [9].

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1.1. A Note On Rendering to MOF

Currently the W3C is still investigating the mechanisms by which XML documents are rendered. The available technologies include CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) [6,7] and XSL (Extensible Style Sheet Language) [8].

CSS is already established in the HTML/SGML domain, but is limited in the nature of transformations that it can express, being essentially a formatting technology that can alter the appearance of individual elements but cannot reorganize them.  The XSL proposal attempts to address the shortcomings of CSS by providing more sophisticated reordering and formatting capabilities.

The subset of the DTD for CIM presented in this specification concerned with object declarations (identified by the element DECLARATION ) is intended to allow expression of CIM objects in XML sufficient for rendering into a number of formats, of which MOF is one.

The semantic content of a MOF file is fully captured by the DTD presented herein, so that it is possible to express any MOF conformant to [1] in an equivalent XML representation using this DTD. This includes the ability to express any of the standard MOF pragmas defined in [1], with the exception of the locale and instancelocale pragmas (which is a subject for further study in the context of localization support within CIM).

Note that the Processing Instruction (PI) mechanism defined by XML is the means by which bespoke pragmas may be added to an XML document in an analagous manner to the #pragma extension mechanism defined for MOF. The format of such PIs is necessarily outside the scope of this document.

CSS alone is not sufficient to provide a rendering of CIM XML declarations into MOF.  XSL is capable of doing this, but due to the fact that it is not yet a full W3C recommendation, a standard stylesheet for MOF cannot be given at this time.  Instead it is the intention to publish a companion document to this document which defines a MOF stylesheet based on the latest available XSL working draft, and to continue to track XSL as it evolves to a full recommendation.

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1.2. Terminology

The key phrases and words MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY and OPTIONAL in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [10].

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1.3. Style

This document uses a number of stylistic conventions to highlight examples and definitions.

Examples are displayed in this fashion:

This is an example

Definitions are illustrated thusly:

This is a definition

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2. A Note on Mapping Choices

There are two fundamentally different models for mapping CIM in XML:

• A Schema Mapping is one in which the XML Schema is used to describe the CIM classes, and CIM Instances are mapped to valid XML Documents for that schema. (Essentially this means that each CIM class generates its own DTD fragment, the XML element names of which are taken directly from the corresponding CIM element names.)
• A Metaschema Mapping is one in which the XML schema is used to describe the CIM metaschema, and both CIM classes and instances are valid XML documents for that schema. (In other words the DTD is used to describe in a generic fashion the notion of a CIM class or instance. CIM element names are mapped to XML attribute or element values, rather than XML element names.)

Although there are obvious benefits to employing a schema mapping (more validation power, and a slightly more intuitive representation of CIM in XML), the metaschema mapping is adopted here for the following reasons:

• It only requires one standardized metaschema DTD for CIM, rather than an unbounded number of DTDs. This considerably reduces the complexity of management and administration of XML mappings.
• XML DTD does not allow an unordered list of elements. In a static mapping this would mean either:
  • Fixing an arbitrary order for property, method and qualifier lists (making it harder for a receiving application to process), or;
  • Defining a very unwieldy mapping which took account of all list orderings explicitly (and whose size would grow exponentially with the number of list elements).
• In a schema mapping, the names of CIM schema elements (class, property, qualifier and method names) populate the XML element namespace. In order to replicate the scoping rules on CIM element names within XML DTD, it would be necessary to employ XML Namespaces [3] to define XML Schema to per-property level of granularity. This would be extremely cumbersome to administer and process. A metaschema mapping only introduces a small, fixed number of terms into the XML element namespace (such as "Class", "Instance", "Property", and so forth). As an alternative to the introduction of additional XML Namespaces, some renaming of CIM elements could be used (for example, prefixing a qualifier name with the name of its owning property and its owning class), but this would result in XML documents that were verbose and difficult to understand.
• Although a schema mapping could allow XML-based validation of instances against classes, this would only be possible if the entire class hierarchy were flattened prior to mapping the CIM Class to an XML Schema. If this flattening were not performed then inherited properties may be absent from the DTD, which would cause validation to fail against an instance that included the value of an inherited property.

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2.1. CIM Terminology

Throught this document the term CIM Element is used to describe one of the following components of the CIM meta-model: Namespace, Class, Property, Method or Qualifier.

The term XML Element is used to describe a component of XML defined using the ELEMENT construct in DTD.

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3. The CIM XML Schema Reference

3.1. Entity Descriptions

This section describes each of the parameter entities used in the CIM XML Schema vocabulary. The use of Parameter Entities has been adopted to highlight common features of the DTD.

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3.1.1. CIMName

The CIMName entity describes the name of a CIM Element (Class, Instance, Method, Property,Qualifier or Parameter). The value MUST be a legal CIM element name [1].

<!ENTITY % CIMName "NAME   CDATA   #REQUIRED">

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3.1.2. CIMType

The CIMType entity describes the allowed type descriptions for a non-reference CIM Property, CIM Qualifier or non-reference CIM Method Parameter.

