Vladimir Dimitrieski

A DSL for modeling application-specific functionalities of business applications

Models have been widely used in the information system development process. Models are not just means for system analysis and documentation. They may be also transformed into system implementation, primarily program code. Generated program code of screen forms and transaction programs mainly implements generic functionalities that can be expressed by simple retrieval, insertion, update, or deletion operations over database records. Besides the program code of generic functionalities, each application usually includes program code for specific business logic that represents application-specific functionalities, which may include complex calculations, as well as a series of database operations. There is a lack of domain-specific and tool-supported techniques for specification of such application-specific functionalities at the level of platform-independent models (PIMs). In this paper, we propose an approach and a domain-specific language (DSL), named IIS*CFuncLang, aimed at enabling a complete specification of application-specific functionalities at the PIM level. We have developed algorithms for transformation of IIS*CFuncLang specifications into executable program code, such as PL/SQL program code. In order to support specification of application-specific functionalities using IIS*CFuncLang, we have also developed appropriate tree-based and textual editors. The language, editors, and the transformations are embedded into a Model-Driven Software Development tool, named Integrated Information Systems CASE (IIS*Case). IIS*Case supports platform-independent design and automated prototyping of information systems, which allows us to verify and test our approach in practice. HighlightsA DSL for specifying application-specific functionalities of business applications.Application-specific functionalities are specified at the PIM level.Complete program code is generated.We present the language editor.

Mapping-Based Exchange of Models Between Meta-Modeling Tools

The exchange of models between meta-modeling tools is an important requirement. Tools often only cover a certain task in the development process. The exchange of models between different tools is necessary for covering a complete development process. Besides the aspect of cooperation, exchange of models also enables the replacement of old tools by new tools that better fit the customers needs. In order to avoid the vendor lock-in effect, model exchange allows the reuse of existing models. In this paper, we focus on the problem of model exchange and present an mapping-based approach between different meta-modeling tools. The approach is centered around a declarative mapping language with a graphical notation and a solution for connecting different meta-modeling tools. We apply our approach to exchange models between MetaEdit+ and Microsoft Visio.

A Survey on Ontologies and Ontology Alignment Approaches in Healthcare

In the era of Internet, high connectivity and openness introduced an opportunity for a new kind of approach to healthcare information system integration. Such an approach may utilize semantic-based technologies to represent and communicate knowledge between these systems. Resource Description Framework (RDF) in conjunction with Web Ontology Language (OWL) can be considered as a de facto standard when it comes to semantic web and linked data technologies, and represents a foundation for defining healthcare ontologies. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview and critical review of existing healthcare ontologies and approaches to healthcare IS integration, focusing on OWL/RDF based solutions. With this review we want to show that although a lot work is done in this area, no universal or omnipresent solution has surfaced to allow automatic or at least semi-automatic integration of healthcare ISs. As there is a large number of established and emerging ontologies covering this subject our review will not provide an exhaustive collection of all the references in the area, but present the most notable standards, ontologies, taxonomies, and integration approaches.

A model-driven approach to data structure conceptualization

Reengineering of an existing information system can be carried out: to improve its maintainability, to migrate to a new technology, to improve quality or to prepare for functional enhancement. An important phase of a data-oriented software system reengineering is a database reengineering process and, in particular, its subprocess - a database reverse engineering process. The reverse engineering process contains two main phases: data structure extraction and data structure conceptualization. In the paper we present a blueprint of a model-driven approach to database reengineering process that is one of the results of our research project on model-driven intelligent systems for software system development, maintenance and evolution. Within that process hereinafter we focus on the data structure conceptualization process and propose a model-driven approach to data structure conceptualization. Proposed process is based on model-to-model transformations implemented by means of Atlas Transformation Language.

Extended Entity-Relationship approach in a Multi-Paradigm Information System Modeling Tool

In this paper we present a Multi-Paradigm Information System Modeling Tool (MIST) that supports Extended Entity-Relationship (EER) approach to database design. MIST components currently provide a formal specification of EER database schema specification and its transformation into the relational data model, or the class model. Also, MIST allows generation of Structured Query Language (SQL) code for database creation and procedural code for implementing database constraints. In addition, Java code that stores and processes data from the database, may be generated from the class model.

Database reverse engineering based on meta-models

Reengineering is one of the key concepts in software maintenance and evolution. It generally includes some form of reverse engineering followed by some form of forward engineering or restructuring. In the paper we focus on database reverse engineering. Model-driven software engineering promotes the idea of abstracting implementation details by focusing on: models as first class entities and automated generation of models or code from other models. In the approach meta-models are used to define the modeling languages. A database reverse engineering process can benefit of integrating meta-modeling and meta-models in the process. The plethora of models related to databases points out to the need and importance of model-to-model transformations between these models at different abstraction levels. These transformations are based on meta-models that are conformed by the source and target models of the transformations. A database reverse engineering process can be performed through a chain of model-to-model transformations based on a set of meta-models. In the paper we discuss the importance of meta-modeling in the context of database reverse engineering and present a case study illustrating an approach to database reverse engineering.

Development and evaluation of MicroBuilder: a Model-Driven tool for the specification of REST Microservice Software Architectures

ABSTRACT In this paper we present MicroBuilder, the tool used for the specification of a software architecture that follows REST microservice design principles. MicroBuilder comprises MicroDSL and MicroGenerator modules. The MicroDSL module provides the MicroDSL domain-specific language used for the specification of REST microservice software architecture. In this paper we present MicroDSL meta-model, specified in Ecore, together with textual and graphical concrete syntaxes, specified using Xtext and Sirius frameworks respectively. The MicroGenerator module is used to generate executable program code based on MicroDSL specification. In this paper we also present results of the MicroBuilder tool evaluation, alongside the case study which illustrates a usage of MicroBuilder.

Reuse of Rules in a Mapping-Based Integration Tool

In the Internet of Things scenario, the integration of devices with business application systems requires bridging the differences in schemas of transmitted and received data. Further, different device configuration may introduce a variety in a data schema of a single device. Currently, mitigating this schema variation problem requires a manual adaptation of data transformations between the devices and business application systems. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that uses previously created transformations to automatically adjust the new ones for schema variations. The algorithm only considers isolated schema element information in order to find possible candidates in a transformation repository. Schema elements can be compared using multiple comparators, and the result is combined in a final similarity metric. Both, the algorithm and the repository are implemented as a module of AnyMap – a mapping-based integration tool. We also present a case study on which we evaluated the approach.

An approach for modeling events in information systems

Contemporary tools aimed at information system (IS) development often use models to generate system implementation. Starting from an IS model, these tools commonly generate database implementation schema as well as code for generic CRUD operations of business applications. On the other hand, at the level of platform-independent models (PIMs) there is a lack of support for specification of more complex functionalities associated with events. In this paper, we present an approach aimed at specification of events at the level of PIMs. We introduce new concepts to describe context in which an event may occur, while we use our IIS∗CFuncLang language to define event business logic. We also developed adequate transformations to generate executable program code from these specifications.

Cloud-based health monitoring system based on Commercial Off-The-Shelf hardware

In this paper we propose a three-layered architecture for the implementation of cloud-based health monitoring system that utilizes ubiquitous commercial health measuring devices. The main advantage of such a solution over the solutions that use proprietary medical hardware is the availability and the number of existing health devices and also relying on the expertise of their vendors. We also identify critical issues and problems that could arise in each layer of such a system. Finding a solution for these issues will be a main requirement for the future implementations of the system.