UniTI: A unified transformation infrastructure

Abstract

A model transformation can be decomposed into a sequence of subtransformations, i.e. a transformation chain, each addressing a limited set of concerns. However, with current transformation technologies it is hard to (re)use and compose subtransformations without being very familiar with their implementation details. Furthermore, the difficulty of combining different transformation technologies often thwarts choosing the most appropriate technology for each subtransformation. In this paper we propose a model-based approach to reuse and compose subtransformations in a technology-independent fashion. This is accomplished by developing a unified representation of transformations and facilitating detailed transformation specifications. We have implemented our approach in a tool called UniTI, which also provides a transformation chain editor. We have evaluated our approach by comparing it to alternative approaches. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.