ANNOTATION OF MODELS FOR MODEL-DRIVEN ENGINEERING

• US 20090132562A1
• Filed: 11/21/2007
• Published: 05/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Mehr, Farid, Fritzsche, Mathias
• Granted Patent: US 8,533,660 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/316 Aspect-oriented programming techniques

Abstract

A query interpreter may be configured to query a model repository to obtain one or more elements of at least one model associated with a software application and stored in the model repository. A profile reader may be configured to read, from a profile repository, at least one profile meta-model that is associated with at least one annotation; and a profile integrator may be configured to annotate the one or more elements with the at least one annotation to obtain an annotated model.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a query interpreter configured to query a model repository to obtain one or more elements of at least one model associated with a software application and stored in the model repository;

a profile reader configured to read, from a profile repository, at least one profile meta-model that is associated with at least one annotation; and

a profile integrator configured to annotate the one or more elements with the at least one annotation to obtain an annotated model.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the query interpreter is configured to query multiple models within the model repository, based on a model property, to thereby determine at least two elements sharing the model property.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the query interpreter is configured to receive a syntactic characterization of the one or more model elements, and to query the model repository to obtain the one or more elements based on the syntactic characterization.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the query interpreter is configured to receive a semantic characterization of the one or more model elements, and to query the model repository to obtain the one or more elements based on the semantic characterization.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the query interpreter is configured to receive a type-level characterization of the one or more model elements, and to query the model repository to obtain the one or more elements based on the type-level characterization.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the query interpreter is configured to execute a domain specific model (DSM) to query the model repository.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one model is provided according to a modeling language, and wherein the profile reader is configured to read the profile meta-model and to create a profile model therefrom.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the profile reader is configured to read the at least one annotation as being associated with a model of the profile meta-model, the model providing a vertical annotation that provides a more technology-specific implementation of the at least one element.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the profile reader is configured to read the at least one annotation as being associated with a model of the profile meta-model, the model providing a horizontal annotation that provides an additional function to the at least one element and to at least another element provided by the query interpreter as a result to the query of the model repository.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the profile integrator is configured to execute a domain specific model (DSM) to annotate the one or more elements.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the profile integrator is configured to provide the annotated model to the model repository for re-query thereof by the query interpreter to determine at least one subsequent element that include the least one element, and configured to annotate the at least one subsequent element with at least a secondary annotation.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the system is configured to execute a Domain Specific Model (DSM) and comprising an extension manager configured to perform at least one additional annotation of the annotated model using a non-domain specific language providing one or more extensions to the DSL.

13. A method comprising:

querying a model repository to obtain one or more elements of at least one model associated with a software application and stored in the model repository;

reading, from a profile repository, at least one profile meta-model;

determining at least one annotation associated with the profile meta-model; and

annotating the one or more elements with the at least one annotation to obtain an annotated model.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein querying the model repository and annotating the one or more elements comprise using a domain specific language (DSL) to define a domain specific model (DSM), the DSM having a query portion and an annotation portion, respectively.

15. The method of claim 13 comprising repeating the querying, reading, determining, and annotating of the annotated model to obtain a secondary annotated model, wherein the annotated model and the secondary annotated model are annotated in separate domain spaces.

16. A computer program product tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium and including executable code that, when executed, is configured to cause a data processing apparatus to:

query a model repository to obtain one or more elements of at least one model associated with a software application and stored in the model repository;

read, from a profile repository, at least one profile meta-model;

determine at least one annotation associated with the profile meta-model; and

annotate the one or more elements with the at least one annotation to obtain an annotated model.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the executable code interprets a Domain Specific Model (DSM) having a query portion and an annotation portion.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the executable code includes an extension to the DSL provided in a non-domain specific language, wherein the extension provides for at least one additional annotation of the annotated model.

19. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the model includes a Unified Modeling Language (UML) model.

20. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the model is a Meta-Object Facility (MOF) layer MOF-3, MOF-2, or MOF-1, and wherein the profile meta-model is a lower layer of the MOF than the model.