MDA Framework
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The document discusses metamodeling and its use in the MDA framework. It defines key terms like model, language, metamodel, and metalanguage. A metamodel is a model that defines the constructs and rules of a modeling language. It allows unambiguous definition of languages so transformation tools can process models. Transformation rules in a definition reference the source and target metamodels to specify how one model transforms to another. Metamodeling provides the mechanism to formally define modeling languages in MDA.
MDA Framework
- 1. MDA
- 2. Content • MDA framework – Transformation • Meta-model – Meta-language
- 3. • A transformation tool takes a PIM and transforms it into a PSM. • A second (or the same) transformation tool transforms the PSM to code. • We have shown the transformation tool as a black box. It takes one model as input and produces a second model as its output.
- 4. • When we open up the transformation tool and take a look inside, we can see what elements are involved in performing the transformation. • Somewhere inside the tool there is a definition that describes how a model should be transformed.
- 5. • For example, define a transformation definition from UML to C#, which describes which C# should be generated for a (or any!) UML model. • Transformation definition consists of a collection of transformation rules (unambiguous). • We can now define transformation, transformation rule, and transformation definition.
- 6. • A transformation is the automatic generation of a target model from a source model, according to a transformation definition. • A transformation definition is a set of transformation rules that together describe how a model in the source language can be transformed into a model in the target language. • A transformation rule is a description of how one or more constructs in the source language can be transformed into one or more constructs in the target language.
- 7. METAMODELING Introduction to Metamodeling Models, languages, metamodels, and metalanguages • We defined a model as a description of (part of) a system written in a well-defined language. • How do we define such a well- defined language?
- 8. • Languages were often defined • However, BNF restricts us to using a grammar in BNF. languages that are purely text • For example, have a graphical based. syntax, like UML. • We will need a different mechanism for defining languages in the MDA context. • This mechanism is called metamodeling.
- 9. Models, languages, metamodels, and metalanguages • A model defines what elements can exist in a system. • The model of the language describes the elements that can be used in the language.
- 10. • Because a metamodel is also a model, a metamodel itself must be written in a well-defined language. • This language is called a metalanguage. • First, a metalanguage plays a different role than a modeling language in the MDA framework, because it is a specialized language to describe modeling languages. • Secondly, the metamodel completely defines the language.
- 11. The Use of Metamodeling in the MDA • First, we need a mechanism to define modeling languages, such that they are unambiguously defined, a transformation tool can then read, write, and understand the models. Within MDA we define languages through metamodels. • Secondly, the transformation rules that constitute a transformation definition describe how a model in a source language can be transformed into a model in a target language. These rules use the metamodels of the source and target languages to define the transformations.
Editor's Notes
- #8: we defined a model as a description of (part of) a system written in a well-defined language. A well-defined language was defined as a language which is suitable for automated interpretation by a computer.
- #10: If we define the class Cat in a model, we can have instances of Cat, (like "our neighbor's cat") in the system. A language also defines what elements can exist. It defines the elements that can be used in a model. For example, the UML language defines that we can use the concepts "Class," "State," "package," and so on, in a UML model. Looking at this similarity, we can describe a language by a model: the model of the language describes the elements that can be used in the language.
- #12: Constitue: cautao