Universal Message Format (UMF) is a standard markup language, based on XML, for structuring data source files. Before data can be loaded or processed into the entity database, it must be formatted in UMF and follow the UMF specification.
UMF is an XML-based representation of the data that is processed and created by the pipeline. UMF is received over multiple protocols such as Web services, flat files, and other databases, but always follows the UMF specification. This UMF specification covers the default UMF shipped with the product; since UMF is highly configurable, there may be installation specific changes that override the defaults shown here.