Abstract
Separation of concerns and levels of abstraction are key software engineering principles that can help master the increasing complexity of software applications. Aspect-oriented modeling (AOM) and domain-specific modeling languages (DSML) are two important and promising approaches in this context. However, little research is done to investigate the synergy between AOM and DSMLs. In this paper we present an asymmetric approach to compose modularized concerns expressed in different DSMLs with an application base model expressed in a general-purpose modeling language (GPML). This allows to specify each concern in the most appropriate modeling language. We introduce the concept of a concern interface, expressed in a GPML, that serves as a common language between a specific concern and the application base. In addition, we use an explicit composition model to specify the syntactic and the semantic links between entities from the different concerns. We explore these concepts using an application where we modularize the user interface modeled in WebML and the access control specified in XACML. The modularized concerns are then composed with an application base that has been specified in UML.
The described work is part of the EUREKA-ITEA EVOLVE project, and is partially funded by the Flemish government institution IWT (Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders), by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme Belgian State, Belgian Science Policy, and by the Research Fund K.U.Leuven.
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Hovsepyan, A., Van Baelen, S., Berbers, Y., Joosen, W. (2009). Specifying and Composing Concerns Expressed in Domain-Specific Modeling Languages. In: Oriol, M., Meyer, B. (eds) Objects, Components, Models and Patterns. TOOLS EUROPE 2009. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 33. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02571-6_8
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