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Feature-based classification of bidirectional transformation approaches

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Abstract

Bidirectional model transformation is a key technology in model-driven engineering (MDE), when two models that can change over time have to be kept constantly consistent with each other. While several model transformation tools include at least a partial support to bidirectionality, it is not clear how these bidirectional capabilities relate to each other and to similar classical problems in computer science, from the view update problem in databases to bidirectional graph transformations. This paper tries to clarify and visualize the space of design choices for bidirectional transformations from an MDE point of view, in the form of a feature model. The selected list of existing approaches are characterized by mapping them to the feature model. Then, the feature model is used to highlight some unexplored research lines in bidirectional transformations.

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Notes

  1. Here, we consider consistency among artifacts. We also mention consistency between forward and backward transformations in Sect. 3.4.7.

  2. A more general scheme may be considered—synchronization with respect to transformation \(f\) achieved by the function \(\mathsf {sync}_f : S \times S \times T \rightarrow S \times T\) which takes the original source \(s\), updated source and updated target (original target is equal to \(f(s)\) so is not in the signature) and returns a pair of updated source and target. All our discussion can be generalized to this scheme, so we will discuss it explicitly only when needed, i.e., in Sect. 3.4.7.

  3. TGG also provides theoretical foundations for operation-based execution. The feasibility of this approach is shown in [24].

  4. The kind of change on the other artifacts that reflect the change made by the user is not necessarily the same as the kind of the change made by the user.

  5. Apart from the updatability of the target discussed in [45].

  6. We did not include commercial tools such as Microsoft BizTalk Server [48] and tools from ERP frameworks [33] for transforming structured data. Although these tools may belong to technical spaces other than the ones we have considered, our classification approach may also be applied.

  7. In pure TGG, there must be a bijection between source and target patterns [25]. There are literature on an implementation of a variant of TGG that explicitly address non-bijective usages [34], but formal bidirectional properties were not the scope of the paper.

  8. It is possible to use TGG for specifying bidirectional transformations with non-bijective consistency relations [54].

  9. Implementation is available at http://topps.diku.dk/pirc/?id=janus.

  10. Feature equations are validated against the presented feature model using the tool FeatureIDE [38].

    Table 2 Characterization of systems using proposed features
    Full size table

  11. Becker et al. [4] reported a TGG implementation with a specific focus on user interactions, but we could not find implementation that is publicly available currently.

  12. http://www.emn.fr/z-info/atlanmod/index.php/Bidirectional_Transformations.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful feedback on our paper and Frédéric Jouault, Keisuke Nakano, Kazutaka Matsuda, Hiroyuki Kato, Kazuhiro Inaba for their valuable comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this research. We would also like to thank Fabian Büttner for comments on earlier version of this paper. We also would like to thank participants of BIRS workshop on Bi-directional transformations (BX)—Theory and Applications Across Disciplines (13w5115), especially Alcino Cunha and the other members of the working group on Benchmarking Bidirectional Transformations, for inspiring discussions. This research has been supported by the EU FP7 MONDO project and the MOU grant from National Institute of Informatics.

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  1. National Institute of Informatics, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Tokyo, Japan

    Soichiro Hidaka & Zhenjiang Hu

  2. AtlanMod team (Inria, Mines Nantes, LINA), 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44307, Nantes, France

    Massimo Tisi & Jordi Cabot

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  1. Soichiro Hidaka
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Correspondence to Soichiro Hidaka.

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Communicated by Prof. Krzysztof Czarnecki.

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Hidaka, S., Tisi, M., Cabot, J. et al. Feature-based classification of bidirectional transformation approaches. Softw Syst Model 15, 907–928 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-014-0450-0

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