Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 127 (2005) 27–36 www.elsevier.com/locate/entcs
UML Statechart Diagrams on the ADONIS Metamodeling Platform Hans-Georg Fill1 Department of Knowledge Engineering University of Vienna Vienna, Austria
Abstract The metamodeling platform ADONIS has originally been implemented for the use in business process management. Its method independency and extensive customization functionalities also allow for the application in many different other areas such as strategic management, e-learning, object-oriented systems engineering, knowledge management, and numerous others. In computer science the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the dominating standard for describing systems and behaviours. In this article it is shown how the abstract and concrete syntax of UML statechart diagrams can be described by the use of the metamodeling concepts of ADONIS. Keywords: statechart diagrams, metamodeling, business process management, UML
1
Introduction
The original motivation for the research and development that led to the implementation of the ADONIS 2 metamodeling platform as it exists today can be described as follows: the support of different frameworks which enable the modeling of current and anticipated future business application needs, the integration of the existing and the new information technology enterprise environment, and the provision of a continuous performance method for assessment and improvement of the running business [7]. Around ten years ago 1
Email:
[email protected] ADONIS is a commercial product and a registered trademark of BOC InformationTechnologies Consulting GmbH 2
1571-0661/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.entcs.2004.12.028
28
H.-G. Fill / Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 127 (2005) 27–36
when the research for ADONIS started at the University of Vienna most of the software tools that existed for business process management at this time had the disadvantage of being restricted to specific, not-modifiable methods and components [5]. The idea behind ADONIS was to develop a software toolkit that provided method-independence and could be adapted to the individual needs of a customer i.e. the user. Following these guidelines ADONIS was implemented by BOC, a spin-off company of the University of Vienna, based on the concepts of metamodeling and has since then been very successfully deployed in the field of business process management, process-oriented application development, and numerous other application areas such as for example strategic management, e-learning or knowledge management [5,8,9,13]). 1.1
Related Work
The basic relationships of the syntax and semantics of modeling languages that are also relevant for this paper have been described besides others by Harel and Rumpe [2] who also put a special emphasis on UML. The Meta Object Facility and the Model Driven Architecture specifications of the OMG [20,19] can be regarded as an official attempt to consolidate the different approaches in metamodeling and will be both very relevant in the future. As the development of ADONIS already took place at a time when these specifications were still in a very early stage they have not been used for the past versions of the product - nevertheless as the need for standardization grows they might be integrated in future versions. A similar commercial product that uses metamodels for defining modeling languages is the Metacase MetaEdit+ toolkit [14] that also provides support for UML models. Further commercial toolkits for UML modeling that could be compared to ADONIS would be Borland Together [22], IBM Rational Software [4], Gentleware Poseidon for UML [1] or Microsoft Visio [15]. This paper is organized as follows: chapter 2 explains the characteristics of modeling methods as referred to in this paper, chapter 3 describes the modeling hierarchy and architecture of ADONIS and chapter 4 outlines the implementation of statechart diagrams in ADONIS with special emphasis on the abstract and concrete syntax.
2
Modeling methods
Today several types of modeling methods exist that are used in the area of business and information technology. They are either shaped to a specific field of application such as for example models for strategic management (e.g.
H.-G. Fill / Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 127 (2005) 27–36
29
[13]), business process and organisational management (e.g. [5,11]) or workflow models (e.g. [3,6,12]) or can be used for object-oriented systems engineering like the models of the UML [16]. According to Karagiannis et al. [10] modeling methods consist of two components: (i) A Modeling Technique and (ii) Mechanisms and Algorithms Modeling techniques can be further divided into a modeling language and a modeling procedure. The modeling language contains the elements for generating models and is described by its syntax, semantics, and notation (e.g. textual or graphical). The modeling procedure explains how the modeling language is applied to generate instances of models [10].
Fig. 1. Relationship of metamodels and meta-languages [10]
To describe the modeling language one approach is to define a metamodel as a model of the modeling language [20]. Thereby a hierarchy of modeling languages is built where a (meta-)modeling language in one layer describes the modeling language in the underlying layer [21]. The hierarchy of these modeling languages is theoretically not limited to a certain level nevertheless a useful level of abstraction has to be found [10]. Illustration 1 depicts these relationships graphically where the bottom level is the original that symbolizes the target point for all modeling ventures.
