Migrating a large modelling environment from UML/XML to GMF/Xtext

Migrating a large
modelling environment
from UML/XML to
GMF/Xtext

Codegeneration Conference 2010, Cambridge, UK

Moritz Eysholdt

Moritz Eysholdt, itemis - Johannes Rupprecht,VSA

Moritz Eysholdt

• Software Architect and
Consultant at itemis


Moritz Eysholdt

• Committer at the Eclipse
Projects Xtext, Xpand and
EMF Compare


Moritz Eysholdt

• Committer at the Eclipse
Projects Xtext, Xpand and
EMF Compare
• Speaker at various
international conferences


• Specialized in Model Driven Software Development


• Founded in 2003


• Founded in 2003
• 140 Employes


• Founded in 2003
• 140 Employes
• Branches in Germany, Swiss, France and Canada


• Founded in 2003
• 140 Employes
• Strategic Member of the Eclipse Foundation


• Founded in 2003
• 140 Employes
• Strategic Member of the Eclipse Foundation

• http://twitter.com/itemis


Johannes Rupprecht


Johannes Rupprecht

• Chief Software Architect of
VSA group


Johannes Rupprecht

VSA group
• 2005-2008 IT project
manager of the biggest VSA
software project


Johannes Rupprecht

VSA group
• 2005-2008 IT project
manager of the biggest VSA
software project
• 2002-2005 Leading
architect and one of the
developers of the VSA
framework marvin


Group


Group

• VSA:Verrechnungsstelle der Süddeutschen Apotheken
(Clearing House of the South German Pharmacies)


Group

• Company founded in 1983


Group

• Owned by 7,000 German pharmacists


Group

• 1,100 employees


Group

• 1,100 employees
• Three business units:
• VSA: Clearing for German pharmacies
• azh: Clearing and IT for German health care professionals
• awinta: Pharmacy administration systems


Software Development at VSA



• 150 developers in several projects in several locations



• Internal systems, like the two clearing systems



• Online systems for the clearing customers



• Pharmacy administration systems



• Pharmacy administration systems
• Development mostly in Java, but also C#, C++, C,
Objective-C


Development
before Eclipse
based
modeling

VSA has a
framework called
marvin. Why?

Framework
development
started in 2000

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<'()'(!

marvin
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@'(<-<0'2.'!

=',/0-12/,!M$!


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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<'()'(!

marvin
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No JPA, no
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Hibernate &'.5(-0E!
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!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<'()'(!
Just EJB 1.3,
marvin
no Spring
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Not many web frame- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!<'()'(!

works, just Struts marvin
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#/)/%6,-'20
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marvin
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No Eclipse modeling,
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no MDA hype yet!
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Reimplementation of all systems



• VSA planned in 2000 and 2002 to start the
reimplementation of almost all important VSA group
systems based on Java



• Big need of supporting framework



• Generating seemed to be the right way



• Based on XML ﬁles



• Later a UML modeling was set on top of that



• Later a UML modeling was set on top of that
• MagicDraw was used as UML tool, with VSA plugins for
generating XMLs from the UML model


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The new marvin
modeling project

Why a new
modeling for
marvin?

Problems with the UML Modelling



• Opening a UML module
lasted up to one hour



• Opening a big UML diagram
lasted up to ten minutes



• Turnaround times were too
slow (changing UML
diagram, generating XML
ﬁles, generating Java ﬁles
and compiling via ANT)



• Turnaround times were too
slow (changing UML
diagram, generating XML
ﬁles, generating Java ﬁles
and compiling via ANT)
• So we needed much
coffee…



• Modelling was not intuitive, because UML was “abused”
to model something, that can’t be expressed in UML at
all



all
• Modelling was partly cumbersome, because there is no
assistance in editing the models



all
• Model was partly more complex than the XML ﬁle



all
• Model was partly more complex than the XML ﬁle
• Workﬂow diagrams became too big, were confusing



• Referencing other model elements was done only
textual, not by model references



