Developing Graphical Model Editors for Meta-Modelling Tools – Requirements, Conceptualisation, and Implementation
Dietrich Hanns-Alexander, Breuker Dominic, Steinhorst Matthias, Delfmann Patrick, Becker Jörg
Research article (journal) | Peer reviewedAbstract
Meta-modelling tools have been proposed to facilitate the development and adoption of domain-specific modelling languages (DSMLs). These languages specify a set of domain-specific concepts and assign diagrammatic representations to them. A considerable amount of work has been done to develop meta-modelling tools ensuring syntactical correctness of models created with DSMLs. However, little has been published about the challenges of developing a graphical model editor for meta-modelling tools. Specifying how conceptual elements of a DSML are to be represented graphically is often cumbersome. Moreover, tools are sometimes too inflexible to handle advanced features beyond displaying static icons. Furthermore, graphical representations must be kept consistent in case of reuse in multiple, potentially integrated DSMLs. This paper’s aim is to carve out a set of requirements for graphical model editors as used in meta-modelling tools. We present a conceptual model considering these requirements. Furthermore, we discuss an exemplary software implementation of a model editor.
Details about the publication
Authors from the University of Münster
| Becker, Jörg | Chair of Information Systems and Information Management (IS) |
| Breuker, Dominic | Chair of Information Systems and Information Management (IS) |
| Delfmann, Carsten Patrick | Chair of Information Systems and Information Management (IS) |
| Dietrich, Hanns-Alexander | Chair of Information Systems and Information Management (IS) |
| Steinhorst, Matthias | Chair of Information Systems and Information Management (IS) |
Promotionen, aus denen die Publikation resultiert
| The Generic Model Query Language GMQL Candidate: Steinhorst, Matthias | Supervisors: Becker, Jörg; Vossen, Gottfried Period of time: 01/04/2010 - 31/07/2014 Doctoral examination procedure finished at: Doctoral examination procedure at University of Münster | |
| Graph-based Conceptual Model Analysis - Design, Implementation, Demonstration and Evaluation of Model Query Languages Candidate: Dietrich, Hanns-Alexander | Supervisors: Becker, Jörg; Kuchen, Herbert Period of time: 01/07/2010 - 09/07/2014 Doctoral examination procedure finished at: Doctoral examination procedure at University of Münster |