An Example Is Worth a Thousand Words: Composite Operation Modeling By-Example

Abstract

Abstract. Predefined composite operations are handy for efficient modeling, e.g., for the automatic execution of refactorings, and for the introduction of patterns in existing models. Some modeling environments provide an initial set of basic refactoring operations, but hardly offer any extension points for the user. Even if extension points exist, the introduction of new composite operations requires programming skills and deep knowledge of the respective metamodel. In this paper, we introduce a method for specifying composite operations within the user's modeling language and environment of choice. The user models the composite operation by-example, which enables the semi-automatic derivation of a generic composite operation specification. This specification may be used in further modeling scenarios, like model refactoring and model versioning. We implemented the approach in the Operation Recorder and performed an evaluation by defining multiple complex refactorings for UML diagrams.

A categorization for conflicts in model versioning

“…For instance, textual conflicts are detected by line-based comparison techniques whereas syntactic conflicts are detected by graph-based comparison techniques. For the detection of semantic conflicts more sophisticated techniques are needed (Altmanninger, 2007;Brosch et al, 2009;Gerth et al, 2009;Kö gel et al, 2009). For example, a constraints checking mechanism (e.g., validation engine) to detect static semantic conflicts, a dependency graph or a normalization mechanism to detect behavioral semantic conflicts and equivalences, and an ontology-based approach to detect ontological conflicts and equivalences.…”

A study of invasive composition for the evolution of a health information system

“…These approaches extract the commonalities of refactoring actions and allow developers to apply refactoring actions on their programs and models. Other approaches have proposed modeling and transformation of source code to address refactoring actions for specific languages [13,3], or the manipulation of source code by means of the specification of refactoring examples [5]. All these approaches address the problem of code restructuring but do not, in contrast to our approach, address the problem of refactoring complex communication patterns found in distributed systems.…”

Understanding model evolution through semantically lifting model differences with SiLift

“…A development tool named By-Example Operation Recorder [2] enables users to specify composite edit operations "by example". Basically, a tool engineer creates a typical model as base revision and edits the model to produce the effect of the composite operation.…”