Extending UML for modeling reflective software components

Abstract

This paper describes our extension of the UML metamodel for specifying reflective software components. Reflection is a design principle that allows a system to have a representation of itself in the manner that makes it easy to adapt the system to a changing environment. It has matured to the point where it is used to address real-world problems in various areas. We describe how to document reflective components in the framework of UML. Our work allows for recognizing and understanding reflective components in the upper levels of abstraction at an earlier stage of the development process. It leverages the documentation, learning, visual modeling, reuse and roundtrip development of metalevel designs. We also demonstrate the seamless model exchange between different development tools and model continuity across development phases with application-neutral interchange formats.