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3.1.3. QualifierFlavor

The QualifierFlavor entity describes the flavor settings for a CIM Qualifier, modeled as XML attributes.

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3.1.4. ClassOrigin

The ClassOrigin entity describes the originating Class of a CIM Property or Method.

The CLASSORIGIN attribute defines the name of the originating class (the Class in which the Property or Method was first defined) of the CIM element represented by the XML element to which the attribute is attached.

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3.1.5. Propagated

The Propagated entity is a convenient shorthand for the PROPAGATED attribute, which may apply to a CIM Property, Method or Qualifier.

This attribute indicates whether the definition of the CIM Property, Qualifier or Method is local to the CIM Class (respectively, Instance) in which it appears, or was propagated without modification from the underlying Subclass (respectively, Class), as defined by [1].

<!ENTITY % Propagated        "PROPAGATED (true|false) 'false'">

Uses of the PROPAGATED attribute include:

• To facilitate the rendering of CIM XML declarations into MOF syntax, which by convention only describes local overrides in a CIM Subclass or Instance.
• To filter XML representations of CIM Classes or Instances so that they can be returned as responses to CIM Operation requests [9] which require only local elements.

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3.1.6. ArraySize

The ArraySize entity is a convenient shorthand for the ARRAYSIZE attribute, which may apply to a PROPERTY.ARRAY, PARAMETER.ARRAY or PARAMETER.REFARRAY element.

<!ENTITY % ArraySize       "ARRAYSIZE CDATA  #IMPLIED">

3.1.7. SuperClass

3.2. Element Descriptions

This section describes each of the elements in the CIM XML Schema.

3.2.1. Top Level Elements

This section defines the root element of the XML Schema for CIM.

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3.2.1.1. CIM

The CIM element is the root element of every XML Document that is valid with respect to this schema.

Each document takes one of two forms; it either contains a single MESSAGE element defining a CIM message (to be used in the HTTP mapping defined in [9]), or it contains a DECLARATION element used to declare a set of CIM objects.

The CIMVERSION attribute defines the earliest version of the CIM Specification to which the XML Document conforms. It MUST be set to "2.0".

The DTDVERSION attribute defines the version of the CIM XML Mapping to which the XML Document conforms. It MUST be set to "2.0" to conform to this version of the specification.

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3.2.2. Declaration Elements

This section defines those elements of the Schema that are concerned with expressing the declaration of CIM objects.

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3.2.2.1. DECLARATION

The DECLARATION element defines a set of one or more declarations of CIM objects.  These are partitioned into logical declaration subsets.

<!ELEMENT DECLARATION  (DECLGROUP|DECLGROUP.WITHNAME|DECLGROUP.WITHPATH)+>

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3.2.2.2. DECLGROUP

The DECLGROUP element defines a logical set of CIM Class, Instance and Qualifier declarations.  It MAY optionally include a NAMESPACEPATH or LOCALNAMESPACEPATH element which, if present, defines the common namespace in which all objects within the group are declared.

The objects within the group are CIM Classes, Instances and Qualifiers.

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3.2.2.3. DECLGROUP.WITHNAME

The DECLGROUP.WITHNAME element defines a logical set of CIM Class, Instance and Qualifier declarations.  It MAY optionally include a NAMESPACEPATH or LOCALNAMESPACEPATH element which, if present, defines the common namespace in which all objects within the group are declared.

The objects within the group are CIM Classes, Instances and Qualifiers.

This element extends the DECLGROUP element in the sense that any Instance declaration contains an explicit Instance Name (i.e. a Model Path in the terms of the CIM specification [1]).

<!ELEMENT DECLGROUP.WITHNAME  ((LOCALNAMESPACEPATH|NAMESPACEPATH)?,QUALIFIER.DECLARATION*,VALUE.NAMEDOBJECT*)>

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3.2.2.4. DECLGROUP.WITHPATH

The DECLGROUP.WITHPATH element defines a logical set of CIM Class and Instance declarations.  Each object is declared with its own independent naming and location information. 

<!ELEMENT DECLGROUP.WITHPATH  (VALUE.OBJECTWITHPATH|VALUE.OBJECTWITHLOCALPATH)*>

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3.2.2.5. QUALIFIER.DECLARATION

The QUALIFIER.DECLARATION element defines a single CIM Qualifier declaration.

The declaration MAY include a default value.  If the Qualifier has a non-array type, it contains a single VALUE element representing the value of the Qualifier. If the Qualifier has an array type, it contains a single VALUE.ARRAY element to represent the value.

The SCOPE subelement, if present, defines the valid set of scopes for this Qualifier.  If absent it implies that there is no restriction on the scope at which the Qualifier may be applied (so that it has 'any' scope in the terminology of CIM [1]).

