Your browser does not support JavaScript!
http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com
1887

Bridging WebML to model-driven engineering: from document type definitions to meta object facility

Bridging WebML to model-driven engineering: from document type definitions to meta object facility

For access to this article, please select a purchase option:

Buy article PDF
£12.50
(plus tax if applicable)
Add to cart
Buy Knowledge Pack
10 articles for £75.00
(plus taxes if applicable)
Add to cart

IET members benefit from discounts to all IET publications and free access to E&T Magazine. If you are an IET member, log in to your account and the discounts will automatically be applied.

Learn more about IET membership 

Recommend Title Publication to library

You must fill out fields marked with: *

Librarian details
Name:*
Email:*
Your details
Name:*
Email:*
Department:*
Why are you recommending this title?
Select reason:
 
 
 
 
 
IET Software — Recommend this title to your library

Thank you

Your recommendation has been sent to your librarian.

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology
Published

Meta-models are a prerequisite for model-driven engineering (MDE) in general and consequently for model-driven web engineering in particular. Various web modelling languages, however, are not based on meta-models and standards, like object management group's prominent meta object facility (MOF). Instead they define proprietary languages rather focused on notational aspects. Thus, MDE techniques and tools cannot be deployed for such languages preventing to exploit the full potential of MDE in terms of standardised storage, exchange and transformation of models. The WebML web modelling language is one example that does not yet rely on an explicit meta-model in the sense of MDE. Instead, it is defined in terms of a document type definition (DTD), and implicitly within the accompanying tool. Code generation then has to rely on model-to-code transformations based of extensible stylesheet language transformations (XSLT). We propose a meta-model for WebML to bridge WebML to MDE. To establish such a meta-model, instead of remodelling WebML's meta-model from scratch, a semi-automatic approach is provided that allows generating MOF-based meta-models on the basis of DTDs. The meta-model for WebML accomplishes the following aims: first, it represents an initial step towards a transition to employ MDE techniques within the WebML design methodology. Second, the provision of a MOF-based meta-model ensures interoperability with other MDE tools. Third, it represents an important step towards a common meta-model for Web modelling in future.

Inspec keywords: software engineering; XML; Unified Modeling Language; data models

Other keywords: WebML; meta object facility; document type definitions; web modelling languages; model-driven engineering; model-to-code transformations

