[news.eclipse.tools.emf] Re: OCL checker for EMF models in transformatio

[Ed Merks <merks@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Damien,

Comments below.


Damien Thivolle wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm relatively new to Eclipse and the modeling technology. I want to 
> write a transformation from a meta-model MMa to a meta-model MMb using 
> ATL. The problem is that the transformation will only concern a subset 
> of MMa.
There's a newsgroup for ATL.  I've included it on the "to" list of the 
reply.
> I've been hinted to write a checker in OCL that would just tell me 
> whether a model Ma (conforming to MMa) is included in the subset I'm 
> interested in.
>
> In the end, if the checker answers true when asked if the input model 
> is correct, the transformation would take place, if not an error 
> message would be yielded.
>
> I've been looking for some clues as to where to start and I was 
> expecting to find something suitable for a newbie like me. Like, I 
> define a file with a set of OCL constraints, right click on my model 
> and choose "Validate constraints from file...". But I guess it's not 
> gonna be that easy.
>
> More generally, I'm having a hard time finding my way around Eclipse, 
> EMF and such... I've been reading all the material I could find about 
> using OCL to check constraints on EMF models, and it's like Chinese to me.
Note really.  If it were Chinese it would use an alphabet you'd not 
recognize.  :-P
> For example, I've seen a lot of EMF models with annotations named 
> "OCL" and having several entries, but I can't really find anything 
> that would explain me what to do with those.
Did you look at the Eclipse help?
> I'm just saying is that I find it hard to understand this technology 
> and I'm wondering if it's normal or if this is where my comprehension 
> reaches its limits.
There's an awful lot of technology to learn all at once for sure.  And 
the documentation is sometimes a little lacking or hard to find...
> Best regards,