<!ELEMENT QUALIFIER.DECLARATION (SCOPE?,(VALUE|VALUE.ARRAY)?)> <!ATTLIST QUALIFIER.DECLARATION           %CIMName;          %CIMType;                       #REQUIRED           ISARRAY        (true|false)     #IMPLIED          %QualifierFlavor;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the Qualifier, and the TYPE and ISARRAY attributes together define the CIM Type. The ISARRAY attribute MUST be present if the Qualifier declares no default value, in order to infer whether the Qualifier has an array type or not.  The ISARRAY attribute SHOULD be absent if the Qualifier declares a default value, as in this case whether the Qualifier has an array type can be deduced from whether a VALUE or VALUE.ARRAY element is used to declare that default; if present its value MUST be consistent with the declared Qualifier default value.

The flavor attributes declared using the QualifierFlavor entity define the propogation and override semantics for the Qualifier.

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3.2.2.6. SCOPE

The SCOPE element defines the scope of a QUALIFIER.DECLARATION in the case that there are restrictions on the scope of the Qualifier declaration.

<!ELEMENT SCOPE EMPTY> <!ATTLIST SCOPE           CLASS        (true|false)      'false'          INSTANCE     (true|false)      'false'          ASSOCIATION  (true|false)      'false'          REFERENCE    (true|false)      'false'          PROPERTY     (true|false)      'false'          METHOD       (true|false)      'false'          PARAMETER    (true|false)      'false'          INDICATION   (true|false)      'false'>

The attributes define which scopes are valid.  A SCOPE element MUST declare at least one attribute with a true value (otherwise the Qualifier would have no applicable scope).

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3.2.3. Value Elements

This section defines those elements of the Schema that are concerned with expressing the value of CIM objects.

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3.2.3.1. VALUE

The VALUE element is used to define a single (non-array and non-reference) CIM Property value, CIM Qualifier value, or a CIM Method Parameter value.

<!ELEMENT VALUE (#PCDATA)>

Values are not type-validatable using DTD, so each value appears in PCDATA format irrespective of the type. The TYPE attribute of the parent element will determine the (CIM) type of the value. The format of the PCDATA content depends on the CIM type, and is described in what follows.

String Values

If the CIM type is string, then the PCDATA value MUST be a sequence of zero or more UCS-2 characters. The value MUST NOT be surrounded by string delimiter characters (such as double-quote or single-quote). The actual representation of characters depends on the encoding attribute defined for the <?xml> processing instruction.

If this value contains reserved XML characters, then this value MUST either be enclosed within the standard XML data escape sequence <![CDATA[ ... ]]>, or standard XML character escaping mechanisms MUST be applied to those characters.

In particular if the content contains the ]]> sequence, the CDATA escape mechanism MUST NOT be used.

Character Values

If the CIM type is char, then the PCDATA value MUST be a single UCS-2 character.  The value MUST NOT be surrounded by single-quote characters. If this value is a reserved XML character, then it MUST be escaped using standard XML character escaping mechanisms. The actual representation of the character depends on the encoding attribute defined for the <?xml> processing instruction.

Real Values

If the CIM type is real32 or real64, then the PCDATA value MUST conform to the following syntax:

 [ "+" | "-" ] *decimalDigit "." 1*decimalDigit [ ( "e" | "E" ) [ "+" | "-" ] 1*decimalDigit ]

where decimalDigit is any character from the set {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}.

Boolean Values

If the CIM type is boolean, then the PCDATA value MUST be either TRUE or FALSE. These values MUST be treated as case-insensitive.

Integer Values

If the CIM type belongs to the set {uint8, uint16, uint32, uint64} then the PCDATA value MUST be a valid unsigned decimal or hexadecimal value.

If the CIM type belongs to the set {sint8, sint16, sint32, sint64} then the PCDATA value MUST be a valid signed decimal or hexadecimal value.

Decimal values have the format:

 [ "+" | "-" ] ( positiveDecimalDigit *decimalDigit | "0" )

Where decimalDigit is as defined above and positiveDecimalDigit is any decimal digit other than 0. The leading sign character MUST NOT be used when the CIM type is unsigned.

Hexadecimal values have the format:

 [ "+" | "-" ] ( "0x" | "0X" ) 1*hexDigit

Where hexDigit is either a decimalDigit or a character from the set {a, A, b, B, c, C, d, D, e, E, f, F}. The leading sign character MUST NOT be used when the CIM type is unsigned.

Datetime Values

If the CIM type is datetime then the PCDATA value MUST be a valid datetime value as defined in detail by the CIM specification [1]. (For interval values the format is ddddddddhhmmss.mmmmmm:000, and for absolute values the format is yyyymmddhhmmss.mmmmmmsutc).

The value MUST NOT be surrounded by string delimiter characters (such as double-quote or single-quote).

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3.2.3.2. VALUE.ARRAY

The VALUE.ARRAY element is used to represent the value of a CIM Property or Qualifier that has an array type.

CIM arrays are classified as "Bag", "Ordered" or "Indexed" [1] using the ARRAYTYPE Qualifier. If the array is Ordered or Indexed then the constituent VALUE elements MUST appear in the correct order.

