BOX: Browsing objects in XML

The latest Internet markup languages support the representation of structur ed information and vector graphics. In this paper we describe how these lan guages can be used to publish software engineering diagrams on the Internet . We introduce BOX, a portable, distributed and interoperable approach to b rowsing UML models with off-the-shelf technology. Our approach to browsing UML models leverages XML and related specifications, such as the Document O bject Model (DOM), the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) and the Vector Markup Language (VML). BOX translates a UML model that is represented in XMI into VML, VML can be directly displayed in Internet browsers, such as Microsoft 's Internet Explorer 5, BOX enables software engineers to access and review UML models without the need to purchase licenses of tools that produced th e models. BOX has' been successfully evaluated in two industrial case studi es. The case studies used BOX to make extensive domain and enterprise objec t models available to a large number of stakeholders over corporate intrane ts and the Internet, We show how XML and the BOX architecture can be applie d to other software engineering notations. We also argue that the approach taken in BOX can be applied to other domains that have already started to a dopt XML and have a need for graphic representation of XML information. The se include browsing gene sequences, chemical molecule structures and concep tual knowledge representations. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.