• No validation and code completion in the tool



• Branching was not possible, only one branch can be
modeled



modeled
• Not all functionality of the XML Files could be expressed
via UML



modeled
via UML
• No two way editing between XML Files and UML Models



modeled
via UML
• No two way editing between XML Files and UML Models
• No navigation between code and model


Initializing


Initializing

• Target was to massively
improve tool handling and
performance


Initializing

performance
• Four different offerers
made suggestions for
solution. Three of them
made the same suggestion:
Xtext and GMF based on
Eclipse


Initializing

performance
• Four different offerers
made suggestions for
solution. Three of them
made the same suggestion:
Xtext and GMF based on
Eclipse
• itemis won the race due to
best competence in Xtext


Project Start


Project Start

• Fixed price contract
including VSA developers
taking part in the project to
ensure training on the new
technologies


Project Start

technologies
• Speciﬁcation: Document
and legacy code


Project Start

technologies
• Speciﬁcation: Document
and legacy code
• two developers from items
and two full time and two
part time developers from
VSA


Why Eclipse Modeling



• Large ecosystem of
modeling tools and
frameworks available like in
no other platform:
• EMF
• Xtext
• GMF



• Large ecosystem of
modeling tools and
frameworks available like in
no other platform:
• EMF
• Xtext
• GMF
• Possibility of mixing textual
and graphical modeling


Basic Objectives


Basic Objectives

• Textual modeling for all languages with Xtext


Basic Objectives

• Graphical modeling with GMF for selected aspects of
certain languages to getting better overview (no UML!)


Basic Objectives

• Integration of the legacy marvin generator as Eclipse
Builder


Basic Objectives

Builder
• Tooling for automatic 100% migration of existing
projects, including layout information from MagicDraw;
ability to migrate one project at a time


Basic Objectives

Builder
• Tooling for automatic 100% migration of existing
projects, including layout information from MagicDraw;
ability to migrate one project at a time
• support for mixing migrated and unmigrated projects,
because projects can't be migrated all at once


Two language families,
ﬁve languages

XML + UML
workﬂowdef.xsd datadict.xsd
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-15"?>
<dataDictionary
xmlns="http://www.vsa.de/datadict/1.45.2.4">
<domain>
<databaseMapping tableName="VDOMAIN">
<column name="ID">
<IdType/>
</column> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-15"?>
</databaseMapping> <dataDictionary
<generator> xmlns="http://www.vsa.de/datadict/1.45.2.4">
<classes> <view>
... <databaseMapping viewName="V_VATTRIBUTE_JOIN_VIEW"/>
<generator>
<classes>
...

<workflow
xmlns="http://www.vsa.de/workflow/1.0">
<javadoc>comment</javadoc>
<synchWorkflow isMasterWorkflow="true" isStartableAsDetailWorkflow="true">
<targetGuis>
<gui name="JAVA"/>
</targetGuis>
<objectModel>
<rootObject class="vsa.marvin.mod.schulung.workflow.impl.CustomerManagementRoot"
name="CustomerManagement">
<javadoc>Rootobject of the workflow</javadoc>
<value attributePath="searchFor" name="searchFor"/>
</rootObject>
</objectModel>
<globalMasks>
<globalActivities>
<activity name="SearchCustomer2">
<javadoc></javadoc>
<synchTransition nextStep="CURRENT_STEP"/>
</activity>

?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-15"?
dataDictionary
remove XML-noise: </...>
xmlns="http: www.vsa.de datadict 1.45.2.4"
domain
databaseMapping tableName="VDOMAIN"
column name="ID"
IdType
column
column allowNulls="false" name="VDOMAINATTR"
DecimalType precision="10" scale="0"
column
databaseMapping
generator
classes
superClass name="vsa.marvin.persist.DefaultPersistentObject"
domainIF internalName="gen.vsa.marvin.mod.persist.examples.reference.views.joins.core.VDomainImplIF"
baseOnly="true" generateBase="true" generatePublic="true"
domainImpl name="gen.vsa.marvin.mod.persist.examples.reference.views.joins.core.VDomainImpl"
baseOnly="true" generateBase="true"
classes
attributes
defineAttributes
attribute name="vdomainattr" type="int"
javadoc javadoc
columnRef columnName="VDOMAINATTR"
attribute
defineAttributes
attributes
createMethods
findMethods
generator
domain
dataDictionary

