Taming Graphical Modeling

Visual models help to understand complex systems. However, with the user interaction paradigms established today, activities such as creating, maintaining or browsing visual models can be very tedious. Valuable engineering time is wasted with archaic activities such as manual placement and routing of nodes and edges. This report presents an approach to enhance productivity by focusing on the pragmatics of model-based design. Our contribution is twofold: First, the concept of meta layout enables the synthesis of different diagrammatic views on graphical models. This modularly employs sophisticated layout algorithms, closing the gap between MDE and graph drawing theory. Second, a view management logic harnesses this auto layout to present customized views on models. These concepts have been implemented in the open source Kiel Integrated Environment for Layout Eclipse Rich Client (KIELER). Two applications---editing and simulation---illustrate how view management helps to increase developer productivity and tame model complexity

Applying MDE tools to defining domain specific languages for model management

In the model driven engineering (MDE), modeling languages play a central role. They range from the most generic languages such as UML, to more individual ones, called domain-specific modeling languages (DSML). These languages are used to create and manage models and must accompany them throughout their life cycle and evolution. In this paper we propose a domain-specific language for model management, to facilitate the user's task, developed with techniques and tools used in the MDE paradigm.Fil: Pérez, Gabriela. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Informática. Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada; ArgentinaFil: Irazábal, Jerónimo. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Informática. Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Pons, Claudia Fabiana. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Informática. Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada; Argentina. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas; ArgentinaFil: Giandini, Roxana Silvia. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Informática. Laboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzada; Argentin

Eugenia:towards disciplined and automated development of GMF-based graphical model editors

EMF and GMF are powerful frameworks for implementing tool support for modelling languages in Eclipse. However, with power comes complexity, implementing a graphical editor for a modelling language using EMF and GMF requires developers to handcraft and maintain several detailed interconnected models through a loosely guided, labour-intensive, and error-prone process. We demonstrate how the application of metamodel annotation and model transformation techniques can help to manage the complexity of GMF and EMF and deliver significant productivity, quality, and maintainability benefits. We present Eugenia, an open-source tool that implements the proposed approach, illustrate its functionality with an example, evaluate it through an empirical study, and report on the community’s response to the tool

Towards the generation of graphical modelling environments aided by patterns

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27653-3_16Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) promotes the use of models to conduct all phases of software development in an automated way. Such models are described using Domain Specific Modelling Languages (DSMLs). While the definition of DSMLs and their supporting environments are recurring activities in MDE, they are mostly developed ad-hoc from scratch. This paper proposes the use of patterns to describe the abstract and concrete graphical syntax of DSMLs, and to automate the generation of a graphical modelling environment for them.Work supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (TIN2011-24139 and TIN2014-52129-R), the R&D programme of the Madrid Region (S2013/ICE-3006), and the EU commission (FP7-ICT-2013-10, #611125)

Über die Pragmatik der Graphischen Modellierung

Graphical models help to understand complex systems. However, with the user interaction paradigms established today, activities such as creating, maintaining or browsing graphical models can be very tedious. This thesis presents an approach to enhance productivity by focusing on the pragmatics of model-based design. The contribution includes an interpretation of the notion of pragmatics, orthogonal to syntax and semantics in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE). A proposal on pragmatics-aware modeling is given, employing sophisticated automated layout algorithms to close the gap between MDE and graph drawing theory. Thus, a view management logic presents customized views on models. These concepts get illustrated with the open source Kiel Integrated Environment for Layout Eclipse Rich Client (KIELER) with multiple applications including editing and simulation and shows how view management helps to tame complexity

Bottom-up meta-modelling: An interactive approach

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33666-9_2Proceedings of 15th International Conference, MODELS 2012, Innsbruck, Austria, September 30–October 5, 2012The intensive use of models in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) raises the need to develop meta-models with different aims, like the construction of textual and visual modelling languages and the specification of source and target ends of model-to-model transformations. While domain experts have the knowledge about the concepts of the domain, they usually lack the skills to build meta-models. These should be tailored according to their future usage and specific implementation platform, which demands knowledge available only to engineers with great expertise in MDE platforms. These issues hinder a wider adoption of MDE both by domain experts and software engineers. In order to alleviate this situation we propose an interactive, iterative approach to meta-model construction enabling the specification of model fragments by domain experts, with the possibility of using informal drawing tools like Dia. These fragments can be annotated with hints about the intention or needs for certain elements. A meta-model is automatically induced, which can be refactored in an interactive way, and then compiled into an implementation meta-model using profiles and patterns for different platforms and purposes.This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (project “Go Lite” TIN2011-24139) and the R&D programme of the Madrid Region (project “e-Madrid” S2009/TIC-1650

Transient View Generation in Eclipse

Graph-based model visualizations can effectively communicate information, but their creation and maintenance require a lot of manual effort and hence reduce productivity. In this report we build on the concept of Model Driven Visualization by presenting a meta model for graphical views and an infrastructure for configurable automatic layout. This enables the transient views approach, in which we efficiently derive and draw graph representations from arbitrary models