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3.2.3.3. VALUE.REFERENCE

The VALUE.REFERENCE element is used to define a single CIM reference Property value.

If a LOCALCLASSPATH or LOCALINSTANCEPATH subelement is used, the target object is assumed to be on the same host.  If a CLASSNAME or INSTANCENAME is used, the target object is assumed to be in the same Namespace.

<!ELEMENT VALUE.REFERENCE (CLASSPATH|LOCALCLASSPATH|CLASSNAME|INSTANCEPATH|LOCALINSTANCEPATH|INSTANCENAME)>

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3.2.3.4. VALUE.REFARRAY

The VALUE.REFARRAY element is used to represent the value of an array of CIM references.

CIM arrays are classified as "Bag", "Ordered" or "Indexed" [1] using the ARRAYTYPE Qualifier. If the array is Ordered or Indexed then the constituent VALUE.REFERENCE elements MUST appear in the correct order.

<!ELEMENT VALUE.REFARRAY (VALUE.REFERENCE*)>

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3.2.3.5. VALUE.OBJECT

The VALUE.OBJECT element is used to define a value which is comprised of a single CIM Class or Instance definition.

<!ELEMENT VALUE.OBJECT (CLASS|ASSOCIATION.CLASS|INSTANCE|ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE)>

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3.2.3.6. VALUE.NAMEDOBJECT

The VALUE.NAMEDOBJECT element is used to define a value which is comprised of a single named CIM Class or Instance definition.

<!ELEMENT VALUE.NAMEDOBJECT (CLASS|ASSOCIATION.CLASS|(INSTANCENAME,(INSTANCE|ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE)))>

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3.2.3.7. VALUE.OBJECTWITHPATH

The VALUE.OBJECTWITHPATH element is used to define a value which is comprised of a single CIM Object (Class or Instance) definition with additional information that defines the absolute path to that Object.

<!ELEMENT VALUE.OBJECTWITHPATH ((CLASSPATH,(CLASS|ASSOCIATION.CLASS))|                         (INSTANCEPATH,(INSTANCE|ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE)))>

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3.2.3.8. VALUE.OBJECTWITHLOCALPATH

The VALUE.OBJECTWITHLOCALPATH element is used to define a value which is comprised of a single CIM Object (Class or Instance) definition with additional information that defines the local path to that Object.

<!ELEMENT VALUE.OBJECTWITHLOCALPATH ((LOCALCLASSPATH,(CLASS|ASSOCIATION.CLASS))|                         (LOCALINSTANCEPATH,(INSTANCE|ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE)))>

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3.2.4. Naming and Location Elements

This section defines those elements of the Schema that are concerned with expressing the name and location of CIM objects.

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3.2.4.1. NAMESPACEPATH

The NAMESPACEPATH element is used to define a Namespace Path. It consists of a HOST element and a LOCALNAMESPACE element. 

The NAMESPACE elements MUST appear in heirarchy order, with the root Namespace appearing first.

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3.2.4.2. LOCALNAMESPACEPATH

The LOCALNAMESPACEPATH element is used to define a local Namespace path (one without a Host component). It consists of one or more NAMESPACE elements (one for each namespace in the path).

<!ELEMENT LOCALNAMESPACEPATH (NAMESPACE+)>

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3.2.4.3. HOST

The HOST element is used to define a single Host. The element content MUST specify a legal value for a hostname in accordance with the CIM specification [1].

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3.2.4.4. NAMESPACE

The NAMESPACE element is used to define a single Namespace component of a Namespace path. 

The NAME attribute defines the name of the Namespace.

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3.2.4.5. CLASSPATH

The CLASSPATH element defines the absolute path to a CIM Class. It is formed from a namespace path and Class name. 

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3.2.4.6. LOCALCLASSPATH

The LOCALCLASSPATH element defines the a local path to a CIM Class. It is formed from a local namespace path and Class name. 

<!ELEMENT LOCALCLASSPATH (LOCALNAMESPACEPATH,CLASSNAME)>

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3.2.4.7. CLASSNAME

The CLASSNAME element defines the qualifying name of a CIM Class. 

<!ELEMENT CLASSNAME EMPTY> <!ATTLIST CLASSNAME          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the class.

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3.2.4.8. INSTANCEPATH

The INSTANCEPATH element defines the absolute path to a CIM Instance. It is comprised of a Namespace path and an Instance Name (model path).

<!ELEMENT INSTANCEPATH (NAMESPACEPATH,INSTANCENAME)>

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3.2.4.9. LOCALINSTANCEPATH

The LOCALINSTANCEPATH element defines the local path to a CIM Instance. It is comprised of a local Namespace path and an Instance Name (model path).

<!ELEMENT LOCALINSTANCEPATH (LOCALNAMESPACEPATH,INSTANCENAME)>

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3.2.4.10. INSTANCENAME

The INSTANCENAME element defines the location of a CIM Instance within a Namespace (it is referred to in the CIM Specification [1] as a Model Path). It is comprised of a class name and a key binding information.

