Writing VO-DML Models

Authoring Ecosystem

Although VO-DML/XML is the standard serialization of VO-DML models, and it is possible to create VO-DML directly by editing in a text editor (and the model schema might be helpful in guiding this editing), it is generally easier to model using either

• VODSL
• UML

It is possible to import existing data models by;

1. Adding the published jar as a dependency in the build.gradle.kts file, e.g.

   dependencies {
       implementation("org.javastro.ivoa.vo-dml:ivoa-base:1.0")
   }
   

   the tooling then makes sure that the model files are available for local import.

2. Importing into the model file, and there are two cases whether VO-DML or VODSL is considered the 'working source'

   1. VO-DML - the tooling only requires the file name (it automatically creates an XML catalog which can resolve to the absolute path)

      <import>
          <name>ivoa</name>
          <url>IVOA-v1.0.vo-dml.xml</url>
      </import>
      

   2. VODSL - a relative path import should be used - the tooling automatically creates a vodsl file to import into the build/tmp directory so that the exact form of the relative path depends on where the including source file is located.

      include "../../build/tmp/IVOA-v1.0.vodsl"