3
ADONIS Modeling Hierarchy and Architecture
The ADONIS metamodeling platform is based on a modeling hierarchy (see Figure 2) that is one possible instance of the theoretical considerations explained above. The ADONIS modeling hierarchy consists of three layers [5]: (i) the ADONIS meta-meta (meta2 ) model,
30
H.-G. Fill / Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 127 (2005) 27–36
(ii) the ADONIS metamodel and (iii) a concrete model instance of the metamodel. The meta-metamodel is implemented in C++. Modifications of the metametamodel can only be executed by ADONIS developers. By instanciating the meta-metamodel ADONIS metamodels (eg the basic metamodel for Business Process Management) are created that are described in the language ALL (ADONIS Library Language). From these metamodels further individual metamodels can be derived. Figure 3 shows an excerpt of the ADONIS meta-metamodel.
Fig. 2. ADONIS Modeling hierarchy [5]
For the creation of individual metamodels in ADONIS a user can specify classes and relationclasses as well as their attributes thereby defining the syntax of the modeling language. The semantics of the modeling language can either be specified in textual notation by adding attributes to the relevant classes and relationclasses or by additional mechanisms and algorithms that can be coded in AdoScript, the scripting language of ADONIS, and also included in the ALL descriptions. The standard configuration of ADONIS contains a model editor, a simulation component for simulating business processes, and an analysis and evaluation component for querying and evaluating objects, relationships and their attributes. The graphical notation of ADONIS is graph-based, the visualization of the classes (i.e. the nodes) and the relationclasses (i.e. the edges) can be defined by a specific graphical representation grammar (GraphRep) that also allows for dynamic state changes based on attribute values. The instances of the metamodels (i.e. the models) are either described in the ADONIS definition language ADL or in XML.
H.-G. Fill / Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 127 (2005) 27–36
31
Fig. 3. Excerpt of the ADONIS meta-metamodel [5]
The software architecture of ADONIS is realized as a three-tier-architecture consisting of the database facilities and ADONIS core components, the logical layer containing the application components (e.g. modeling, analysis, simulation and evaluation components) and the user-interface layer [5].
4
UML Statechart diagrams in ADONIS
In the following it shall be referred to the ADONIS UML library version 2.1 together with ADONIS version 3.6 that contains metamodels allowing for the representation of activity, class, collaboration, component, deployment, package, sequence, statechart, and use case diagrams of UML [16]. 4.1
Abstract syntax
In its current implementation the modeltype State Diagram of the ADONIS UML library contains seven modeling elements (start, state, end, selfdelegation, note, ’has successor’ and ’has note’) to represent the basic entities of the proposed structure of the UML notation guide for statechart diagrams [16, pp.3-136 – 3-150]. The selfdelegation class is a specificity for the representation in ADONIS to allow for the modeling of transitions that have their start and end point directed to the same state. The State Diagram modeltype is part of the ADONIS UML library which contains a user-defined class hierarchy based on the ADONIS metamodel. The modeling element State shall be used as an example to show how
32
H.-G. Fill / Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 127 (2005) 27–36
modeling elements are defined (the complete listing of the ALL source code is omitted here due to the limitations of space): The ADONIS metamodel defines a class modelElement that is derived from a pre-defined ADONIS metaclass (GP-Konstrukt 3 ) and provides a set of attributes and default values for creating modeling elements. From modelElement a user-defined class is derived named stateElement that serves as a meta-class for the classes representing the statechart elements e.g. the State modeling element. The modeltype State Diagram contains two relationclasses has successor and has note. The classes and the relationclasses are interconnected by ’Is From Class’ and ’Is To Class’ relationships that define which relationclass connects which classes respectively meta-classes. Both the classes and the relationclasses can have sets of attributes that can be further constrained by facets. Classattributes signify attributes that contain common values for all instances of the referenced class or relationclass. In Example 4.1 the ALL code is shown that corresponds to the definition of the modelElement class, the stateElement class, and the State class as well as the definition of the has successor relationclass. The classes from the ADONIS metamodel are symbolized by double underscores. Example 4.1 ALL excerpt for the syntax definition of state diagram classes: //... CLASS : < GP-Konstrukt > //... CLASS : //... CLASS : //... RELATIONCLASS FROM TO
Within the State class several attributes are defined (additional to the attributes inherited from the meta-classes) that are relevant for the specific behaviour of the class. Among them are classattributes for the description of the graphical representation (GraphRep-attribute), the enumeration of attributes that can be modified by the user in the modeling environment (AttrRep-attribute) or the restriction of cardinalities to other objects. Example 4.2 shows the ALL syntax definition for the two classattributes GraphRep and Klassenkardinali¨ at(class cardinality). In comparison to currently discussed proposals respectively already exist3
This metaclass is part of the ADONIS business process metamodel that has also been used as the basic metamodel for the UML library.
