automatically bridging uml profiles into mof metamodels

Ivano Malavolta Gran Sasso Science Institute Henry Muccini University of L’Aquila

Marco Sebastiani University of L’Aquila

Automatically bridging UML profiles to MOF metamodels

Funchal, 27th August 2015

•  Background

•  Approach

•  Implementation

•  Validation

•  Conclusions

Roadmap

Background

Domain-specific applications require notations to capture the domain’s specificities [1,2,3]

Domain-specific languages

•  metamodel for abstract syntax •  set of concrete syntaxes

Examples:

+ concise language - additional training - tools to be developed

DSMLs

Light-weight extension of UML via profiles Examples: + reuse of knowledge about UML + reuse of UML-based editors - ???

UML profiles

Motivation

While of more immediate use for designers… mainly because

-  UML “metamuddle” -  UML metamodel = 246 classes and 583 properties

-  concepts coming from the UML profile are somehow inbetween the meta- and the modelling layers -  manipulation tools need to be tailored to support (i) profiles

applications and (ii) tagged values

Manipulating profiled UML models is (accidentally) COMPLEX

Example

ATL transformation for checking a simple naming convention

check stereotype application

access tagged value

to better support those projects in which –  the system is modeled using UML profiles –  there is a strong need of automatic model manipulation

Research goal and contributions

Tool developer Designers

UML-based tools

MOF metamodel

AUTOMATIC BRIDGE

GOAL

CONTRIBUTIONS •  bridge between UML profiles and MOF metamodels

–  fully automatic –  bidirectional –  transparent to designers

•  metamodel slicing mechanism •  implementation as an Eclipse plugin •  validation via a case study based on SysML

Overview of the approach

–  UML profile –  profiled UML models

1.  MOF metamodel MMx

2.  transformations between UML models and models conforming to MMx and viceversa

The approach consists in 2 phases...

Input Output

Phase 1 – metamodelling level

MOF

UML MMX

profile.uml

c2

c2

c2

UMLprofile2MOF in out

in

Input The UML profile and the UML metamodel

Output MOF metamodel MMx

Realized as a GENERIC model-to-model transformation

Uml profile <--> MMx mappings

•  Stereotype2Class•  Class2Class•  Profile2Package•  Package2Package•  Property2Feature•  DataType2Datatype•  Enumeration2Enumeration

UML MOF

+ an ad-hoc package in MMx containing all the UML metaclasses à  the generated MOF metamodel

is self-contained à  loss-less transformation

Phase 2 – modelling level

UML MMX

profile.uml c2

MMX2UML

UML2MMX

MMX2UMLGenerator

UML2MMXGenerator in in

in in

in

in

out

out

Generic higher-order transformation

Structure of UML2MMx

1.  each standard UML element à an instance of its corresponding metaclass in MMx

2.  each UML stereotype application à an instance of the corresponding metaclass in MMx + containment relationship

UML MOF

UML2MMx works in the other way round

UML2MMx UML

UML MOF

standard UML element à instance of its corresponding metaclass in MMx

UML stereotype application à instance of the corresponding metaclass in MMx + containment relationship

Reflections

•  Phases 1 and 2 are executed only once for each UML profile px

–  the generated transformations are re-used every time a UML model profiled with px has to be bridged

•  The proposed bridge is completely automatic –  no additional effort requested to designers

à designers work on the UML side, while tool developers work on

standard MOF metamodels à clear separation of concerns and full automation


automatic

bridge UML-based

tools MOF

metamodel

Slicing mechanism

Default behavior of the bridge: to keep the whole UML metamodel in MMx

+ MMx is self-contained + we ensure loss-less transformation - we move the complexity of the UML metamodel into MMx

246 classes and 583 properties

SOLUTION Reduce the generated metaclasses of MMx to a subset of relevant UML concepts

Relevant concepts

UML metamodel

UML model

conforms to

Relevant concepts: the set of metaclasses that are expected to be instantiated at the modelling level

e.g., designers may assume that they will always use only UML component diagrams and state machines

Representing relevant concepts

An annotation model contains a link to each relevant metaclass of the UML metamodel

The slicing mechanism uses those links to identify the initial set of relevant metaclasses

Relevant concepts as annotation models linked to MMx

UML metamodel

AM Relevant metaclasses

Intuition it considers the set of relevant metaclasses and then navigates both their references and generalizations in order to return a self-contained subset of the initial metamodel Formally: where

neighbour(c) is the set of –  all super metaclasses of c –  all metaclasses referred (both with association and aggregation)

by c –  all types of attributes in c

Slicing algorithm

Slicing as model transformation

MMx

MMsliced

amx

MMslicer

in

out

annotates

in

MMx2UML

MMsliced

Tslicer

UML2MMx

MMsliced2UML

UML2MMsliced

in

out

in

Slicing metamodels Slicing transformations

Creation of annotation models

from a UML profile from diagram names from example models

+ full control - tedious and error-prone

OR

via 3 different strategies:

