On the Automated Derivation of Domain-Specific UML Profiles

Abstract

Similar to general-purpose languages, domain-specific languages (DSL) can be developed based on grammar formalisms, the model-driven engineering (MDE) is also becoming more and more important for the development of DSLs. On the one hand, metamodels can be used to define the syntax and semantics of DSLs. On the other hand, a DSL can be realized by adapting the Unified Modeling Language (UML) via the profiling mechanism, i.e., by defining a UML profile. For example, metamodels for a DSL can be created with the language concepts provided by the Meta Object Facility (MOF), distinguishing between the Essential MOF (EMOF) and the Complete MOF (CMOF). The latter variant is based on the EMOF but provides additional language concepts. A higher degree of abstraction and reuse of existing metamodels can be achieved by employing the language concepts provided by CMOF, which can be advantageous for the creation of more complex DSLs. IITo verify and evaluate the presented derivation approach, we have implemented a toolchain that we used to conduct two case studies on the Specification and Description Language (SDL) and the Test Description Language (TDL).IV formationen validiert werden. Neben neu zu entwickelnden DSLs ermöglicht unser Ansatz auch eine Migration bestehender Grammatik-basierter DSLs zu CMOFbasierten Metamodellen, sofern Syntaxregeln existieren.Um den vorgestellten Ableitungsansatz zu überprüfen und zu bewerten, wurde eine Werkzeugkette implementiert, mit der zwei Fallstudien für die Specification and Description Language (SDL) und die Test Description Language (TDL) durchgeführt wurden.

On the automation-supported derivation of domain-specific UML profiles considering static semantics

“…We investigated the applicability of our approach to derive a UML profile and used the Test Description Language (TDL) [6] to evaluate the applicability of our derivation approach to new DSLs. In contrast, the Specification and Description Language (SDL) [21] was subject of another case study [27,28] to evaluate the applicability of our approach for existing DSLs with available production rules.…”

“…As mentioned before, we conducted another case study [27,29] where the Specification and Description Language (SDL) [21] served us to evaluate our derivation approach for grammar-based DSLs. The focus of our investigation was on the semi-automatic creation of an SDL metamodel based on production rules and on the automatic derivation of a UML profile and 'additional' metaclasses.…”

“…7. In addition to explaining our derivation approach by examples in this paper, we detail the various derivation steps using pseudocode in [29].…”

“…The concepts of our derivation approach have already been sketched as extended abstract in [28], and its applicability to automatically derive a UML profile for SDL has been demonstrated in another extended abstract [27]. In the present article, we give a fully comprehensive insight into our derivation of UML profiles and our automatic transfer of the OCL-defined static semantics.…”

“…The second category encompasses approaches that apply model-driven engineering (MDE) [51], where the most Communicated by Sebastien Gerard. This article is an extended version of our contribution [28] to the 15th European Conference on Modelling Foundations and Applications (ECMFA) in 2017.…”