VISUAL SOFTWARE MODELING METHOD TO CONSTRUCT SOFTWARE VIEWS BASED ON A SOFTWARE META VIEW

• US 20170139685A1
• Filed: 06/25/2015
• Published: 05/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Chengdu Puzhong Software Limted Company
• Original Assignee: Chengdu Puzhong Software Limted Company
• Inventors: FU, Changming, LONG, Chunsheng, TANG, Hong
• Application Number:
  US15/322,096
• Publication Number:
  US 20170139685A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/18 Network design, e.g. design based on topological or interconnect aspects of utility systems, piping, heating ventilation air conditioning [HVAC] or cabling circuit design at the physical level G06F30/39; network planning tools for wireless communication networks H04W16/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/35 model driven

Abstract

A visual software modeling method based on a software meta view for constructing software meta models. After determining basic components of the software meta view, the present invention constructs software views through the software hierarchy view, the software interface views, the software interaction views, the software algorithm view, the software process view, and the software transfer view as step features and thereby provides a specification for visual software modeling activities in various fields; such specification has advantages including generality and convenience; the software views constructed through the present invention is executable, has a clear structure, adjustable hierarchies, and controllable granularities for modeling; this method supports both top-down analysis and bottom-up integration for modeling in various software modeling; the modeling method is simple and full visual, thereby even those not skilled in any modeling language nor computer programming language can easily and independently construct the software view, eliminating the tedious and unnecessary communication with and dependence on professional modelers and application developers, greatly reducing modeling time.

Claims

1. A visual software modeling method based on a software meta view for constructing software views, by means of a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program code stored therein, the computer readable program code containing instructions executable by a processor of a computer software to implement a method of constructing software view by processing data conforming to the software meta view and describing the software view, the software view being a visual representation of a software model, the software meta view being a visual representation of a software meta model, the software meta view comprising:

a software hierarchy graph which represents the software hierarchy view of the software view in a tree structure whose nodes are software component class symbols and which is used as a template to be configured in an actual software modeling environment to form the software hierarchy view of the software view, wherein the software hierarchy view refers to a visual representation of the software hierarchy model, wherein the software component class symbol refers to a visual representation of a software component class, and wherein the tree structure, whose nodes are the software component class symbols, is referred as a software hierarchy tree;

a software interface graph which represents software interface views by an optional structure of an attribute symbol set, a function symbol set, and an event symbol set, the software interface graph is used as a template in the actual software modeling environment to be configured to form the software interface views, wherein the software interface views refers to a visual representation of a software interaction model, wherein the function symbols in the function symbol set include software interaction function symbols, software algorithm function symbols, and software process function symbols, wherein the software interaction function symbol is implemented by a software interaction view, wherein the software algorithm function symbol is implemented by a software algorithm view, and wherein the software process function symbol is implemented by a combination of software process views and software transfer views;

a software interaction graph which represents the software interaction views by a tree structure whose nodes are interaction symbols and which is used as a template in the actual software modeling environment to be configured to form the software interaction views, wherein the software interaction view refers to a visual representation of a software interaction model and the interaction symbol refers to a visual representation of an interaction element having an information interaction function with the actual software modeling environment;

a software algorithm graph which represents software algorithm views by a tree structure whose nodes are operator symbols and which is used as a template in the actual software modeling environment to be configured to form the software algorithm view, wherein the software algorithm view refers to a visual representation of a software algorithm model, and wherein the operator symbol refers to a visual representation of an operator;

a software process graph which represents software process views by combining action symbols as nodes and which is used as a template in the actual software modeling environment to configure the software process views, wherein the software process view refers to a visual representation of a software process model and wherein the action symbol refers to a visual representation of an action;

a software transfer graph which represents software transfer views by an input transfer symbol set and an output transfer symbol set which is used as a template in actual software modeling environment to be configured to form the software transfer views, wherein the software transfer view refers to a visual representation of a software transfer model and the transfer symbol refers to a visual representation of a transfer;

specific steps to construct the software view described by the six graphs being as follows;

1) constructing the software hierarchy view;

the software hierarchy graph reading in software hierarchy view commands from the actual software modeling environment, wherein the software hierarchy view command refers to command such as creating a software component class symbol, adding a software component class symbol, selecting a software component class symbol, naming a software component class symbol, or deleting a software component class symbol for the hierarchy tree and wherein the software hierarchy graph performs corresponding operations on the software component class symbol nodes in response to software hierarchy view commands to obtain the software hierarchy view;

2) constructing the software interface views;

constructing the software interface view for each software component class symbol of the software hierarchy view obtained in the step

     1), the steps for constructing each software interface view including;

the software interface graph reading in software interface view commands from the actual software modeling environment, wherein the software interface view command refers to command such as creating, naming, or deleting the attribute symbols, the function symbols, and the event symbols, wherein the software interface graph performs corresponding operations in response to the software interface view commands to obtain the software interface view, and wherein the software interaction views corresponding to the software interaction function symbols are constructed by step

     3), wherein the software algorithm views corresponding to the software algorithm function symbols are constructed by step

     4), and wherein the software process views corresponding to the software process function symbols are constructed by the step

     5);

3) constructing the software interactive views;

constructing the software interaction view for each software interaction function symbol obtained in the step

     2), steps for constructing each software interaction view including;

the software interaction graph reading in software interaction view commands from the actual software modeling environment;

4) constructing the software algorithm views;

constructing the software algorithm view for each software algorithm function symbol obtained in the step

