"Jos Warmer's work has contributed greatly to the semantics of the UML. From that perspective, and in this book, he offers insight on how one can and can't use the UML to move to the next level of abstraction in building systems." - Grady BoochExperienced application developers often invest more time in building models than they do in actually writing code. Why? Well-constructed models make it easier to deliver large, complex enterprise systems on time and within budget. Now, a new framework advanced by the Object Management Group (OMG) allows developers to build systems according to their core business logic and data - independently of any particular hardware, operating system, or middleware.Model Driven Architecture (MDA) is a framework based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and other industry standards for visualizing, storing, and exchanging software designs and models. However, unlike UML, MDA promotes the creation of machine-readable, highly abstract models that are developed independently of the implementation technology and stored in standardized repositories. There, they can be accessed repeatedly and automatically transformed by tools into schemas, code skeletons, test harnesses, integration code, and deployment scripts for various platforms.Written by three members of OMG's MDA standardization committee, MDA Explained gives readers an inside look at the advantages of MDA and how they can be realized. This book begins with practical examples that illustrate the application of different types of models. It then shifts to a discussion at the meta-level, where developers will gain the knowledge necessary to define MDA tools.Highlights of this book include:The MDA framework, including the Platform Independent Model (PIM) and Platform Specific Model (PSM)OMG standards and the use of UML MDA and Agile, Extreme Programming, and Rational Unified Process (RUP) development How to apply MDA, including PIM-to-PSM and PSM-to-code transformations for Relational, Enterprise JavaBean (EJB), and Web modelsTransformations, including controlling and tuning, traceability, incremental consistency, and their implicationsMetamodelingRelationships between different standards, including Meta Object Facility (MOF), UML, and Object Constraint Language (OCL)The advent of MDA offers concrete ways to improve productivity, portability, interoperability, maintenance, and documentation dramatically. With this groundbreaking book, IT professionals can learn to tap this new framework to deliver enterprise systems most efficiently. 032119442XB03242003

Table of Contents

Introduction. Who Should Read This Book. How This Book Should Be Used. Typeface Conventions. Information on Related Subjects. Book Support and Example Implementation. Acknowledgments. 1: The MDA Development Process. Traditional Software Development. The Productivity Problem. The Portability Problem. The Interoperability Problem. The Maintenance and Documentation Problem. The Model Driven Architecture. The MDA Development Life Cycle. Automation of the Transformation Steps. MDA Benefits. Productivity. Portability. Interoperability. Maintenance and Documentation. MDA Building Blocks. Summary. 2: The MDA Framework. What Is a Model? Relationships between Models. Types of Models. Business and Software Model. Structural and Dynamic Models. Platform Independent and Platform Specific Models. The Target Platforms of a Model. What is a Transformation? Transformations between Identical Languages. The Basic MDA Framework. Examples. Public and Private Attributes. Associations. Summary. 3: MDA Today. OMG Standards. OMG Languages. OMG Language and Transformation Definitions. UML as PIM Language. Plain UML. Executable UML. UML-OCL Combination. Tools. Support for Transformations. Categorizing Tools. Development Processes. Agile Software Development. Extreme Programming. Rational Unified Process (RUP). Summary. 4: Rosa's Application of MDA. Rosa's Breakfast Service. The Business. The Software System. Applying the MDA Framework. The PIM and PSMs. The PIM to PSM Transformations. The PSM to Code Model Transformations. Three Levels of Abstraction. The PIM in Detail. Summary. 5: Rosa's PIM to Three PSMs. The PIM to Relational Transformation. The PIM to EJB Transformation. A Coarse Grained EJB Model. The Transformation Rules. The PIM to Web Transformation. The Transformation Rules. The Communication Bridges. Summary. 6: Rosa's PSMs to Code. Relational Model to Code Transformation. EJB Model to Code Transformation. Some Remarks on EJB Code. The Transformation Rules. The Web Model to Code Transformation. The Structure of the Web Code. The Transformation Rules. Summary. 7: More on Transformations. Desired Features of Transformations. Controlling and Tuning Transformations. Manual Control. Conditions on Transformations. Transformation Parameters. Additional Information. Traceability. Incremental Consistency. Bidirectionality. Implications on Transformations. Transformation Parameters. Persistent Source-Target Relationship. Transformation Rules as Objects. Summary. 8: Metamodeling. Introduction to Metamodeling. The Four Modeling Layers of the OMG. Layer M0: The Instances. Layer M1: The Model of the System. Layer M2: The Model of the Model. Layer M3: The Model of M2. Getting Rid of the Layers. The Use of Metamodeling in the MDA. The Extended MDA Framework. Summary. 9: Defining Your Own Transformations. Transformations Definitions Revisited. The Transformation Definition Language. Requirements for a Transformation Rule. A Notation for Transformation Rules. Transformation Definitions. Example Transformation Definitions. Public and Private Attributes. Associations. Classes. Finishing the Transformation Definition. The Complete MDA Framework. Summary. 10: Rosa's Transformation Definitions. The UML to Relational Mapping. Transformation Rules for UML to Relational Model. Completion of the Relational Model. The UML to EJB Mapping. Additional Operations. The UML to Web Mapping. Summary. 11: OMG Standards and Additional Technologies. Introduction. The MOF. yMOF Tools. The Role of the MOF in MDA. Query, Views, and Transformations. UML. The UML Metamodel. The Role of UML in MDA. OCL. Using OCL with UML. Using OCL with the MOF. The Role of OCL in MDA. The UML Action Semantics. CWM. UML Profiles. The Role of Profiles in MDA. Summary. 12: The MDA Promise. The MDA Paradigm Shift. A Historic Perspective. A Shift of Focus. Too Good to Be True? The Development Process. The Tools. The Modeling Languages. Summary. Appendix A: Glossary. Appendix B: The Code for Rosa's System. The SQL Code for Rosa's System. The EJB Code for Rosa's System. The JSP Code for Rosa's System. Bibliography. Index. 032119442XT04072003

Author Biography

Anneke Kleppe is a consultant and adviser at Klasse Objecten, which she founded in 1995 to train and coach companies on the use of object technology, modeling, and MDA. She was intensively involved in the development of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and the new UML 2.0 standard. The author of several books, Anneke started a knowledge center for object technology at KPN Research in Leidschendam, Netherlands. She is a member of the authoring team of the OCL 2 standard, where she has a special focus on the definition of the semantics of the OCL. Jos Warmer is the primary author of the OCL standard. He is an active member of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) Revision Task Force, which defined the revisions in the UML 2.0 standard. Previously he was a member of the UML core team, where he was responsible for the development of the Object Constraint Language (OCL). The author of several books and numerous international articles, Jos is an advisor on the UML method and techniques at the De Nederlandsche Bank. Wim Bast is Compuware's OptimalJ MDA architect. 032119442XAB07222003