Re: [emf-dev] UML2 Statechart model import and code generation faciliti

[Jacob Beard <jbeard4@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Ed and others on EMF-dev,

GSoC has ended, and I'm now ready to revisit the idea of creating a
Statechart compiler based on UML2Tools that integrates with EMF.

It looks like a good entry-point into solving this problem may be via
SCXML[0] and the Apache SCXML Commons library[1]. I've only just
started looking into it, but it seems like leveraging SCXML Commons
would eliminate the need to create from scratch a Statechart-to-Java
compiler and statechart execution environment. In order to leverage
SCXML Commons, it seems like it will be necessary to export a
UML2Tools statechart to SCXML, rather than XMI. This could probably be
achieved either by writing a custom generator that exports SCXML
directly from the EMF model, or by writing an XSLT script that
converts the Statechart serialized as XMI to SCXML. This second option
seems like it would be the more portable, reusable solution of the
two.

I have two quick questions for the EMF list:
* Would it be better to have this discussion here on EMF-dev mailing
list, or would it be better to start a thread on UML2Tools?
* Is anyone aware of any work that has been done on generating
executable code from UML2Tools Statecharts since I originally brought
this up in March?

I'd appreciate any guidance you can offer. Thanks,

Jake

[0] http://www.w3.org/TR/scxml/
[1] http://commons.apache.org/scxml/

On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 8:20 AM, Ed Merks<ed.merks@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Jake,
>
> I'm not aware of this having been done.  It sounds like it would make
> another interesting GSoC proposal for the wiki!
>
> With the work on declaratively specifying behavior of derived features we've
> also been looking at similar things for the behavior of EOperations.   It
> would be awfully cool in the long term if one could invoke operations even
> on dynamic models and that it would invoke whatever type of interpreter is
> associated with the operation's behavior description....
>
> Cheers,
> Ed
>
>
> Jacob Beard wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I am currently beginning to explore what is possible with Ecore and the UML2
> project. I understand that it is possible to import a UML2 model to Ecore.
> In the UML2.0 OMG standard, it is also possible to associate a Classifier
> with a component that describes its Behaviour, so either an Action,
> Activity, Interaction, or State Machine diagram. State Machine diagrams are
> especially useful because you can easily generate code from them. This is
> the workflow that I imagine might be possibe:
>
> 1. Create your UML model using UML2 Tools. For each Class, you associate a
> State Machine which describes its behaviour.
> 2. Transform your UML model to Ecore using the mdl-to-ecore importer.
> 3. Generate Java code from your new Ecore model.
> 4. Use generated Java code to instantiate M0-level entities.
> 5. Send events into the objects' generic Behaviour API (for example,
> Statechart.event(Event evt) ). For each class, the associated statechart
> should have been compiled down to executable code, which then determines how
> the event is to be handled at the instance level.
>
> Does a facility for this already exist? Specifically, is it possible to
> compile the state machines designed using UML2 Tools down into executable
> Java code?
>
> If this facility does not already exist, is this something that EMF might
> also be interested in as another GSoC project idea? This is not for myself,
> but for a colleague of mine who has done similar work in this domain,
> although I could definitely see my proposed project leveraging this
> facility, for example, for creating a web-based Statechart editor and
> simulator.
>
> I would greatly appreciate it if you would let me know what you think.
> Thanks,
>
> Jake
>
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