If the Class has a single key property, then a single KEYVALUE or KEYVALUE.REFERENCE  subelement may be used to describe the (necessarily) unique key value without a key name. Alternatively a single KEYBINDING sublement may be used instead.

If the Class has more than one key property, then a KEYBINDING subelement MUST appear for each key.

If there are no key-bindings specified, the instance is assumed to be a singleton instance of a keyless Class.

<!ELEMENT INSTANCENAME (KEYBINDING*|KEYVALUE?|KEYVALUE.REFERENCE?)> <!ATTLIST INSTANCENAME          %ClassName;>

The CLASSNAME attribute defines the name of the class for this path.

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3.2.4.11. OBJECTPATH

The OBJECTPATH element is used to define a full path to a single CIM Object (Class or Instance).

<!ELEMENT OBJECTPATH (INSTANCEPATH|CLASSPATH)>

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3.2.4.12. KEYBINDING

The KEYBINDING element defines a single key property value binding.

<!ELEMENT KEYBINDING (KEYVALUE|KEYVALUE.REFERENCE)> <!ATTLIST KEYBINDING          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute indicates the name of the key property.

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3.2.4.13. KEYVALUE

The KEYVALUE element defines a single property key value when the key property is a non-reference type.  

<!ELEMENT KEYVALUE (#PCDATA)> <!ATTLIST KEYVALUE          VALUETYPE    (string|boolean|numeric)  'string'>

Values are not type-validatable using DTD, so each value appears in PCDATA format irrespective of the type. The CIM Type of the underlying key property determines the format of the PCDATA value.  The rules for how the content of this element is formatted depending on that CIM type are exactly the same as for the VALUE element.

The VALUETYPE attribute provides necessary and sufficient information regarding the CIM type to allow the transformation of the key value to and from its' textual equivalent (as part of a text-based CIM object path, as defined in [1]).  The value of this attribute MUST conform to the following rules:

• If the CIM type is string, datetime or char16, then the value is string.
• If the CIM type is boolean, then the value is boolean.
• Otherwise the value is numeric.

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3.2.4.14. KEYVALUE.REFERENCE

The KEYVALUE.REFERENCE element defines a single property key value when the key property is a reference type.

If a LOCALCLASSPATH or LOCALINSTANCEPATH subelement is used, the target object is assumed to be on the same host.  If a CLASSNAME or INSTANCENAME is used, the target object is assumed to be in the same Namespace.

<!ELEMENT KEYVALUE.REFERENCE (CLASSPATH|LOCALCLASSPATH|CLASSNAME|INSTANCEPATH|LOCALINSTANCEPATH|INSTANCENAME)>

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3.2.5. Object Definition Elements

This section defines those elements of the Schema that are concerned with expressing the definition of CIM objects (Classes, Instances, Properties, Methods and Qualifiers).

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3.2.5.1. CLASS

The CLASS element defines a single (non-Association) CIM Class.

<!ELEMENT CLASS (QUALIFIER*,(PROPERTY|PROPERTY.ARRAY)*,METHOD*)> <!ATTLIST CLASS           %CIMName;          %SuperClass;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the Class.

The SUPERCLASS attribute, if present, defines the name of the superclass of this class. If absent, it should be inferred that the class in question has no superclass.

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3.2.5.2. ASSOCIATION.CLASS

The ASSOCIATION.CLASS element defines a single CIM Association Class. This is modeled separately from a non-Association Class as only Associations can have reference properties.  In future the features of XML Linking [4] may be used to identify linking elements within the XML Document; as XML Linking is currently only at Working Draft status no explicit dependencies have been made at this point.

Note that CIM mandates that an Association must have at least two references, and that references can only be used in the context of Associations. 

<!ELEMENT ASSOCIATION.CLASS (QUALIFIER*,PROPERTY.REFERENCE,PROPERTY.REFERENCE+,                              (PROPERTY|PROPERTY.ARRAY)*,METHOD*)> <!ATTLIST ASSOCIATION.CLASS          %CIMName;          %SuperClass;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the Class.

The SUPERCLASS attribute, if present, defines the name of the superclass of this class. If absent, it should be inferred that the class in question has no superclass.

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3.2.5.3. INSTANCE

The INSTANCE element defines a single CIM Instance of a (non-Association) CIM Class.

<!ELEMENT INSTANCE (QUALIFIER*,(PROPERTY|PROPERTY.ARRAY)*)> <!ATTLIST INSTANCE          %ClassName;>

The CLASSNAME attribute defines the name of the CIM Class of which this is an Instance.

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3.2.5.4. ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE

The ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE element defines a single Instance of a CIM Association Class. This is modeled separately from a non-Association Class as only Associations can have reference properties.  In future the features of XML Linking [4] may be used to identify linking elements within the XML Document; as XML Linking is currently only at Working Draft status no explicit dependencies have been made at this point.

