The W3C Service Modeling Language (SML) Working Group has published working drafts of Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 and Service Modeling Language Interchange Format Version 1.1. According to the former:
The Service Modeling Language (SML) provides a rich set of constructs for creating models of complex services and systems. Depending on the application domain, these models may include information such as configuration, deployment, monitoring, policy, health, capacity planning, target operating range, service level agreements, and so on. Models provide value in several important ways.
Models focus on capturing all invariant aspects of a service/system that must be maintained for the service/system to function properly.
Models represent a powerful mechanism for validating changes before applying the changes to a service/system. Also, when changes happen in a running service/system, they can be validated against the intended state described in the model. The actual service/system and its model together enable a self-healing service/system ― the ultimate objective. Models of a service/system must necessarily stay decoupled from the live service/system to create the control loop.
Models are units of communication and collaboration between designers, implementers, operators, and users; and can easily be shared, tracked, and revision controlled. This is important because complex services are often built and maintained by a variety of people playing different roles.
Models drive modularity, re-use, and standardization. Most real-world complex services and systems are composed of sufficiently complex parts. Re-use and standardization of services/systems and their parts is a key factor in reducing overall production and operation cost and in increasing reliability.
Models enable increased automation of management tasks. Automation facilities exposed by the majority of services/systems today could be driven by software ― not people ― both for reliable initial realization of a service/system as well as for ongoing lifecycle management.
A model in SML is realized as a set of interrelated XML documents. The XML documents contain information about the parts of a service, as well as the constraints that each part must satisfy for the service to function properly. Constraints are captured in two ways:
Schemas ― these are constraints on the structure and content of the documents in a model. SML uses XML Schema [XML Schema Structures, XML Schema Datatypes] as the schema language. In addition SML defines a set of extensions to XML Schema to support inter-document references.
Rules ― are Boolean expressions that constrain the structure and content of documents in a model. SML uses a profile of Schematron [ISO/IEC 19757-3, Introduction to Schematron, Improving Validation with Schematron] and XPath [XPath] for rules.
One of the important operations on the model is to establish its validity. This involves checking whether all data in a model satisfies the schemas and rules declared.
