The NIEM Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) Specification can be updated with major NIEM releases, occurring every three years. The following highlights the changes that have been made.
Along with the NIEM 5.0 major release, the Model Package Description (MPD) Specification, version 3.0.1, was simplified, renamed, and updated to the IEPD Specification, version 5.0.
The MPD Specification was originally written to support multiple kinds of models, including releases, IEPDs, domain updates, and Enterprise Information Exchange Models (EIEMs). In practice, however, IEPDs were almost the sole use case so the specification in 5.0 was tailored specifically to IEPDs and the potentially confusing model package description (MPD) terminology was removed.
There was no update to the MPD Specification for the NIEM 4.0 major release, so the 3.0.1 version applies to all IEPDs using a release from NIEM 3.0 to NIEM 4.2.
Key changes to the 5.0 version of the specification include:
Updated the name of the specification from “Model Package Description (MPD) Specification to Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) Specification
Replaced “MPD” terminology throughout the spec with “IEPD”.
Renamed the mpd-catalog.xml and mpd-catalog.xsd files as iepd-catalog.xml and iepd-catalog.xsd.
Updated the IEPD catalog element and attribute names to replace mpd with iepd
Updated the example IEPD for 5.0
In the renamed iepd-catalog.xsd schema, the following elements and attributes have been renamed:
| MPD 3.0.1 | IEPD 5.0 |
|---|---|
| c:Catalog/c:MPD | c:IEPDCatalog - (renamed and flattened) |
| c:MPDInformation | c:IEPDInformation |
| c:mpdURI | c:iepdURI |
| c:mpdClassURIList | c:iepdConformanceTargetIdentifierURIList |
| c:mpdName | c:iepdName |
| c:mpdVersionID | c:iepdVersionID |
| c:MPDChangeLog | c:IEPDChangeLog |
Please see the new IEPD catalog schema and IEPD catalog example for more.
The following conformance target applicability codes have been updated in version 5.0:
The following applicability codes remained unchanged:
Two rules have been removed from the IEPD specification for version 5.0:
A model package description with an MPD class of http://reference.niem.gov/niem/specification/model-package-description/3.0/#IEPD MUST be an information exchange package documentation.
An MPD MUST have an MPD class of a conformance target identifier if and only if that conformance target identifier appears in the c:mpdClassURIList attribute within its MPD catalog document.
Added missing rule titles
Two rule titles were left blank in the MPD 3.0 specification, which has been corrected in the IEPD 5.0 specification:
| MPD 3.0 | IEPD 5.0 | Applicability | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-31 | 5-30 | WF-IEPD | Schema document set interpreted as constraint schema document set |
| 5-41 | 5-40 | IEPD-Catalog | Validity contraint context is value of c:xPathText |
Modified rule numbers
Due to the removal of the two 3.0 rules outlined above, some rule numbers from the MPD 3.0 version have shifted in the IEPD 5.0 version.
| MPD 3.0 | IEPD 5.0 | Applicability | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-1 | 3-2 | WF-IEPD | IEPD is well-formed |
| 3-3 | 3-1 | IEPD | IEPD conformance target identifier |
| 5-10 | 5-9 | WF-IEPD | IEPD Version Number Syntax |
| 5-11 | 5-10 | WF-IEPD | IEPD URI Is Absolute |
| 5-12 | 5-11 | WF-IEPD | IEPD URI Supports Fragment |
| 5-13 | 5-12 | WF-IEPD | IEPD URI Has No Fragment |
| 5-14 | 5-13 | WF-IEPD | IEPD Artifact URI Syntax |
| 5-15 | 5-14 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI Resolves to a Resource |
| 5-16 | 5-15 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:XMLCatalog |
| 5-17 | 5-16 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:IEPDChangeLog |
| 5-18 | 5-17 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:ReadMe |
| 5-19 | 5-18 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:IEPSampleXMLDocument |
| 5-20 | 5-19 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:BusinessRulesArtifact |
| 5-21 | 5-20 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:XMLSchemaDocument |
| 5-22 | 5-21 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:ExternalSchemaDocument |
| 5-23 | 5-22 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:ReferenceSchemaDocument |
| 5-24 | 5-23 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:ExtensionSchemaDocument |
| 5-25 | 5-24 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:SubsetSchemaDocument |
| 5-26 | 5-25 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:Wantlist |
| 5-27 | 5-26 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:SchematronSchema |
| 5-28 | 5-27 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:RelaxNGSchema |
| 5-29 | 5-28 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:SchemaDocumentSet |
| 5-30 | 5-29 | WF-IEPD | c:pathURI for c:ConstraintSchemaDocumentSet |
| 5-31 | 5-30 | WF-IEPD | Schema document set interpreted as constraint schema document set |
| 5-32 | 5-31 | WF-IEPD | Resolve IEPD URI with Fragment |
| 5-33 | 5-32 | XML-catalog | XML Catalog uri Value Resolves to Resource |
| 5-34 | 5-33 | XML-catalog | XML Catalog uri Value Resolves to Resource with Correct Target Namespace |
| 5-35 | 5-34 | IEPD | IEPD Has a Change Log |
| 5-36 | 5-35 | WF-IEPD | Readme Describes Purpose, Scope, Business Value, etc. |
| 5-37 | 5-36 | IEPD | IEPD Has a ReadMe Artifact |
| 5-38 | 5-37 | IEPD-catalog | Conformance Target Identifier |
| 5-39 | 5-38 | IEPD-catalog | IEP Conformance Target Has a structures:id |
| 5-40 | 5-39 | IEPD | IEPD Declares One or More IEP Conformance Targets |
| 5-41 | 5-40 | IEPD-catalog | Validity contraint context is value of c:xPathText |
| 5-42 | 5-41 | IEP | IEP has Document Element |
| 5-43 | 5-42 | IEP | Validating an XPath Expression |
| 5-44 | 5-43 | IEPD | IEPD Has an IEP Sample for Each c:IEPConformanceTarget |
| 5-45 | 5-44 | IEP | Validating an IEP Sample XML Document |
| 5-46 | 5-45 | IEPD | IEPD Has Conformance Assertion |