directory services markup language (DSML)

Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) is a markup language to facilitate communication in inter-enterprise electronic commerce. DSML uses a special grammar based on XML and makes use of the directory services in which all company resources are registered that are relevant in terms of information technology: Services, Rules, Hardware and People.

The directory services must be able to communicate with each other and with the various databases and applications. To make this possible, meta-directories are used to mediate between the various directories and applications.

Since many applications and products are XML-based, communication will also take place in the Extensible Markup Language (XML). DSML is an XML-baseddescription language for accessing metadata, directories and applications that are accessible via XML. DSML specifies how the resources listed in the directory are described in XML.