EMF Views: A View Mechanism for Integrating Heterogeneous Models

Hugo Bruneliere (1, 2) , Jokin Garcia Perez (1, 2) , Manuel Wimmer (3) , Jordi Cabot (1, 2)

1 ATLANMOD - Modeling Technologies for Software Production, Operation, and Evolution
2 LINA - Laboratoire d'Informatique de Nantes Atlantique
3 Business Informatics Group [Vienne]

Modeling complex systems involves dealing with several heterogeneous and interrelated models defined using a variety of languages (UML, ER, BPMN, DSLs, etc.). These models must be frequently combined in different cross-domain perspectives to provide stakeholders the view of the system they need to best perform their tasks. Several model composition approaches have already been proposed addressing this problem. Nevertheless, they present some important limitations concerning efficiency, interoperability and synchronization between the base models and the composed ones. As an alternative we introduce EMF Views, an approach coming with a dedicated language and tooling for defining views on potentially heterogeneous models. Similarly to views in databases, model views are not materialized but instead redirect all model access and manipulation requests to the base models from which they are obtained. This is realized in a transparent way for both the modeler and the other modeling tools using the concerned (meta)models.

Mots clés: View; Viewpoint; Modeling; Virtualization; Heterogeneity

Domaines: Génie logiciel [cs.SE]; Informatique et langage [cs.CL]

Hugo Bruneliere, Jokin Garcia Perez, Manuel Wimmer, Jordi Cabot. EMF Views: A View Mechanism for Integrating Heterogeneous Models. 34th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2015), Oct 2015, Stockholm, Sweden. ⟨10.1007/978-3-319-25264-3_23⟩. ⟨hal-01159205⟩