MDD4REST: Model-Driven Methodology for Developing RESTful Web Services

Abstract

Web services based on the REpresentational State Transfer (REST) architectural style have become increasingly popular in recent years. REST provides several desirable features, such as simplicity and scalability; however, developing RESTful web services involves repetitive and trivial tasks that can be avoided through automatic code generation. Model-Driven Development (MDD) can be used to this aim, as it facilitates the construction of complex applications and can provide automatic code generation through transformations of models. This paper presents MDD4REST as a model-driven methodology, consisting of a framework and a process, for developing RESTful web services. MDD4REST takes advantage of Domain-Driven Design (DDD) to produce a rich domain model for web services. It provides an effective method for designing RESTful web services using modeling languages, and supports automatic code generation through transformation of models. In addition, MDD4REST has the capability to support modern web architectures and patterns, such as Microservice, Event-Driven, and CQRS.