A generic meta-model-based approach for specifying framework functionality and usage

Abstract

Enterprise software development is based on the usage of frameworks. However, well-established concepts to specify framework functionality and how to use it can hardly be found. As consequence, there are poor framework documentations. Various problems arise from this, e.g. a high effort for learning a framework and therefore the need of framework specialists. Existing framework description languages (FDL) focus on parts of the problem but do not cover all aspects of specifying framework functionality and usage. In this paper, we present a generic approach for specifying all aspects of framework functionality and usage. We collected requirements to identify relevant aspects and defined a generic meta-model for FDLs. The generic meta-model is the base for defining concrete FDLs while guaranteeing that all relevant framework aspects are covered. Particularly, due to its generic character, parts of the meta-model representing specific framework aspects can be instantiated by existing or newly defined languages. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.