Manual creation

Automatic generation

Implementation of the approach Approach implemented as an plugin

+ reuse of existing facilities + easy integration with other Eclipse-based components

Models and metamodels via the framework

+ already implemented MOF meta-metamodel + persistence support via XMI

UML profiles and models via the Eclipse plugin

+ interoperability with other UML modelling tools

Transformations and annotations models based on the platform

+ ATL as flexible model transformation language + transformations can be executed programmatically (e.g., via Java code) + support for transformation models à enabling HOT transformations + integrated into the Eclipse platform

UML2

AMMA

Validation of the approach

We applied the proposed approach on a non-trivial case study based on the SysML profile The SysML profile has been extracted from the official SysML Eclipse plugin The SysML model is the example provided in the SysML official specification. The model represents a HSUV* by focussing on its requirements, performance, structure, and behavior

* HSUV = Hybrid gas/electric powered Sport Utility Vehicle (HSUV)

Generating the SysML metamodel 1

UML metamodel

SysML profile

UMLprofile2MOF MMsysml

c2

= bridge-specific ATL transformation

metamodeling

modeling

322 metaclasses 122 attributes 665 references

Generating the transformation 2

UML metamodel

SysML profile


UML2MMx Generator

UML2MMsysml

c2


metamodeling

modeling

292 transformation rules 3625 feature bindings 10 helpers TOTAL: 5680 LOCs

Annotation model creation 3

UML metamodel

SysML profile


amsysml

annotation

UML2MMx Generator

UML2MMsysml

c2


metamodeling

modeling

Slicing by component and class diagrams 37 links generated

Slicing 4

UML metamodel

SysML profile


amsysml

annotation

sliced MMsysml

MMslicer

UML2MMx Generator

UML2MMsysml

Tslicer

UML2slicedMMsysml

c2


metamodeling

modeling

Slicing gains

292

3625

10

5680

139

1721

10

2690

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Full transformation Sliced transformation

Overall we gained: ~37% in metamodel size ~52% in transformation size

322

122

665

171 80

460

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

MMx MMsliced

Modelling & transforming 6 5

UML metamodel

SysML profile


amsysml

annotation

sliced MMsysml

MMslicer

UML2MMx Generator

UML2MMsysml

Tslicer

UML2slicedMMsysml

HSUV.uml HSUV.xmi

c2

c2

c2 application


metamodeling

modeling


Source UML model Target MOF-based model

Using the model 7

We developed a simple manipulation transformation that checks if a SysML model follows a simple naming convention

+ the input domain of the transformation is smaller à more testable + UML-specific constructs not needed anymore à more maintainable + gain in performance

Conclusions


UML metamodel

SysML profile


amsysml

annotation

sliced MMsysml

MMslicer

UML2MMx Generator

UML2MMsysml

Tslicer

UML2slicedMMsysml

HSUV.uml HSUV.xmi

c2

c2

c2 application


metamodeling

modeling

Slicing mechanism

Default behavior of the bridge: to keep the whole UML metamodel in MMx

+ MMx is self-contained + we ensure loss-less transformation - we move the complexity of the UML metamodel into MMx

246 classes and 583 properties

SOLUTION To reduce the generated metaclasses of MMx to a subset of relevant UML concepts

to support those projects in which –  the system is modeled using UML profiles –  there is a strong need of automatic model manipulation

Research goal and contributions


UML-based tools

MOF metamodel

AUTOMATIC BRIDGE

GOAL

CONTRIBUTIONS •  bridge between UML profiles and MOF metamodels –  fully automatic –  bidirectional –  transparent to designers

•  metamodel slicing mechanism •  implementation as an Eclipse plugin •  validation via a third-party case study based on SysML

Overview of the approach

–  UML profile –  profiled UML models

1.  MOF metamodel MMx

2.  transformations between UML models and models conforming to MMx and viceversa

The approach consists in 2 phases...

Input Output

References

[1] I. Malavolta and H. Muccini, “A Study on MDE Approaches for Engineering Wireless Sensor Networks,” in Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), 2014 40th EUROMICRO Conference on. IEEE, 2014, pp. 149–157. [2] A. van Deursen, P. Klint, and J. Visser, “Domain-specific languages: an annotated bibliography,” SIGPLAN Not., vol. 35, pp. 26–36, June 2000. [Online]. Available: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/352029.352035 [3] R. B. France, S. Ghosh, T. Dinh-Trong, and A. Solberg, “Model- Driven Development Using UML 2.0: Promises and Pitfalls,” Computer, vol. 39, pp. 59–66, 2006. [4] L. Fuentes-Fernandez and A. Vallecillo-Moreno, “An introduction to UML profiles,” in UML and Model Engineering, vol. 5, 2004.

Contact Ivano Malavolta |

Post-doc researcher Gran Sasso Science Institute

iivanoo

[email protected]

www.ivanomalavolta.com

automatically bridging uml profiles into mof metamodels

Technology