Testing M2T/T2M Transformations

Presentado en: 16th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS 2013). Del 29 de septiembre al 4 de octubre. Miami, EEUU.Testing model-to-model (M2M) transformations is becoming a prominent topic in the current Model-driven Engineering landscape. Current approaches for transformation testing, however, assume having explicit model representations for the input domain and for the output domain of the transformation. This excludes other important transformation kinds, such as model-to-text (M2T) and text-to-model (T2M) transformations, from being properly tested since adequate model representations are missing either for the input domain or for the output domain. The contribution of this paper to overcome this gap is extending Tracts, a M2M transformation testing approach, for M2T/T2M transformation testing. The main mechanism we employ for reusing Tracts is to represent text within a generic metamodel. By this, we transform the M2T/T2M transformation specification problems into equivalent M2M transformation specification problems. We demonstrate the applicability of the approach by two examples and present how the approach is implemented for the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). Finally, we apply the approach to evaluate code generation capabilities of several existing UML tools.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Proyecto TIN2011-2379

Confluence Detection for Transformations of Labelled Transition Systems

The development of complex component software systems can be made more manageable by first creating an abstract model and then incrementally adding details. Model transformation is an approach to add such details in a controlled way. In order for model transformation systems to be useful, it is crucial that they are confluent, i.e. that when applied on a given model, they will always produce a unique output model, independent of the order in which rules of the system are applied on the input. In this work, we consider Labelled Transition Systems (LTSs) to reason about the semantics of models, and LTS transformation systems to reason about model transformations. In related work, the problem of confluence detection has been investigated for general graph structures. We observe, however, that confluence can be detected more efficiently in special cases where the graphs have particular structural properties. In this paper, we present a number of observations to detect confluence of LTS transformation systems, and propose both a new confluence detection algorithm and a conflict resolution algorithm based on them.Comment: In Proceedings GaM 2015, arXiv:1504.0244

TractsTool: Testing Model Transformations based on Contracts

Model transformations play an important role in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), and as their size and complexity grow, there is an increasing need to count on tool support for testing their correctness. In this work, we present TractsTool, a tool for specifying and testing several different kinds of model transformations, e.g., model-to-model, model-to-text, and text-to-model transformations, based on contracts.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2011-2379

Formal verification techniques for model transformations: A tridimensional classification

In Model Driven Engineering (Mde), models are first-class citizens, and model transformation is Mde's "heart and soul". Since model transformations are executed for a family of (conforming) models, their validity becomes a crucial issue. This paper proposes to explore the question of the formal verification of model transformation properties through a tridimensional approach: the transformation involved, the properties of interest addressed, and the formal verification techniques used to establish the properties. This work is intended for a double audience. For newcomers, it provides a tutorial introduction to the field of formal verification of model transformations. For readers more familiar with formal methods and model transformations, it proposes a literature review (although not systematic) of the contributions of the field. Overall, this work allows to better understand the evolution, trends and current practice in the domain of model transformation verification. This work opens an interesting research line for building an engineering of model transformation verification guided by the notion of model transformation intent

Research Questions for Validation and Verification in the Context of Model-Based Engineering

International audienceIn model-based engineering (MBE), the abstraction power of models is used to deal with the ever increasing complexity of modern software systems. As models play a central role in MBE-based development processes, for the adoption of MBE in practical projects it becomes indispensable to introduce rigorous methods for ensuring the correctness of the models. Consequently, much effort has been spent on developing and applying validation and verification (V&V) techniques for models. However, there are still many open challenges. In this paper, we shortly review the status quo of V&V techniques in MBE and derive a catalogue of open questions whose answers would contribute to successfully putting MBE into practice

Towards the Automation of Metamorphic Testing in Model Transformations

Model transformations are the cornerstone of Model-Driven Engineering, and provide the essential mechanisms for manipulating and transforming models. Checking whether the output of a model transformation is correct is a manual and error-prone task, this is referred to as the oracle problem in the software testing literature. The correctness of the model transformation program is crucial for the proper generation of its output, so it should be tested. Metamorphic testing is a testing technique to alleviate the oracle problem consisting on exploiting the relations between different inputs and outputs of the program under test, so-called metamorphic relations. In this paper we give an insight into our approach to generically define metamorphic relations for model transformations, which can be automatically instantiated given any specific model transformation.Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2015-70560-RJunta de Andalucía TIC-5906Junta de Andalucía P12-TIC-186

Towards Approximate Model Transformations

As the size and complexity of models grow, there is a need to count on novel mechanisms and tools for transforming them. This is required, e.g., when model transformations need to provide target models without having access to the complete source models or in really short time—as it happens, e.g., with streaming models—or with very large models for which the transformation algorithms become too slow to be of practical use if the complete population of a model is investigated. In this paper we introduce Approximate Model Transformations, which aim at producing target models that are accurate enough to provide meaningful and useful results in an efficient way, but without having to be fully correct. So to speak, this kind of transformations treats accuracy for execution performance. In particular, we redefine the traditional OCL operators used to query models (e.g., allInstances, select, collect, etc.) by adopting sampling techniques and analyse the accuracy of approximate model transformations results.Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. European Commission under the ICT Policy Support Programme (grant no. 317859). Research Project TIN2011-23795