Expressing different conceptual models of join point selections in aspect-oriented design

Abstract

When specifying pointcuts, i.e. join point selections, in AspectOriented Software Development, developers have in different situations different conceptual models in mind. Aspect-oriented programming languages are usually capable to support only a small subset of them, but not all. In order to communicate aspectoriented design among developers, though, it is inevitable that the underlying conceptual model used in its join point selections remains unchanged. As a solution to this dilemma, we detail three different conceptual models in this paper that are frequently used in aspect-oriented applications. These models are illustrated using sample implementations from existing literature. Then, we introduce corresponding modeling notations based on Join Point Designation Diagrams (JPDDs) which are capable to express join point selections complying to those models. Finally, we discuss the suitability of these notations to express a desired join point selection.

Designing and Weaving Aspect-Oriented Executable UML Models.

“…In this sense, we will substitute the current pointcut specification by Joinpoint Designation Diagrams (JPDDs) [29] in order to provide more expressive pointcuts. It was not done in this paper as it is not a trivial task.…”

“…At the modelling level, the common practice for specifying pointcuts is, basically, to use UML diagrams with wildcards (e.g., "*" to represent any sequence of characters or "?" to represent any sequence of arguments) [13,29]. As our intention is to intercept interactions between objects (message sending/receiving), sequence diagrams are selected to model pointcuts because they are the main elements in UML that represent object interactions and they offer a user-friendly widely known notation.…”

A Case Study to Evaluate Pros/Cons of Aspect- and Object-Oriented Paradigms to Model Distributed Embedded Real-Time Systems

“…The mentioned diagram merge is shown through the "par" operator which means that both interactions occur concurrently. DERAF aspects and join points (see section 2) are specified using a combination of ACOD and Join Point Designation Diagrams (JPDD) [10] messages, which are annotated with <<SAtrigger>> stereotype, sent by the scheduler to some active object. Figure 8 shows the ConcurrencyControl aspect affecting passive objects, which store information that can be simultaneously accessed by more than one active object.…”

Weaving Multiple Aspects in Sequence Diagrams

“…In [26], Stein et al introduce a way to express various conceptual models of pointcuts in aspect-oriented design. But, they do not provide a way to detect the join points specified by these pointcuts.…”