     2), the steps for constructing each software algorithm view including;

the algorithm graph reading in software algorithm view commands from the actual software modeling environment;

5) constructing the software process views;

constructing the software process view for each software process function symbol obtained in the step

     2), the steps for constructing each software process view including;

the software process graph reading in software process view commands from the actual software modeling environment; and

6) constructing the software transfer views;

constructing the software transfer view for each action symbol in the software process view obtained in the step

     5), the steps for constructing each software transfer view including;

the software transfer graph reading in software transfer view commands from the actual software modeling environment, wherein the software transfer view command refers to the command such as adding a transfer symbol set, adding a transfer symbol set, or deleting a transfer symbol set and wherein the software transfer graph performs corresponding operations in response to the software transfer view commands to obtain the software transfer view,

thereby, the software view constructed by the software hierarchy view, the software interface views, the software interaction views, the software algorithm views, the software process views, and the software transfer views is accomplished.

2. The visual software modeling method based on the software meta view for constructing software views in claim 1, wherein a combination of the software process graph and the software transfer graph provide a universal means to represent and configure functions corresponding to the function symbols;

the software interaction graph provides a simplified alternative for replacing the combination of the software process graph and the software transfer graph if only interaction symbols are used to perform the combination to represent and configure function implementations.

3. The visual software modeling method based on the software meta view for constructing software views in claim 1, wherein a combination of the software process graph and the software transfer graph provide a universal means to represent and configure functions corresponding to the function symbols;

the software algorithm graph provides a simplified alternative for replacing the combination of the software process graph and the software transfer graph if only operator symbols are used to perform the combination to represent and configure function implementations.

4. The visual software modeling method based on the software meta view for constructing software views in claim 1, wherein the software meta view employs a parent-child structure as a base recursive unit to recursively describe the software view;

the parent-child structure refers to a structure of parent-child relationships in a software hierarchy tree, constituted by an involved software component class symbol and all child software component class symbols thereof.

5. The visual software modeling method based on the software meta view for constructing software views in claim 1, wherein the specific function symbol of the step 2) can only be any one of the software interaction function symbol, the software algorithm function symbol, and software process function symbol.

6. The visual software modeling method based on the software meta view for constructing software views in claim 1, wherein the software interaction view commands for constructing the software interaction view in the step 3) refer to commands, such as adding an interaction symbol, selecting an interaction symbol, naming an interaction symbol, and deleting an interaction symbol, and the software interaction graph performs corresponding operations in response to the software interaction view commands to obtain the software interaction view;

the interaction symbols include operator interaction symbols and component interaction symbols;

the operator interaction symbol refers to a visual representation of an operator interaction element and the component interaction symbol refers to a visual representation of a component interaction element, the tree structure whose nodes are the interaction symbols is referred to as an interaction tree.

7. The visual software modeling method based on the software meta view for constructing software views in claim 1, wherein the software algorithm view commands for constructing the software algorithm view in the step 4) refer to commands, such as adding an operator symbol, selecting an operator symbol, naming an operator symbol, and deleting an operator symbol, as well as adding an assignment symbol, selecting an assignment symbol, and deleting an assignment symbol, and the software algorithm graph performs corresponding operations in response to the software algorithm view commands to obtain the software algorithm view;

the operator symbols include logic operator symbols and computation operator symbols;

the tree structure whose nodes are the operator symbols is referred to as an algorithm tree;

the assignment symbol refers to an assignment relationship representation between two attribute symbols in a set of the algorithm attribute symbols; and

the set of the algorithm attribute symbols refers to a collection constituted by a set of attribute symbols of the involved software component class symbols, a set of attribute symbols of all operator symbols, and a set of attribute symbols of all interaction symbols in the software interaction view.

8. The visual software modeling method based on the software meta view for constructing software views in claim 1, wherein the software process view commands for constructing the software process view in step 5) refer to commands such as adding an action symbol, selecting an action symbol, naming an action symbol, and deleting an action symbol, and the software process graph performs a corresponding operation in response to the software process view commands to obtain the software process view;

the action symbols include both component action symbols and operator action symbols;

the component action symbol, as a visual representation of a component action, refers to one use of a function symbol in the function symbol set in the parent-child structure, the function symbol set in the parent-child structure refers to a collection constituted by the function symbol set of the involved software component class symbol and function symbol sets of all child software component class symbols in the parent-child structure;

the operator action symbol, as a visual representation of an operator action, refers to one use of an operator symbol;

the software process views include both the attribute process views and the event process views, the software process graph includes both the attribute process graphs and the event process graphs, and the attribute process graph describes the attribute process view through a process tree as the structure, which is a tree structure constituted by action symbols as nodes;

the event process graph describes the event process view by a set of event association symbols as the structure;

the event association symbol in the set of event association symbols is an association relationship between an event symbol in a set of event symbols in a parent-child structure and an operator action symbol or a component action symbol;

the event symbol set in the parent-child structure is a collection constituted by the event symbol set of the involved software component class symbol and the event symbol sets of all interaction symbols in the interaction views thereof and the event symbol sets of all child software component class symbols and the event symbol sets of all interaction symbols in the interaction view thereof, in the parent-child structure.

9. The visual software modeling method based on the software meta view for constructing software views in claim 1, wherein, besides the action attribute symbols which refers to the attribute symbols of the component class symbols where the action symbol is, the attribute symbols relevant to the transfer symbols are limited to the parent-child attribute symbol set, which refers to a collection constituted by all attribute symbol sets of the involved software component class symbols and all attribute symbol sets of all child software component class symbols thereof in the parent-child structure.