fint-model

Description

Tool for generating language-specific FINT model libraries from the EA information model. Two-stage pipeline:

EA XMI ─► metamodel.json ─► Java / C# / (future) Go / ...

metamodel.json is a canonical, language-neutral snapshot of the FINT domain model. Language emitters consume only the JSON, so new target languages can be added without touching the XMI parser.

Usage

Produce metamodel.json

fint-model -t v4.0.20 metamodel -o metamodel.json

Pulls the EA XMI from GitHub (fint-informasjonsmodell), parses it, and writes a canonical JSON document with components, types, attributes, relations, and inheritance.

Generate language sources

generate reads metamodel.json only — no XMI access:

fint-model generate -l ALL --resource --from-json metamodel.json

Output for v4.0.20 is byte-identical to the pinned fixture in testdata/golden/v4.0.20/. To regenerate from XMI in a single invocation, chain the two stages:

fint-model -t v4.0.20 metamodel -o metamodel.json && \
  fint-model generate --from-json metamodel.json -l ALL --resource

CLI

COMMANDS:
   metamodel     produce canonical metamodel.json from EA XMI
   generate      emit JAVA/CS sources from metamodel.json
   listTags      list FINT model release tags
   listBranches  list FINT model branches
   help, h       show command help

GLOBAL OPTIONS (used by metamodel / list*):
   --owner value          Git repository owner   (default "FINTLabs",                 $GITHUB_OWNER)
   --repo value           Git repository name    (default "fint-informasjonsmodell",  $GITHUB_PROJECT)
   --filename value       XMI filename           (default "FINT-informasjonsmodell.xml", $MODEL_FILENAME)
   --tag, -t value        model release/tag      (default "latest")
   --force, -f            re-download XMI even if cached

GENERATE FLAGS:
   --lang, -l VALUE       JAVA | CS | ALL (default JAVA)
   --resource, -r         also emit Resource / Resources classes
   --from-json PATH       metamodel.json to read (required)

The downloaded XMI is cached in $HOME/.fint-model/.cache. Subsequent metamodel runs reuse the cache unless --force is set. generate itself never touches the XMI — it only consumes the JSON.

metamodel.json shape

{
  "schemaVersion": "1.0",
  "fintVersion": "v4.0.20",
  "generatedAt": "2026-05-09T12:00:00Z",
  "components": [
    {
      "name": "utdanning-vurdering",
      "types": [
        {
          "name": "Elevvurdering",
          "stereotype": "hovedklasse",
          "parent": null,
          "path": "utdanning/vurdering/elevvurdering",
          "idFields": ["systemId"],
          "attributes": [
            { "name": "systemId",
              "type": "felles-kompleksedatatyper:Identifikator",
              "list": false, "optional": false,
              "deprecated": false,
              "inherited": false,
              "from": "utdanning-vurdering:Elevvurdering" }
          ],
          "relations": [
            { "name": "elevforhold",
              "target": "utdanning-elev:Elevforhold",
              "multiplicity": "1",
              "multiplicityKind": "ONE_TO_ONE",
              "bidirectional": {
                "isSource": true,
                "inverseName": "elevvurdering"
              },
              "deprecated": false,
              "inherited": false,
              "from": "utdanning-vurdering:Elevvurdering" },
            { "name": "vitnemalsmerknad",
              "target": "utdanning-kodeverk:Vitnemalsmerknad",
              "multiplicity": "0..*",
              "multiplicityKind": "NONE_TO_MANY",
              "bidirectional": null,
              "deprecated": false,
              "inherited": false,
              "from": "utdanning-vurdering:Elevvurdering" }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Conventions:

• Components are URL-style lowercase names (utdanning-vurdering, felles-kodeverk-iso). Consumers derive language-specific forms by splitting on -: Java package is no.novari.fint.model.<segments> joined with .; C# namespace is FINT.Model.<TitleCased> joined with ..
• Cross-references between types use "component:Name" strings. Primitives stay bare and lowercase: string, boolean, date, datetime, int, long, float, double. The closed primitive set is enumerated in common/metamodel/schema.go.
• Stereotypes are the EA-canonical Norwegian values: hovedklasse (the identifiable, REST-exposed kind), datatype, abstrakt, referanse.
• Attributes and relations are pre-flattened. Each type's attributes and relations arrays contain both its own entries and everything inherited from the parent chain (own first, then parent's, then grandparent's, …). Each entry carries:
  • inherited (bool) — false for the type's own entries, true if the entry was inherited from a parent.
  • from ("component:Name") — the type that declares the entry. Populated for both own and inherited entries (own entries point at the type itself), so consumers can grep "who declares X" without special-casing. Pre-flattening means consumers don't re-implement the parent walk. Filter inherited: false to recover own-only when needed (e.g. when emitting Java with super.X() calls so the child class doesn't redeclare inherited fields).
• multiplicity is shipped both ways. multiplicity is the source-of-truth UML string ("1", "0..1", "0..*", "1..*") and diff-friendly. multiplicityKind is the derived enum-friendly form (ONE_TO_ONE, NONE_TO_ONE, ONE_TO_MANY, NONE_TO_MANY) so consumers don't repeat the same 4-line lookup.
• bidirectional is a single nullable struct: null for unidirectional, { isSource, inverseName } when bidirectional. isSource matters chiefly for many-to-many — for 1-1 / 1-* either side is structurally fine.
• No identifiable flag — derive it from idFields: a type is identifiable iff idFields != null && idFields.length > 0. Same info, expressed once. Other parent-chain-walks (extendsIdentifiable, extendsResource, extendsRelations) are also not in the JSON: a consumer that needs them does a one-hop parent lookup.
• path (REST URL fragment) is populated only for hovedklasse types — derived as <component-with-slashes>/<lowercase-typename>, e.g. utdanning/vurdering/elevvurdering. null for everything else (datatypes, abstracts, references aren't REST-exposed).
• idFields is the parent-chain-flattened list of attribute names whose type is Identifikator. Populated whenever the type or any of its ancestors has at least one such attribute (so abstract bases like Begrep get idFields: ["systemId"] too); null otherwise.

CI integration

Recommended setup: a GitHub Action in fint-informasjonsmodell that runs this tool on every EA model change, regenerates metamodel.json, and commits it back to the model repo:

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/src ghcr.io/fintlabs/fint-model:<version> \
  metamodel -o /src/metamodel.json -t <release>

Then every model PR carries both the unreadable XMI diff and a clean JSON diff in the same review. Downstream emitter repos pin a tagged version of fint-informasjonsmodell and read its metamodel.json.

Install

Binaries

Precompiled images are available on GHCR.

Mount the output directory as /src:

Linux / macOS:

docker run -v $(pwd):/src ghcr.io/fintlabs/fint-model:latest <ARGS>

Windows PowerShell:

docker run -v ${pwd}:/src ghcr.io/fintlabs/fint-model:latest <ARGS>

Source

gh repo clone fintlabs/fint-model
cd fint-model
go install

Update dependencies:

go get .
go mod vendor
go build -a

Notes

• dateTime vs date: EA uses both forms inconsistently for semantically distinct concepts (date-only vs timestamp). Both canonicalise to lowercase primitives in metamodel.json (date stays date, dateTime becomes datetime). The existing Java and C# emitters collapse both to java.util.Date / DateTime. Future emitters can distinguish — e.g. Go could use civil.Date for date and time.Time for datetime.
• validFilt template helper: decides whether to stamp @Valid on a Java field. Looks up the attribute type in JAVA_TYPE_MAP (lowercase keys); if found, it's a primitive and gets no @Valid. The lookup is case-insensitive (matches GetJavaType). An earlier version did a case-sensitive lookup, which accidentally stamped @Valid on Date fields whose EA type was dateTime (camelCase) — a runtime no-op (@Valid cascades into nested constraints, of which java.util.Date has none) but visually inconsistent.

Author

FINTLabs