dataDictionary
remove metadata
domain
column name="ID"
IdType
column
column allowNulls="false" name="VDOMAINATTR"
column
databaseMapping
generator
classes
domainIF internalName="gen.vsa.marvin.mod.persist.examples.reference.views.joins.core.VDomainImplIF"
baseOnly="true" generateBase="true" generatePublic="true"
domainImpl name="gen.vsa.marvin.mod.persist.examples.reference.views.joins.core.VDomainImpl"
baseOnly="true" generateBase="true"
classes
attributes
defineAttributes
javadoc javadoc
attribute
defineAttributes
attributes
createMethods
findMethods
generator
domain
dataDictionary

dataDictionary
remove default/derivable values
domain

column name="VDOMAINATTR"
column
databaseMapping
generator
classes

classes
attributes
defineAttributes
javadoc javadoc
attribute
defineAttributes
attributes
createMethods
findMethods
generator
domain
dataDictionary

dataDictionary
summarize columns/attributes
domain

databaseMapping
generator
classes

classes
attributes
defineAttributes
javadoc javadoc

attribute
defineAttributes
attributes
createMethods
findMethods
generator
domain
dataDictionary

remove more noise
domain
databaseMapping "VDOMAIN"


attribute "vdomainattr" type="int"

design convenient syntax
domain-language-v2.0 package vsa.marvin.mod.persist.examples.reference.views.joins;

import vsa.marvin.persist.DefaultPersistentObject;

domain VDomain {
database {
table VDOMAIN;
}

classes {
superClass javaClass DefaultPersistentObject;
}

attributes {
private int vdomainattr;
}

methods {
}

}

Let’s build this
language in less than
a minute

datadict.xsd
workﬂowdef.xsd Domain.xtext View.xtext

Workﬂow.xtext ObjectModel.xtext Mask.xtext

Models are code!


Models are code!

• This is good, because we know how to handle code:
• Compare, Merge
• Version Control
• Copy’n’paste across applications
• Send artifacts via e-mail or web


Models are code!

• This is good, because we know how to handle code:
• Compare, Merge
• Version Control
• Copy’n’paste across applications
• Send artifacts via e-mail or web
• Furthermore, they integrate seamlessly with
• existing code
• existing build infrastructures


Architecture

Xtend M2M

<XML/> Xtext
Model Model

Xtend M2M


Architecture

Xtend M2M

<XML/> EMF Xtext
Model
Model Model

Xtend M2M


Architecture
Structure Def:
Ecore derived from
XML Schema Xtend M2M

<XML/> EMF Xtext
Model
Model Model

Xtend M2M


Architecture
Structure Def: Structure Def:
Ecore derived from Ecore derived from
XML Schema Xtend M2M Xtext Grammars

<XML/> EMF Xtext
Model
Model Model

Xtend M2M


Architecture

<XML/> EMF Xtext
Model
Model Model

Load/Save: Xtend M2M
EMF’s XMLResource


Architecture

<XML/> EMF Xtext
Model
Model Model

Load/Save:
Load/Save: Xtend M2M XtextResource
EMF’s XMLResource (extends EMF’s ResourceImpl)


Migrate XML Models

Xtend M2M
XMLResource.load() XtextResource.save()

<XML/> Xtext
Model Model

Xtend M2M


Integrate Legacy Code Generator

Xtend M2M

<XML/> Xtext
CodeGen Model Model

XtextResource.load()
XMLResource.
save()
Xtend M2M
{ Java }

Generic Integration Test
(Roundtrip)

Xtend M2M

Compare <XML/> Xtext
Model Model

XMLResource.save() XtextResource.load()

Xtend M2M


This Tests:
(Roundtrip)

