A Comparison of Model Migration Tools

Abstract

Abstract. Modelling languages and thus their metamodels are subject to change. When a metamodel evolves, existing models may no longer conform to the evolved metamodel. To avoid rebuilding them from scratch, existing models must be migrated to conform to the evolved metamodel. Manually migrating existing models is tedious and errorprone. To alleviate this, several tools have been proposed to build a migration strategy that automates the migration of existing models. Little is known about the advantages and disadvantages of the tools in different situations. In this paper, we thus compare a representative sample of migration tools -AML, COPE, Ecore2Ecore and Epsilon Flock -using common migration examples. The criteria used in the comparison aim to support users in selecting the most appropriate tool for their situation.

Surveying the Corpus of Model Resolution Strategies for Metamodel Evolution

“…In two later studies Rose and Herrmannsdoerfer et al compare different tools for model migration (i.e. resolution of models) [5], [6]. Finally, Herrmannsdoerfer and Wachsmuth presented 2014 a survey of co-evolution tools with focus on characteristics of the applied transformation techniques.…”

“…However, so far there is no survey on the question for which metamodel changes concrete resolution strategies exists and might directly be reused. In this paper we complement existing surveys on transformation and tool specific aspects of co-evolution (such as [4], [5], [6], [7]) with focus on the corpus of existing resolution strategies.…”

“…Thus, the surveys are mainly concerned with transformation and tool specific aspects. In [5] and [6] the expressiveness of the different approaches is observed with the help of experiments. This also allowed to make statements on the expressiveness of approaches for specification of resolution strategies.…”

A DSML for reversible transformations

“…Modif is designed as a helper and allows to capitalize on repetitive operations related to co-evolution. From a higher point of view, injection is a generated data migration tool [17]. The novelty of our work is the contextualization.…”

“…Such kind of transformations can be seen as model migration tools [17]. We introduced a language called Modif [1] in order to target easily this kind of transformations.…”