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Getting Started
The first and most important step to getting started with MAEC is to understand why it was developed, what problems it is designed to solve, and how you can use it to solve those problems. The MAEC v4.0.1 Specification, especially sections 1-3, is a great start to understanding this: it will explain all of that as well as what the individual components of MAEC are and how they fit together.
We're also happy to set up either teleconferences or in-person meetings (in the Boston, MA and Washington, DC areas) to go through introductory session, a more in-depth training/development session, or to walk you through how to map your existing content into MAEC. If that's something you're interested in, reach out to us at [email protected] and let us know.
Up through the current version, 4.1, MAEC has used an XML schema as its data model representation. The MAEC schemas define the canonical MAEC data model and the only official way to share MAEC information is through XML instance documents that conform to these schemas.
If you're an XML person, now would be a good time to download the schemas. To do so, visit the release page and choose which bundle of content you want to download. The recommended download is the All Files (Offline) bundle. It contains all MAEC schemas, all CybOX schemas, all extension/external schemas, and the examples and HTML documentation. In other words, everything you need to validate MAEC instance documents. These same schemas can be found in the master branch of this GitHub schemas repository, which always contains the latest official release of MAEC.
The MAEC Specification is intended to serve as an overview and detailed description of the data model used in the MAEC Language, along with information on relevant use cases, MAEC's versioning policy, frequently asked questions, and other related information. It is recommended to be used as the foremost companion to the MAEC schemas, and is considered the best source of detailed information on MAEC, its data model, and intended usage. The latest version of the specification is written against MAEC 4.0.1, and we are in the process of updating it to account for the changes in MAEC 4.1.
The MAEC schema documentation provides a detailed look at MAEC's schemas, and is available both for those of you that aren't as familiar with XML Schema and those that are but don't want to have to pour through XML. Though this information is covered in more detail in the MAEC specification, this documentation is always up-to-date with respect to the latest version of MAEC, and is available on the release page, under the "Documentation" column.
If you're like many people, there's no substitute for good sample data when working with a new language or tool. The MAEC project has an examples page for just that reason, containing a variety of illustrative and more real-world oriented examples for demonstrating specific features and general MAEC usage.
Once you understand the core concepts of how MAEC works and have either the schemas or the documentation so you can look up any data model questions, there are a couple options for where to look next:
- If you want to jump right into sample content, see the Sample Walkthrough
- If you're interested in user-level tooling and programmatic support, go to the Tools page
- Finally, if you want to get started creating content, you want the Authoring Tutorial