Ecoreification: Making Arbitrary Java Code Accessible to Metamodel-Based Tools

Abstract

Models are used in software engineering to describe parts of a system that are relevant for the computation of specific analyses, or the provision of specific functionality. Metamodeling languages such as Ecore make it possible to realize analyses and functionality with model-driven technology, such as transformation engines. If models conform to a metamodel that was expressed using Ecore, numerous Eclipse-based tools can be reused to directly analyze, display, or transform models. In many software projects, models are, however, realized with objects of plain-old Java classes rather than an explicit metamodel, so these popular toolscannot be used.In this new ideas paper, we present an Ecoreification approach, which can be used to automatically extract Ecore-conforming metamodels from Java code, and a code generator that combines the benefits of both worlds. The resulting code can be used exactly as before, but it also uses the modeling infrastructure and implements all interfaces for Ecore-based tooling. This way, arbitrary non-standard models can be displayed and modified, for example using graphical Sirius editors, or transformed with well-proven transformation languages, such as QVT-O or ATL.