NON-INTRUSIVE MODEL ANNOTATION

• US 20100083212A1
• Filed: 09/26/2008
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Gilani, Wasif, Fritzsche, Mathias
• Granted Patent: US 8,145,468 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming

Abstract

Development models of software applications may be annotated with additional information and transformed within a transformation chain into a resulting model that may be used to evaluate the development model, for example, for simulation and/or performance support of the development model. By relating elements of the development model through the transformation chain to elements of the resulting model, the evaluation may be performed with respect to the resulting/transformed model, but provided to a user in terms of the original development model. In this way, a user of the development model may work with the more-familiar development model, without having to alter the development model directly in order to obtain the evaluation.

Claims

1. A system comprising

an annotation engine configured to input a development model of a software application and associate annotations with elements of the development model, and configured to provide links between each annotation and its associated element to thereby output a composition model;

a transformation manager configured to coordinate at least two transformation engines within a transformation chain, each transformation engine associated with an input model and a transformed model, wherein at least one of the transformation engines is configured to receive the composition model in association with a corresponding input model and output an annotated, transformed model based thereon;

a trace model manager configured to coordinate at least two trace model generators for generating trace models, each trace model associated with a corresponding transformation engine and relating source elements of a corresponding input model to target elements of a corresponding transformed model, wherein the trace model manager is configured to track a relationship between each of the at least two trace models and each corresponding input model and transformed model; and

a simulation manager configured to execute a simulator associated with one of the at least two transformation engines and configured to receive a corresponding transformed model therefrom as a simulation model, based on the annotated, transformed model, and configured to output a simulation of the simulation model including simulation results;

wherein the trace manager is configured to associate elements of the simulation with elements of the development model, to thereby provide a simulation of the development model in which the simulation results are provided in the context of the development model.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the trace manager is configured to execute a model-to-model (M2M) navigation model tracking relationships between the trace models and their respective source elements and target elements, and configured to associate the elements of the simulation with elements of the development model based thereon.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the annotations include performance annotations characterizing a performance of the development model.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein performance data of the composition model is obtained from one or both of an actual or simulated execution of the development model.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the simulation represents execution of the development model with respect to the performance parameters.

6. The system of claim 3 comprising:

an assessment engine configured to determine optimizations of the simulation results, based on one or more decision support models.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the development model includes nodes and branches joining the nodes to define an execution of the software application.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one transformation engine is configured to implement one of the at least two trace model generators and thereby to generate an associated trace model in conjunction with performing the transformation of the associated input and transformed model, based on a transformation model of the at least one transformation engine.

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

input a development model of a software application and associate annotations with elements of the development model, and provide links between each annotation and its associated element to obtain a composition model;

coordinate at least two transformation engines within a transformation chain, each transformation engine associated with an input model and a transformed model, wherein at least one of the transformation engines is configured to receive the composition model in association with a corresponding input model and output an annotated, transformed model based thereon;

coordinate at least two trace model generators for generating trace models, each trace model associated with a corresponding transformation engine and relating source elements of a corresponding input model to target elements of a corresponding transformed model;

track relationships between each of the at least two trace models and each corresponding input model and transformed model;

execute a simulator associated with one of the at least two transformation engines and configured to receive a corresponding transformed model therefrom as a simulation model, based on the annotated, transformed model, and configured to output a simulation of the simulation model including simulation results;

associate elements of the simulation with elements of the development model, using the relationships; and

provide a simulation of the development model in which the simulation results are provided in the context of the development model.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the relationships are used to associate the elements of the simulation with the elements of the development model, using a model-to-model (M2M) navigation model to track associations between the trace models and their respective source elements and target elements.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the annotations include performance annotations characterizing a performance of the development model.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein performance data of the composition model is obtained from one or both of an actual or simulated execution of the development model.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the simulation represents execution of the development model with respect to the performance parameters.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the executable code, when executed, is configured to determine optimizations of the simulation results, based on one or more decision support models.

15. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein at least one transformation engine is configured to implement one of the at least two trace model generators and thereby to generate an associated trace model in conjunction with performing the transformation of the associated input and transformed model, based on a transformation model of the at least one transformation engine.

16. A method comprising:

receiving a development model of a software application and associate annotations with elements of the development model, and provide links between each annotation and its associated element to obtain a composition model;

coordinating at least two transformation engines within a transformation chain, each transformation engine associated with an input model and a transformed model, wherein at least one of the transformation engines is configured to receive the composition model in association with a corresponding input model and output an annotated, transformed model based thereon;

coordinating at least two trace model generators for generating trace models, each trace model associated with a corresponding transformation engine and relating source elements of a corresponding input model to target elements of a corresponding transformed model;

tracking relationships between each of the at least two trace models and each corresponding input model and transformed model;

executing a simulator associated with one of the at least two transformation engines and configured to receive a corresponding transformed model therefrom as a simulation model, based on the annotated, transformed model, and configured to output a simulation of the simulation model including simulation results;

associating elements of the simulation with elements of the development model, using the relationships; and

providing a simulation of the development model in which the simulation results are provided in the context of the development model.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the tracking relationships between each of the at least two trace models and each corresponding input model and transformed model comprises:

using the relationships to associate the elements of the simulation with the elements of the development model, using a model-to-model (M2M) navigation model to track associations between the trace models and their respective source elements and target elements.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the annotations include performance annotations characterizing a performance of the development model.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein performance data of the composition model is obtained from one or both of an actual or simulated execution of the development model.

20. The method of claim 18, comprising:

determining optimizations of the simulation results, based on one or more decision support models.

21. A system comprising

an annotation engine configured to input a development model of a software application and associate annotations with elements of the development model, and configured to provide links between each annotation and its associated element to thereby output a composition model;

a transformation manager configured to coordinate transformation engines within a transformation chain, each transformation engine configured to transform the development model, or subsequent transformations thereof, into a transformed model, and

an evaluation engine configured to receive the composition model and an output model of the transformation chain, and configured to determine a relation of the output model to the development model for evaluation of the development model therewith.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the evaluation engine is configured to determine the relation using a plurality of trace models, each trace model being associated with one of the transformation engines and relating source elements of a corresponding input model thereof to target elements of a corresponding transformed model.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the evaluation engine is configured to use the plurality of trace models to determine the relation by using a model-to-model (M2M) navigation model to track associations between the trace models and their respective transformation engines.

24. The system of claim 21 wherein the annotations include performance-related annotations, and wherein the evaluation engine includes a simulator configured to output a performance simulation of the output model in which elements of the output model are related to elements of the development model for providing performance-related information about at least some of the elements of the development model.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the evaluation engine includes a performance assessment engine that is configured to receive decision support models for use in providing decision support in potential modifications of the elements of the development model during the performance simulation.