H.-G. Fill / Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 127 (2005) 27–36
33
ing specifications for the standardization of the abstract and concrete syntax of UML models [17,18] ADONIS integrates the definition of the graphical representation into the metamodel description thereby allowing for the possibility to inherently define the graphical representation of each object as well as to link properties of the graphical representation directly to classes and attributes of the metamodel. This leads to advantages especially for the display and editing of models in the ADONIS model editor that requires additional information to correctly display and edit the models (e.g. about the layout or the context of the respective model). Example 4.2 Excerpt of the ALL code definition of classattributes: //... CLASSATTRIBUTE VALUE " GRAPHREP SHADOW off FILL color:black ELLIPSE rx:0.15cm ry:0.15cm AVAL d:’Darstellung’ IF (d = \"mit Namen\") ATTR \"Name\" y:-.2cm w:c h:b ENDIF" //... CLASSATTRIBUTE VALUE "CARDINALITIES RELATION \"has successor\" max-outgoing:1 max-incoming:0" //...
4.2
Concrete syntax
The concrete syntax for instances of statechart diagrams in ADONIS can be described either in the ADONIS Definition Language ADL or in XML based on the ADONIS Document Type Definition for XML models. ADONIS provides both import and export components for these languages. The next release of ADONIS (3.8) that was not yet available at the time of writing this paper will include XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) functionalities for UML that allows for the exchange of UML models with other tools based on the UML metadata profiles of the OMG. In example 4.3 an excerpt of the ADL Syntax is shown. The TYPE element specifies the model type and includes additional attributes for describing the model specific information such as the author of the model, the date and time of creation or settings for the visual representation. The INSTANCE elements define concrete instances of the modeling elements specified in the metamodel with attributes specific to the ADONIS modeling environment (e.g.
34
H.-G. Fill / Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 127 (2005) 27–36
the position of the according graphical object). With the RELATION element instances of the relationclasses of the metamodel are defined including the instances of the ’Is From Class’ and ’Is To Class’ relationships. Figure 4 shows the ADONIS modeling environment with a model instance of a statechart diagram, the notebook component that allows the editing of the attributes of the class instances, and an excerpt of the ADONIS administration toolkit for the editing of the class hierarchy.
Fig. 4. ADONIS modeling and administration environment
Example 4.3 Excerpt of the ADL code for concrete model instances of statechart diagrams: //... TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE "testuser" //... INSTANCE : ATTRIBUTE VALUE "NODE x:11.49cm y:7.98cm w:4.82cm h:2.54cm index:1" //... RELATION FROM : TO : //...
H.-G. Fill / Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 127 (2005) 27–36
35
ATTRIBUTE VALUE "EDGE 0 index:3 MIDDLE x:6.72cm y:7.99cm" //...
5
Conclusion and outlook
In this paper it was outlined how an implementation of UML statechart diagrams can be accomplished on the ADONIS metamodeling platform. For this purpose ADONIS provides different languages for the definition of the abstract and concrete syntax of arbitrary metamodels. With the most recent release of ADONIS it will also be possible to exchange UML models in XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) format thereby allowing users to import UML models in other modeling and CASE tools that also support this standard. In the current implementation of statechart diagrams in ADONIS semantic properties can only be described in textual notation. Further work would have to be done to integrate operational semantics for statechart diagrams in ADONIS. One possibility to achieve this is through the scripting language AdoScript that can be used to evaluate the modelled objects and relationships and also generate new models based on predefined rules.
References [1] Gentleware, Poseidon for UML, URL: products/descriptions/ee.php4 access: 2004-06-30.