Xtend M2M

Model Model


Xtend M2M


This Tests:
(Roundtrip)
XML2Xtext
Xtend M2M

Model Model


Xtend M2M


This Tests:
(Roundtrip)
XML2Xtext
Serialization
Xtend M2M

Model Model


Xtend M2M


This Tests:
(Roundtrip)
XML2Xtext
Serialization
Xtend M2M Grammar

Model Model


Xtend M2M


This Tests:
(Roundtrip)
XML2Xtext
Serialization
Xtend M2M Grammar

Compare <XML/> Xtext Scoping
Model Model


Xtend M2M


This Tests:
(Roundtrip)
XML2Xtext
Serialization
Xtend M2M Grammar

Model Model


Lexing/Parsing
Xtend M2M


This Tests:
(Roundtrip)
XML2Xtext
Serialization
Xtend M2M Grammar

Model Model


Lexing/Parsing
Xtend M2M
ValueConversion

This Tests:
(Roundtrip)
XML2Xtext
Serialization
Xtend M2M Grammar

Model Model


Lexing/Parsing
Xtend M2M
Xtext2XML ValueConversion

GMF Integration
(how to persist diagrams)

XMI XMI
via EMF’s XMIResource via EMF’s XMIResource
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xmi:XMI xmi:version="2.0" xmlns:xmi="http://www.omg.org/XMI" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" <xmi:XMI xmi:version="2.0" xmlns:xmi="http://www.omg.org/XMI" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:ecore="http://www.eclipse.org/emf/2002/Ecore" xmlns:notation="http://www.eclipse.org/gmf/runtime/1.0.2/notation" xmlns:ecore="http://www.eclipse.org/emf/2002/Ecore" xmlns:notation="http://www.eclipse.org/gmf/runtime/1.0.2/notation"
xmlns:wf="http://www.vsa.de/marvin/dsl/workflow/0.1"> xmlns:wf="http://www.vsa.de/marvin/dsl/workflow/0.1">
<notation:Diagram xmi:id="_WRi84HSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" type="workflow" measurementUnit="Pixel"> <notation:Diagram xmi:id="_WRi84HSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" type="workflow" measurementUnit="Pixel">
<children xmi:type="notation:Node" xmi:id="_WT_z8HSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" type="2004"> <children xmi:type="notation:Node" xmi:id="_WT_z8HSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" type="2004">
<children xmi:type="notation:DecorationNode" xmi:id="_WUBCEHSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" type="5005"/> <children xmi:type="notation:DecorationNode" xmi:id="_WUBCEHSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" type="5005"/>
<styles xmi:type="notation:DescriptionStyle" xmi:id="_WT_z8XSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ"/> <styles xmi:type="notation:DescriptionStyle" xmi:id="_WT_z8XSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ"/>
<styles xmi:type="notation:FontStyle" xmi:id="_WT_z8nSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" fontName="Lucida Grande" fontHeight="10"/> <styles xmi:type="notation:FontStyle" xmi:id="_WT_z8nSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" fontName="Lucida Grande" fontHeight="10"/>
<styles xmi:type="notation:LineStyle" xmi:id="_WT_z83SqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ"/> <styles xmi:type="notation:LineStyle" xmi:id="_WT_z83SqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ"/>
<element xmi:type="wf:NonGuiStep" href="CustomerManagement.wf#vsa_/steps:DeleteCustomer"/> <element xmi:type="wf:NonGuiStep" href="CustomerManagement.wf#vsa_/steps:DeleteCustomer"/>
<layoutConstraint xmi:type="notation:Bounds" xmi:id="_WT_z9HSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" x="702" y="153"/> <layoutConstraint xmi:type="notation:Bounds" xmi:id="_WT_z9HSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" x="702" y="153"/>
</children> </children>
... ...

Semantic Model (the actual model) Notation Model (Layout, Formatting, etc.)


