Translating essential OCL invariants to nested graph constraints for generating instances of meta-models
Translating essential OCL invariants to nested graph constraints for generating instances of meta-models
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DOI：
10.1016/j.scico.2017.08.006
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发表时间：
2018-01-15
影响因子：
1.3
通讯作者：
Taentzer, Gabriele
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Radke, Hendrik;Arendt, Thorsten;Taentzer, Gabriele
领域特定建模语言（DSML）通常由元建模定义，使用对象约束语言（OCL）来指定不变量。在不支持实例构造的意义上，这种方法是纯声明性的。相比之下，基于语法的语言定义通过应用产生式规则来逐步构建实例。由于模型的底层结构通常是图，因此图文法非常适合定义建模语言。建立元建模和图文法之间的正式关系，开辟了两个领域的技术集成的可能性。这种集成可以有利地用于优化DSML定义。我们遵循一种方法，将元模型转换为具有一组嵌套图约束的类型图。虽然以前的元模型翻译忽略了OCL约束，我们专注于翻译的本质OCL不变量嵌套图约束在本文中。我们证明了一个模型满足一个Essential OCL不变量当且仅当其对应的实例图满足对应的嵌套图约束。此外，嵌套的图约束可以被转换为图转换规则的应用条件。组成这两个翻译，实例生成图语法可以配备应用条件，使其生成的原始元模型的实例。(C)2017作者由爱思唯尔公司出版
Domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) are usually defined by meta-modeling using the Object Constraint Language (OCL) for specifying invariants. This approach is purely declarative in the sense that instance construction is not supported. In contrast, grammar-based language definition incorporates the stepwise construction of instances by applying production rules. Since the underlying structure of models are generally graphs, graph grammars are well suited to define modeling languages. Establishing a formal relation between meta-modeling and graph grammars opens up the possibility to integrate techniques of both fields. This integration can be advantageously used for optimizing DSML definition. We follow an approach where a meta-model is translated to a type graph with a set of nested graph constraints. While previous meta-model translations neglected OCL constraints, we focus on the translation of Essential OCL invariants to nested graph constraints in this paper. We show that a model satisfies an Essential OCL invariant iff its corresponding instance graph satisfies the corresponding nested graph constraint. In addition, nested graph constraints can be translated to application conditions of graph transformation rules. Composing both translations, an instance-generating graph grammar can be equipped with application conditions such that it generates instances of the original meta-model only. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.