3.1 SMDL

The following sections provide examples for the structures defined in the SMDL file format specification. Examples of the SMDL file format include examples that demonstrate defining the major components of a semantic model. These include defining the SemanticModel, a Perspective, a SemanticQuery, and defining various model items, such as an Entity, an Attribute, and a Role. Additionally, an example of a DrillthroughContext, Variations elements of an Attribute, and Expression elements are also provided.

In the XML code provided for each example, the XML code is interspersed with textual descriptions of the code. Additional annotation has also been placed within the XML code in the form of comments to aid in understanding the examples. An XML comment begins with the string "<!—" and ends with the string "-->". In particular, references are usually preceded with an annotation that indicates the name of the object that the reference is to. As references are implemented with GUID, this additional annotation is necessary to clarify the names of the objects that are being referred to. The annotation helps with the readability of the code.