ISO/IEC 19502:2005

Overview

ISO/IEC 19502:2005 - Meta Object Facility (MOF) defines a technology‑neutral metamodeling framework for specifying, constructing and managing interoperable metamodels and their models. The standard provides an abstract meta‑metamodel, precise mapping rules to generate language bindings (notably to ODP/CORBA IDL), and an XMI interchange format for exchanging MOF metamodels. MOF is the infrastructure used to build design/reuse repositories, tool integration frameworks and metadata APIs that support consistent metadata management across the distributed application development lifecycle.

Key topics and technical requirements

• Meta‑metamodel & Four‑layer architecture: defines the MOF meta‑metamodel for M2-level metamodels and the M0–M3 layering used in model‑driven engineering.
• Metamodel constructs: formal definitions for classes, associations, attributes, datatypes, packages, constraints, multiplicities and visibility.
• Abstract semantics and constraints: formal semantics, OCL usage and well‑formedness rules for MOF models.
• IDL and CORBA mapping: precise mapping rules from MOF to ODP IDL / CORBA IDL to enable automatic generation of metadata management interfaces.
• Reflective interfaces: a set of reflective CORBA IDL interfaces to manipulate metadata independently of specific metamodels.
• Model/service IDL and containment: standardized MOF model structure, service interfaces and containment hierarchy for repository implementations.
• Interchange format (XMI): use of OMG XMI for MOF metamodel interchange and model exchange.
• Technology mappings: references to mappings to XML/XSD (ISO/IEC 19503) and Java (JMI - Java Metadata Interchange via the Java Community Process).

Applications

• Building model repositories and metadata registries for software engineering and enterprise architecture.
• Implementing tool integration frameworks (CASE tools, model editors, model transformation tools) that need consistent metadata APIs.
• Enabling model interchange and reuse across vendors via XMI and CORBA/IDL generated interfaces.
• Supporting model‑driven engineering (MDE) and Model‑Driven Architecture (MDA) workflows where metamodel consistency and automated bindings are required.
• Managing metadata in data warehousing, information management and type‑management scenarios.

Who should use it

• Tool vendors and implementers of modeling repositories, model transformation engines and CASE tools.
• Enterprise architects, modeling leads and systems integrators adopting MDE/MDA practices.
• Standards bodies and teams defining interoperable metamodels (for example, UML metamodel implementations).

Related standards

• ISO/IEC 19501 (UML metamodel)
• ISO/IEC 19503 (MOF → XML / XSD mappings)
• JMI (Java Metadata Interchange) (MOF → Java mappings via JCP)
• OMG XMI (MOF metamodel interchange)
• ISO/IEC 14750:1999 / ITU‑T X.920 (ODP IDL reference)

Keywords: ISO/IEC 19502, Meta Object Facility, MOF, metamodel, metadata, model-driven engineering, UML, CORBA IDL, XMI, JMI, metadata repositories.