A Domain Composition Approach
Jacky Estublier, Anca Daniela Ioniţă, Germán Vega · Software Engineering Research and Practice · 2005
Domain engineering is a very efficient approach, for narrow and stable domains. Unfortunately, building a widescope application often involves crosscutting several domains. The paper addresses the issues related to the creation of large applications, by composing existing domains. The approach specificity stands in reusing domains, without changing or adapting them, even when they have been independently designed and implemented. The solution consists of establishing relationships between formal, executable, domain models. Our approach relies on the research and experience gained when using UML relationships (with their implications in structural and behavioral views) and the various approaches for transforming UML models into code. Domain composition requires new kinds of relationships between concepts from different domains and a new methodology for defining and implementing them. The paper shows the issues addressed in our federation architecture and the solutions found in environment Melusine, that implements it. On the basis of the experience achieved in developing composite domains for industrial applications, a preliminary methodology for establishing inter-domain relationships was identified.