Note that CIM mandates that an Association must have at least two references, and that references can only be used in the context of Associations.

<!ELEMENT ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE (QUALIFIER*,PROPERTY.REFERENCE,PROPERTY.REFERENCE+,                                 (PROPERTY|PROPERTY.ARRAY)*)> <!ATTLIST ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE          %ClassName;>

The CLASSNAME attribute defines the name of the CIM Class of which this is an Instance.

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3.2.5.5. QUALIFIER

The QUALIFIER element defines a single CIM Qualifier. If the Qualifier has a non-array type, it contains a single VALUE element representing the value of the Qualifier. If the Qualifier has an array type, it contains a single VALUE.ARRAY element to represent the value.

The NAME attribute defines the name of the Qualifier, and the TYPE defines the CIM Type.

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3.2.5.6. PROPERTY

The PROPERTY element defines a single (non-array) CIM Property that is not a reference. It contains a single VALUE element  representing the value of the Property.

If the Property has no assigned value then the VALUE element MUST be absent.

CIM Reference Properties are described using the PROPERTY.REFERENCE element.

The NAME attribute defines the name of the Property, and the TYPE defines the CIM Type.

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3.2.5.7. PROPERTY.ARRAY

The PROPERTY.ARRAY element defines a single CIM Property with an array type. It contains a single VALUE.ARRAY element  representing the value of the Property.

If the Property has no assigned value then the VALUE.ARRAY element MUST be absent.

There is no element to model a Property that contains an array of references as this is not a valid Property type according to CIM [1].

The NAME attribute defines the name of the Property, and the TYPE defines the CIM Type.

If the ARRAYSIZE attribute is not present on a PROPERTY.ARRAY element within a containing CLASS or ASSOCIATION.CLASS element, this indicates that the array is of variable size.

Presence or otherwise of the ARRAYSIZE attribute on a PROPERTY.ARRAY element within a containing INSTANCE or ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE element MUST NOT be taken to imply that the Property type is or is not a fixed-size array (i.e. the CLASS or ASSOCIATION.CLASS definition is always authoritative in this respect).

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3.2.5.8. PROPERTY.REFERENCE

The PROPERTY.REFERENCE element models a single CIM Property with reference semantics. In future the features of XML Linking [4] may be used to identify linking elements within the XML Document; as XML Linking is currently only at Working Draft status no explicit dependencies have been made at this point.

<!ELEMENT PROPERTY.REFERENCE (QUALIFIER*,VALUE.REFERENCE?)> <!ATTLIST PROPERTY.REFERENCE          %CIMName;          %ReferenceClass;          %ClassOrigin;          %Propagated;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the Property.

The REFERENCECLASS attribute, if present, defines the strong type of the reference.  If not present it indicates that this reference is not strongly typed.

The ClassOrigin and Propagated entities are used in the same manner as for other CIM Properties.

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3.2.5.9. METHOD

The METHOD element defines a single CIM Method. It may have Qualifiers, and zero or more parameters.

The order of the METHODPARAMETER subelements is significant as it MUST conform to the parameter order in the formal signature of the method.

The NAME attribute defines the name of the Method.

The TYPE attribute defines the method return type, if the method returns a value.  If this attribute is absent then the method MUST  return no value (i.e. it has the special return type void).

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3.2.5.10. METHODPARAMETER

The METHODPARAMETER element defines a single parameter to a CIM Method. Parameters are classified by whether they are references, simple types or arrays thereof. A parameter MAY have zero or more Qualifiers.

The NAME attribute defines the name of the Parameter.

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3.2.5.11. PARAMETER

The PARAMETER element defines a single (non-array, non-reference) Parameter to a CIM Method.

The TYPE attribute defines the CIM type of the parameter.

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3.2.5.12. PARAMETER.REFERENCE

The PARAMETER.REFERENCE element defines a single reference Parameter to a CIM Method.

The REFERENCECLASS attribute, if present, defines the strong type of the reference.  If absent the parameter is assumed to a reference that is not strongly typed.

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3.2.5.13. PARAMETER.ARRAY

The PARAMETER.ARRAY element defines a single Parameter to a CIM Method that has an array type.

The TYPE attribute defines the CIM type of the parameter.

The ARRAYSIZE attribute is present if and only if the array is constrained to a fixed number of elements. If it has empty content this indicates that the array is of variable size.

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3.2.5.14. PARAMETER.REFARRAY

The PARAMETER.REFARRAY element defines a single Parameter to a CIM Method that has an array of references type.

<!ELEMENT PARAMETER.REFARRAY EMPTY> <!ATTLIST PARAMETER.REFARRAY          %ReferenceClass;          %ArraySize;>

The REFERENCECLASS attribute defines the strong type of a reference.  If absent, it is assumed that the parameter is not a strongly typed reference.

The ARRAYSIZE attribute is present if and only if the array is constrained to a fixed number of elements. If absent this indicates that the array is of variable size.