GMF Integration
(how to persist diagrams)

Text XMI
via XtextResource via EMF’s XMIResource
workflow-language-v2.0 package vsa.marvin.mod.schulung.^workflow; <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xmi:XMI xmi:version="2.0" xmlns:xmi="http://www.omg.org/XMI" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:ecore="http://www.eclipse.org/emf/2002/Ecore" xmlns:notation="http://www.eclipse.org/gmf/runtime/1.0.2/notation"
xmlns:wf="http://www.vsa.de/marvin/dsl/workflow/0.1">
/* This workflow creates/removes/updates customer records */ <notation:Diagram xmi:id="_WRi84HSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" type="workflow" measurementUnit="Pixel">
<children xmi:type="notation:Node" xmi:id="_WT_z8HSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" type="2004">
workflow CustomerManagement isMasterWorkflow canBeDetailWorkflow { <children xmi:type="notation:DecorationNode" xmi:id="_WUBCEHSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" type="5005"/>
<styles xmi:type="notation:DescriptionStyle" xmi:id="_WT_z8XSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ"/>
firstStep OverviewStep; <styles xmi:type="notation:FontStyle" xmi:id="_WT_z8nSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" fontName="Lucida Grande" fontHeight="10"/>
<styles xmi:type="notation:LineStyle" xmi:id="_WT_z83SqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ"/>
<element xmi:type="wf:NonGuiStep" href="CustomerManagement.wf#vsa_/steps:DeleteCustomer"/>
<layoutConstraint xmi:type="notation:Bounds" xmi:id="_WT_z9HSqEd-YCPMLqI1FhQ" x="702" y="153"/>
references { </children>
...
objectModelRef CustomerManagement;
externalDefinitionsRef Externals as infoheader;
compWorkflowRef customersales workflow CustomerSales;

Notation Model (Layout, Formatting, etc.)
}

workflowPart foopart {
globalActivities {
activity ShowCustomerCount -> ShowCustomerCountMessage;
}

guiStep ShowSalesInclude {
javaMask vsa.marvin.mod.schulung.^workflow.ShowSalesIncludeMask;
activity NextMonth -> ShowSalesInclude;

Semantic Model (the actual model)

GMF Integration - Consequences



• No need for the graphical editor to cover complete model
• Cheaper
• Only use graphical syntax where it is indeed superior to
textual syntax



• No need for the graphical editor to cover complete model
• Cheaper
• Only use graphical syntax where it is indeed superior to
textual syntax
• If the XMI is lost, only the layout is lost


Content Assist,
Cross References,
Navigation

Find References
Open Model Elements

Domain Diagram:
A canvas to pin up ﬁles

Workﬂow Diagram:
nested diagrams

Migration


Migration

• A 100% migration of the existing models was necessary


Migration

• About 75 CVS Modules to migrate


Migration

• At early time in project a automated migration test tool
was implemented
• Checkout all modules from CVS and build
• Migrate to new modeling
• Verify the results by comparing artefacts
• Logging all errors and relevant differences


Migration

was implemented
• All problems in migration were discovered before rollout


Migration

was implemented
• All problems in migration were discovered before rollout
• But: Searching for all the errors took much more time
than predicted

Training of the users



• Even for very experienced users it is helpful to be trained
on a complete new way to model and new tools



• An exercises project was implemented with tutorials
covering the main features



• All VSA developers (even our Rumanian ones) took part
in a 4-6 hour training



• All VSA developers (even our Rumanian ones) took part
in a 4-6 hour training
• Result:Very few handling problems, low support effort of
the VSA modeling developers


Distributed project


Distributed project

• Project was distributed over four locations


Distributed project

• Shared infrastructure from the very beginning
• Subversion
• Bug tracking system
• Wiki


Distributed project

• Subversion
• Wiki
• Weekly telephone conference to check status and
discuss problems


Distributed project

• Subversion
• Wiki
• Weekly telephone conference to check status and
discuss problems
• Later in the project communication rules to ensure
efﬁcient working


How to minimize complexity



• Use stable versions of the
frameworks



frameworks
• Use GMF only if necessary



frameworks
• Migrate existing models only
if necessary, because you are
not free in deﬁning the
language and migration has to
be tested very intensive



frameworks
• Migrate existing models only
if necessary, because you are
not free in deﬁning the
language and migration has to
be tested very intensive
• Work test-driven with
continous integration (that is
a really big problem when
developing plugins for eclipse)


Migrating a large modelling environment from UML/XML to GMF/Xtext

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Migrating a large modelling environment from UML/XML to GMF/Xtext

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