Subjects: High level languages; Software engineering techniques; Formal methods

References

    1. 1)
      • Object Management Group (OMG), `UML Specification: Superstructure Version 2.0', 2005, Available at http://www.omg.org/docs/formal/05-07-04.pdf.
    2. 2)
      • Rational Software Corporation, `Migrating from XML DTD to XML Schema using UML. Rational Software White Paper', 2000, Available at: http://www.rational.com/media/whitepapers/TP189draft.pdf.
    3. 3)
      • Kappel, G., Kapsammer, E., Kargl, H., Kramler, G., Reiter, T., Retschitzegger, W., Schwinger, W., Wimmer, M.: `Lifting metamodels to ontologies – a step to the semantic integration of modeling languages', Proc. Int. Conf. on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, October 2006, Genova, Italy, p. 528–542.
    4. 4)
      • G. Kappel , E. Kapsammer , W. Retschitzegger . Integrating XML and relational database systems. World Wide Web J. , 4 , 343 - 384
    5. 5)
      • O. Pastor , J. Fons , V. Pelechano , S. Abrahao , E. Mendes , N. Mosley . (2006) Conceptual modelling of web applications: the OOWS approach, Web engineering: theory and practice of metrics and measurement for web development.
    6. 6)
      • Schauerhuber, A., Wimmer, M., Kapsammer, E.: `Bridging existing web modeling languages to model-driven engineering: a metamodel for WebML', Proc. Workshop on Model-Driven Web Engineering, July 2006, Palo Alto, USA, Article No. 5.
    7. 7)
      • L. Baresi , S. Colazzo , L. Mainetti , S. Morasca , E. Mendes , N. Mosley . (2006) W2000: a modeling notation for complex web applications, Web engineering: theory and practice of metrics and measurement for web development.
    8. 8)
      • S. Comai , P. Fraternali . (2001) A semantic model for specifying data-intensive Web applications using WebML.
    9. 9)
      • Object Management Group (OMG), `Meta Object Facility (MOF) Specification Version 1.4', 2002, Available at: http://www.omg.org/docs/formal/02-04-03.pdf.
    10. 10)
      • F. Budinsky , D. Steinberg , E. Merks , R. Ellersick , T.J. Grose . (2004) Eclipse modeling framework.
    11. 11)
      • De Troyer, O., Casteleyn, S., Plessers, P.: `Using ORM to model web systems', Proc. Int. Workshop on Object-Role Modeling, October–November 2005, Agia Napa, Cyprus, p. 700–709.
    12. 12)
      • Vitali, F., Di Iorio, A., Gubellini, D.: `Design patterns for descriptive document substructures', Proc. Extreme Markup Languages 2005, August 2005, Montréal, Canada, Available at: http://www.idealliance.org/papers/extreme/Proceedings/html/2005/Vitali01/EML2005Vitali01.html.
    13. 13)
      • C. Atkinson , T. Kühne . Model-driven development: a metamodeling foundation. IEEE Software , 5 , 36 - 41
    14. 14)
      • D. Lee , W. Chu . Comparative analysis of six XML schema languages. ACM SIGMOD Record , 3 , 76 - 87
    15. 15)
      • J. Bézivin . On the unification power of models. Software Syst. Model. , 2 , 171 - 188
    16. 16)
      • P.P. Chen . The entity-relationship model – toward a unified view of data. ACM TODS , 1 , 9 - 36
    17. 17)
      • S. Ceri , F. Daniel , M. Matera , F. Facca . Model-driven development of context-aware web applications. ACM TOIT , 1
    18. 18)
      • Schauerhuber, A.: `aspectUWA: applying aspect-orientation to the model-driven development of ubiquitous web applications', Int. Conf. on Aspect-Oriented Software Development: Poster Event, March 2006, Bonn, Germany, Available at: http://www.wit.at/people/schauerhuber/aspectuwa.
    19. 19)
      • Jouault, F., Kurtev, I.: `Transforming models with ATL', Proc. MoDELS Satellite Events 2005, October 2005, Montego Bay, Jamaica, p. 128–138.
    20. 20)
      • Brambilla, M., Comai, S., Fraternali, P.: `Hypertext semantics for web applications', SEBD Italian National Conf. on DataBase Systems, June 2002, Portoferraio, p. 73–86.
    21. 21)
      • Ma, H., Shao, W., Zhang, L., Ma, Z., Jiang, Y.: `Applying OO metrics to assess UML meta-models', Proc. Int. Conf. on the Unified Modelling Language, October 2004, Lisbon, Portugal, p. 12–26.
    22. 22)
      • S. Ceri , P. Fraternali , A. Bangio , M. Brambilla , S. Comai , M. Matera . (2003) Designing data-intensive web applications.
    23. 23)
      • Koch, N., Kraus, A.: `Towards a common metamodel for the development of web applications', Proc. Int. Conf. on Web Engineering, July 2003, Oviedo, Spain, p. 497–506.
    24. 24)
      • Garrigós, I., Casteleyn, S., Gómez, J.: `A structured approach to personalize websites using the OO-H personalization framework', Proc. Asia-Pacific Web Conf., March–April 2005, Shangai, China, p. 695–706.
    25. 25)
      • Moreno, N., Fraternali, P., Vallecillo, A.: `A UML 2.0 Profile for WebML modeling', Proc. Workshop on Model-Driven Web Engineering, July 2006, Palo Alto, USA, Article No. 4.
    26. 26)
      • Object Management Group (OMG), `MOF 2.0/XMI mapping specification, v2.1', 2005, Available at: http://www.omg.org/docs/formal/05-09-01.pdf.
    27. 27)
      • G. Booch , M. Christerson , M. Fuchs , J. Koistinen . (1999) UML for XML Schema Mapping Specification.
    28. 28)
      • M. Brambilla , S. Ceri , P. Fraternali , I. Manolescu . Process modeling in web applications. ACM TOSEM
    29. 29)
      • Lämmel, R., Meijer, E.: `Mappings make data processing go ‘round', Pre-proc. Int. Summer School on Generative and Transformation Techniques in Software Engineering, July 2006, Braga, Portugal, p. 240–290.
    30. 30)
      • QVT-Merge Group, `Revised submission for MOF 2.1 Query/View/Transformation', 2005, Available at: http://www.omg.org/docs/ad/05-07-01.pdf.
    31. 31)
      • Baresi, L., Garzotto, F., Maritati, M.: `W2000 as a MOF metamodel', Proc. World Multiconf. on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics – Web Engineering track, July 2002, Orlando, USA.
    32. 32)
      • I. Manolescu , M. Brambilla , S. Ceri , S. Comai , P. Fraternali . Model-driven design and deployment of service-enabled web applications. ACM TOIT , 3 , 439 - 479
    33. 33)
      • Object Management Group (OMG), `Meta object facility (MOF) 2.0 core specification version 2.0', 2004, Available at: http://www.omg.org/docs/ptc/04-10-15.pdf.
    34. 34)
      • Object Management Group (OMG), `UML Specification Version 1.4', 2001, Available at: http://www.omg.org/docs/formal/01-09-67.pdf.
    35. 35)
      • M. Wimmer , A. Schauerhuber , E. Kapsammer . (2006) From Document Type Definitions to Metamodels – The WebML Case Study.
    36. 36)
      • P.-A. Muller , P. Studer , F. Fondement , J. Bézivin . Platform independent Web application modeling and development with Netsilon. Software Syst. Model. , 4 , 424 - 442
    37. 37)
      • World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), `XML Schema Part 0: Primer (Second Edition)', 2004, Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-0/.
    38. 38)
      • G. Rossi , D. Schwabe , E. Mendes , N. Mosley . (2006) Model-based web application development, Web engineering: theory and practice of metrics and measurement for web development.
    39. 39)
      • F. Garzotto , P. Paolini , D. Schwabe . HDM – a model-based approach to hypertext application design. ACM TOIS , 1 , 1 - 26
    40. 40)
      • Object Management Group (OMG), `OCL Specification Version 2.0', 2005, Available at: http://www.omg.org/ docs/ptc/05-06-06.pdf.
    41. 41)
      • World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), `XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.0', November 1999, Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt/.
    42. 42)
      • World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), `Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1 (Second Edition)', 2006, Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/xml11/.
http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1049/iet-sen_20060066
Loading

Related content

content/journals/10.1049/iet-sen_20060066
pub_keyword,iet_inspecKeyword,pub_concept
6
6
Loading
Print this page
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address