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3.2.6. Message Elements

This section defines those elements of the Schema that are concerned with expressing the definition of CIM Messages for the CIM Mapping onto HTTP [9].

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3.2.6.1. MESSAGE

The MESSAGE element models a single CIM message.  This element is used as the basis for CIM Operations [9].

<!ELEMENT MESSAGE (SIMPLEREQ|MULTIREQ|SIMPLERSP|MULTIRSP)> <!ATTLIST MESSAGE          ID              CDATA     #REQUIRED          PROTOCOLVERSION CDATA     #REQUIRED>

The ID attribute defines an identifier for the MESSAGE.  The content of the value is not constrained by this specification, but the intention is this be used as a correlation mechanism between two CIM  entities.

The PROTOCOLVERSION attribute defines the version of the CIM Mapping to which this message conforms.

The HTTP mapping specification [9] provides more details on the values that these attributes may take.

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3.2.6.2. MULTIREQ

The MULTIREQ element defines a Multiple CIM Operation request.  It contains two or more subelements defining the SIMPLEREQ elements that make up this multiple request.

<!ELEMENT MULTIREQ (SIMPLEREQ,SIMPLEREQ+)>

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3.2.6.3. SIMPLEREQ

The SIMPLEREQ element defines a Simple CIM Operation request.  It contains either a METHODCALL (extrinsic method) element or an IMETHODCALL (intrinsic method) element.

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3.2.6.4. METHODCALL

The METHODCALL element defines a single method invocation on a Class or Instance.  It specifies the local path of the target Class or Instance, followed by zero or more subelements as the parameter values to be passed to the method.

<!ELEMENT METHODCALL ((LOCALCLASSPATH|LOCALINSTANCEPATH),                       (PARAMVALUE|PARAMVALUE.REFERENCE|PARAMVALUE.ARRAY|PARAMVALUE.REFARRAY)*)> <!ATTLIST METHODCALL          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the method to be invoked.

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3.2.6.5. IMETHODCALL

The IMETHODCALL element defines a single intrinsic method invocation.  It specifies the target local namespace, and zero or more subelements as the parameter values to be passed to the method.

<!ELEMENT IMETHODCALL (LOCALNAMESPACEPATH,                          (PARAMVALUE|PARAMVALUE.ARRAY|PARAMVALUE.OBJECT|PARAMVALUE.INSTNAME|                           PARAMVALUE.NAMEDOBJECT|PARAMVALUE.OBJNAME|PARAMVALUE.QUALDECL)*)> <!ATTLIST IMETHODCALL          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the method to be invoked.

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3.2.6.6. PARAMVALUE

The PARAMVALUE element defines a single method parameter value of non-array, non-reference type. If no VALUE subelement is present this indicates a NULL value.

The NAME attribute defines the name of the parameter.

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3.2.6.7. PARAMVALUE.REFERENCE

The PARAMVALUE.REFERENCE element defines a single reference method parameter value. If no VALUE.REFERENCE subelement is present this indicates a NULL value.

<!ELEMENT PARAMVALUE.REFERENCE (VALUE.REFERENCE)?>          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the parameter.

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3.2.6.8. PARAMVALUE.ARRAY

The PARAMVALUE.ARRAY element defines a single method parameter value with a non-reference array type. If the VALUE.ARRAY subelement is not present this indicates a NULL value.

<!ELEMENT PARAMVALUE.ARRAY (VALUE.ARRAY)?> <!ATTLIST PARAMVALUE.ARRAY            %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the parameter.

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3.2.6.9. PARAMVALUE.REFARRAY

The PARAMVALUE.REFARRAY element defines a single reference array method parameter value. If the VALUE.REFARRAY subelement is not present this indicates a NULL value.

<!ELEMENT PARAMVALUE.REFARRAY (VALUE.REFARRAY)?> <!ATTLIST PARAMVALUE.REFARRAY          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the parameter.

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3.2.6.10. PARAMVALUE.OBJECT

The PARAMVALUE.OBJECT element defines a single method parameter value which is a CIM Class or Instance. If there is no subelement present then this indicates a NULL value.

<!ELEMENT PARAMVALUE.OBJECT (CLASS|INSTANCE|ASSOCIATION.CLASS|ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE)?> <!ATTLIST PARAMVALUE.OBJECT          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the parameter.

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3.2.6.11. PARAMVALUE.NAMEDOBJECT

The PARAMVALUE.NAMEDOBJECT element defines a single method parameter value which is a named CIM Class or Instance. If there is no subelement present then this indicates a NULL value.

<!ELEMENT PARAMVALUE.NAMEDOBJECT (CLASS|ASSOCIATION.CLASS|(INSTANCENAME,(INSTANCE|ASSOCIATION.INSTANCE)))?> <!ATTLIST PARAMVALUE.NAMEDOBJECT          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the parameter.

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3.2.6.12. PARAMVALUE.INSTNAME

The PARAMVALUE.INSTNAME element defines a single method parameter value that represents a CIM Instance Name (also known as a Model Path in [1]) within a Namespace. If there is no element content this indicates a NULL value.

