The Simple Domain Modeling Language (SDML)

Let's get started!

This section will demonstrate the steps necessary to install the SDML tools and integrations so you can start writing your own domain models.

Installer

A partial installer script is provided that will install necessary prerequisites and the SDML tools themselves. This script requires the Homebrew package manager; because the script was developed on, and for, Mac systems, it may work on Linux, but at this time has no Windows counterpart. The following is the easiest way to execute the installer.

$ curl https://sdml.io/install.sh | bash

The script performs the following tasks

1. Install PlantUML, for use in producing UML diagrams.
2. Install GraphViz, for use in producing other diagrams.
3. Install Rustup, for the cargo command.
4. Using cargo, install the sdml-cli package, for the sdml command.
5. Prompt the user to install an editor and associated language support packages.

Editor

As a text language it is important that a good editor is available to help the author use SDML in an efficient manner. Extensions have been developed for a set of editors, and while not exhaustive, it covers the most popular. For new users we recommend Visual Studio Code. The installer script above will attempt to install one of the supported text editors along with the SDML integration for it. However, if you wish to do this manually, or find that the installer does not work with your development environment the following are the steps necessary for major editors.

$ git clone  https://github.com/sdm-lang/sdml-vscode.git

$ curl  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sdm-lang/SDML.tmbundle/main/install.sh | sh

$ curl  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sdm-lang/sdml-sublime-text/main/install.sh | sh

Command-Line Interface (CLI)

The SDML command-line tool is used to validate module source files as well as generate different representations and diagrams from the source. Once installed the option --help or the command help will guide you through the commands available.

$ sdml --help
Rust CLI for Simple Domain Modeling Language (SDML).

Usage: sdml [OPTIONS] 

Commands:
  doc        Document a module
  deps       Show module dependencies
  tags       Extract tags from a module
  highlight  Syntax highlight a module source
  convert    Convert a module into other formats
  draw       Draw diagrams from a module
  version    Show tool and library versions
  help       Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -v, --verbose...  More output per occurrence
  -q, --quiet...    Less output per occurrence
  -h, --help        Print help
  -V, --version     Print version

If you wish to install the command-line tool on it's own, without using the install script above, it is simple using the Rust language's cargo install sdml-cli command. If you do not have cargo installed you can follow Installing Cargo in the Cargo book, or use Homebrew to install rustup-init.

To list the dependencies of a module the deps command will print them as a tree, as shown below. It can also output the dependencies as a GraphViz dot file or as RDF triples.

$ sdml deps --depth 2 --input-file rentals-5.sdm
rentals
├── xsd
├── cids
│   ├── dc
│   └── skos
├── skos
└── dc

The tags command will output a ctags file for tools that use them for determining the location of symbol definitions.

$ sdml tags --input-file rentals-5.sdm
Basic	rentals-5.sdm	436go
Booking	rentals-5.sdm	934go
Compact	rentals-5.sdm	305go
CompactUtilityVehicle	rentals-5.sdm	330go
Customer	rentals-5.sdm	859go
CustomerLevel	rentals-5.sdm	415go
...

The highlight command will output a syntax highlighted version of the input module, by default the output includes control characters to highlight for a terminal which is useful for previewing files. Alternatively the --output-format can be used to output html with inline styles.

$ sdml highlight -i cids.sdm
module cids is

  import [ dc skos ]

  @skos:prefLabel = "CIDS"
  @skos:altLabel = "Common Identifiers"

  datatype VehicleIdentificationNumber <- string

end

Diagram

Coming soon

$ sdml draw --help
Draw diagrams from an SDML module.

Usage: sdml draw [OPTIONS] --diagram  [MODULE]

Arguments:
  [MODULE]
          SDML module, loaded using the standard resolver

Options:
  -d, --diagram 
          Diagram to draw

          Possible values:
          - concepts:            Concept Overview
          - entity-relationship: Entity Relationship
          - uml-class:           UML Class

Document

Coming soon

$ sdml doc --help
Produce documentation for an SDML module.

Usage: sdml doc [OPTIONS] [MODULE]

Arguments:
  [MODULE]
          SDML module, loaded using the standard resolver

Options:
  -f, --output-format 
          Format to convert into

          [default: org-mode]

          Possible values:
          - org-mode: Emacs org-mode
          - markdown: Markdown