http://www.gentleware.com/
[2] Harel, David, and Bernhard Rumpe, Modeling Languages: Syntax, Semantics and All That Stuff - Part I: The Basic Stuff, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, The Weizmann Institute of Science, (2000), Israel, Full version: URL: http://wisdomarchive.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/ archive/00000071/01/00-16.ps access: 2004-06-30. [3] IBM Corporation, IBM MQ Series Workflow: Concepts and Architecture Version 3.3, (2001), URL: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/ integration /mqfamily/library/books/fmcg0mst.pdf. [4] IBM, Rational software, URL: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/ rational/ access: 2004-06-30. [5] Junginger, Stefan, Harald K¨ uhn, Robert Strobl, and Dimitris Karagiannis, Ein Gesch¨ aftsprozessmanagement Werkzeug der n¨ achsten Generation - ADONIS: Konzeption und Anwendungen, Wirtschaftsinformatik 42 (2000), 392–401. [6] Junginger, Stefan, Harald K¨ uhn, Mark Heidenfeld, and Dimitris Karagiannis, Building Complex Workflow Applications: How to Overcome the Limitations of the Waterfall Model, in: Fischer, Layna (ed.), Workflow Management Coalition: Workflow Handbook 2001, Future Strategies Inc., (2000), 191–206. [7] Karagiannis, Dimitris, Stefan Junginger, and Robert Strobl, Introduction to Business Process Management Systems Concepts, in: Scholz-Reiter, Bernd, and Eberhard Stickel (eds.),“Business Process Modelling,” (1996), Springer, 81–106.
36
H.-G. Fill / Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science 127 (2005) 27–36
[8] Karagiannis, Dimitris, Christoph Prackwieser, and Rainer Telesko, The PROMOTE project: Process oriented knowledge management, in: Goncalves, Ricardo, Adolfo Steiger-Gar¸ca ˜o, and Raimar Scherer, (eds.): “Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Product and Process Modeling,” (2000), 217–224. r - An Educational Management Tool, [9] Karagiannis, Dimitris, and Judit Bajnai, ADVISOR Symposium Towards the New Education Society, Zvolen, Slovakia, (2001).
[10] Karagiannis, Dimitris, and Harald K¨ uhn, Metamodelling platforms, invited paper in: Bauknecht, Kurt, A Min Tjoa, and Gerald Quirchmayer (eds.), Proceedings of the third international conference ec-web 2002 - dexa 2002, Aix-en-provence, France, Springer (2002) 182, Full version URL: http://www.dke.univie.ac.at/mmp/FullVersion MMP DexaECWeb2002.pdf access: 2004-06-16. [11] Keller, Gerhard, Markus N¨ uttgens, August-Wilhelm Scheer, Semantische Prozeßmodellierung auf der Grundlage ’Ereignis gesteuerter Prozeßketten (EPK)’, in: Scheer, August-Wilhelm (eds.): Ver¨ offentlichungen des Instituts f¨ ur Wirtschaftsinformatik, 89, Saarbr¨ ucken (1992), URL: http://www.iwi.uni-sb.de/nuettgens/Veroef/ Artikel/heft089/heft089.pdf access: 2004-06-17. [12] Leymann, Frank, and Dieter Roller, Workflow-based applications, IBM Systems Journal 36, no.1, (1997), 102–123. r [13] Lichka, Christian, Harald K¨ uhn, Dimitris Karagiannis, ADOscore - IT gest¨ utzte Balanced Scorecard, wisu - das wirtschaftsstudium 7/2002, (2002), 915–918.
[14] Metacase, MetaEdit+, URL: http://www.metacase.com/de/mep/ access: 2004-06-17. [15] Microsoft, Visio 2004-06-30.
2003,
URL:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/visio/
access:
[16] Object Management Group, OMG Unified Modeling Language (UML) Specification, Version 1.4 (September 2001), URL: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/apps/doc?formal/01-09-67.pdf access: 2004-09-09 [17] Object Management Group, OMG UML 2.0 Diagram Interchange final adopted specification, URL: http://www.omg.org/docs/ptc/03-09-01.pdf access: 2004-08-07 [18] Object Management Group, OMG UML 1.4 Interchange Metamodel in XML, URL: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/apps/doc?ad/01-02-15.xml access: 2004-08-07 [19] Object Management Group, OMG Model Driven Architecture (MDA) Guide, Version 1.0.1 (12th June 2003), URL: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/apps/doc?omg/03-06-01.pdf access: 2004-06-28 [20] Object Management Group, OMG Meta Object Facility (MOF), Version 1.4 (12th June 2003), URL: http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/apps/doc?formal/02-04-03.pdf access: 2004-06-28 [21] Strahringer, Susanne, “Metamodellierung als Instrument des Methoden vergleichs - eine Evaluierung am Beispiel objektorientierter Analysemethoden,” PhD-Thesis, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, Shaker, 1996. r , URL: http://www.borland.com/together/ access: 2004-06-30. [22] Borland, Together