<!ELEMENT PARAMVALUE.INSTNAME (INSTANCENAME)?> <!ATTLIST PARAMVALUE.INSTNAME          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the parameter.

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3.2.6.13. PARAMVALUE.OBJNAME

The PARAMVALUE.OBJNAME element defines a single method parameter value that represents a CIM Class or Instance Name (also known as a Model Path in [1]) within a Namespace. If there is no element content this indicates a NULL value.

<!ELEMENT PARAMVALUE.OBJNAME (CLASSNAME|INSTANCENAME)?> <!ATTLIST PARAMVALUE.OBJNAME          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the parameter.

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3.2.6.14. PARAMVALUE.QUALDECL

The PARAMVALUE.QUALDECL element defines a single method parameter value that represents a CIM Qualifier Declaration. If there is no element content this indicates a NULL value.

<!ELEMENT PARAMVALUE.QUALDECL (QUALIFIER.DECLARATION)?> <!ATTLIST PARAMVALUE.QUALDECL          %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the parameter.

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3.2.6.15. MULTIRSP

The MULTIRSP element defines a Multiple CIM Operation response.  It contains two or more subelements defining the SIMPLERSP elements that make up this multiple response.

<!ELEMENT MULTIRSP (SIMPLERSP,SIMPLERSP+)>

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3.2.6.16. SIMPLERSP

The SIMPLERSP element defines a Simple CIM Operation response.  It contains either a METHODRESPONSE (for extrinsic methods) or IMETHODRESPONSE (for intrinsic methods).

<!ELEMENT SIMPLERSP (METHODRESPONSE|IMETHODRESPONSE)>

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3.2.6.17. METHODRESPONSE

The METHODRESPONSE defines the response to a single CIM extrinsic method invocation.  It contains either an ERROR subelement (to report a fundamental error which prevented the method from executing), or a combination of an optional return value and zero or more out parameter values.

The NAME attribute defines the name of the method that was invoked.

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3.2.6.18. IMETHODRESPONSE

The IMETHODRESPONSE defines the response to a single intrinsic CIM method invocation.  It contains either an ERROR subelement (to report a fundamental error which prevented the method from executing), or an optional return value.

<!ELEMENT IMETHODRESPONSE (ERROR|IRETURNVALUE?)> <!ATTLIST IMETHODRESPONSE            %CIMName;>

The NAME attribute defines the name of the method that was invoked.

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3.2.6.19. ERROR

The ERROR element is used to define a fundamental error which prevented a method from executing normally.

<!ELEMENT ERROR EMPTY> <!ATTLIST ERROR               CODE        CDATA   #REQUIRED               DESCRIPTION CDATA   #IMPLIED>

The CODE attribute contains a numerical status code indicating the nature of the error.  The valid status codes are defined in [9].  The DESCRIPTION attribute, if present, provides a human-readable description of the error.

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3.2.6.20. RETURNVALUE

The RETURNVALUE element specifies the value returned from an extrinsic method call.

<!ELEMENT RETURNVALUE (VALUE|VALUE.ARRAY|VALUE.REFERENCE|VALUE.REFARRAY)>

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3.2.6.21. IRETURNVALUE

The IRETURNVALUE element specifies the value returned from an intrinsic method call.

<!ELEMENT IRETURNVALUE (VALUE.NAMEDOBJECT*|INSTANCENAME*|VALUE*|VALUE.OBJECTWITHPATH*|                       VALUE.OBJECT*|OBJECTPATH*|QUALIFIER.DECLARATION*|VALUE.ARRAY?|VALUE.REFERENCE?)>

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4. References

1. "Common Information Model (CIM) Specification", Version 2.0, DMTF, 3^rd March 1998 (http://dmtf.org/spec/cim_spec_v20)
2. "Extensible Markup Language (XML)", Version 1.0, W3C Recommendation (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml)
3. "Namespaces in XML", 14^th January 1999, W3C Recommendation (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names)
4. "XML Linking Language (XLink)", 3^rd March 1998, W3C Working Draft (http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xlink
5. "XML as a Representation for Management Information - A White Paper", Version 1.0, DMTF, September 15^th 1998 (http://www.dmtf.org/spec/xmlw.html)
6. "Cascading Style Sheets, Level 1", W3C Recommendation 17^th December 1996 (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1)
7. "Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2", W3C Recommendation, 12^th May 1998 (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2)
8. "XSL Transformations (XSLT)", Version 1.0, W3C Working Draft, 21^st April 1999 (http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xslt)
9. "Specification for CIM Operations over HTTP", Version 1.0, DMTF, 2^nd June 1999 (http://www.dmtf.org/spec/CIM_HTTP_Mapping10.htm)
10. "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", IETF RFC 2119, March 1997 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt)
11. "CIM XML DTD", Version 2.0, DMTF, 2^nd June 1999 (http://www.dmtf.org/spec/cim_dtd_V20.txt)

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