BML: The Authoring Format

What authors actually write

BML is what authors actually write — the human- and editor-friendly representation of a BlockML model, with the .bml extension and XML as its sole current serialization.

Root, Sub-Block, and embed authoring

A document root or embedded Block uses its qualified type as the element tag; a Sub-Block uses its unqualified name as the tag — the same identity-as-tag principle this handbook has used in every earlier example.

BML to BOM, and the domain-agnostic compiler

The compiler that reads BML and produces the BOM understands only BML and the BOM object model — every domain-specific meaning this handbook has covered lives in the authored Blocks themselves, never in the compiler.

A complete small BML document

A complete BML document combines identity, required documentation fields, and at least one member — everything this handbook has introduced, in one small file.

<!-- Identity, is, documentation, and one property — one complete BML document -->
<acme:Basket xmlns="http://blockml.org/bml"
  xmlns:acme="com.acme.example"
  xmlns:core="org.blockml.bml.core"
  xmlns:type="org.blockml.bml.type">

  <baseType>
    core:Block
  </baseType>
  <is>
    A basket with a counted quantity
  </is>
  <documentation>
    Holds a count of items.
  </documentation>
  <properties>
    <count type="type:Integer">
      <value>3</value>
    </count>
  </properties>
</acme:Basket>

Every field in the example traces back to an earlier page — the qualified tag and baseType from Blocks, is and documentation from Documenting Blocks, and the count property from Properties — brought together as one authored BML file.

What to carry into the next page

After this page, readers should be able to identify a Block document's root element and format, before BML Namespaces covers the xmlns declarations every one of this handbook's examples has relied on.