Using component frameworks for model transformations by an internal DSL
Georg Hinkel, Jens Happe · 2014
Abstract. To increase the development productivity, possibilities for reuse, maintainability and quality of complex model transformations, modularization techniques are indispensable. Component-Based Software Engineering targets the challenge of modularity and is well-established in languages like Java or C # with component models like.NET, EJB or OSGi. There are still many challenging barriers to overcome in cur-rent model transformation languages to provide comparable support for component-based development of model transformations. Therefore, this paper provides a pragmatic solution based on NMF Transformations, a model transformation language realized as an internal DSL embedded in C#. An internal DSL can take advantage of the whole expressiveness and tooling build for the well established and known host language. In this work, we use the component model of the.NET platform to rep-resent reusable components of model transformations to support inter-nal and external model transformation composition. The transformation components are hidden behind transformation rule interfaces that can be exchanged dynamically through configuration. Using this approach we illustrate the possibilities to tackle typical issues of integrity and ver-sioning, such as detecting versioning conflicts for model transformations. 1