Tools Support - Model-Driven and Software Product Line Engineering - page 167

MDEexperts.However,weachieveagoodreturnoninvestment
since we obtain high quality in derived products and product
designers invest little time in configuring products. Given that,
the activities of product configuration are the responsibility of
several (specialized) product designers,e.g. building architects,
facilities designers, and software architects.
6.4. Variability expression and product configuration
This section presents the Eclipse plug-in tools devoted to
the creation of a FieSta project and the various artifacts used
to manage variability and to configure products.
6.4.1. MD-SPL project creation
We built an Eclipse plug-in that allows product line
architects to create a particular type of Eclipse project.
This type of project includes the required oAW and EMF
dependencies to create MD-SPLs and define a hierarchical
folder structure to manage and centralize the core assets
associated to an MD-SPL project. We named this plug-in the
(MD-SPL) Project Creator .
Figure 6.6 presents on the left a screenshot of the Eclipse
menu including the option to create MD-SPL projects. On the
right,Figure 6.6 presents the folder structure of an empty MD-
SPL project.
6.4.2. Metamodels and feature models creation
In MDE, the metamodel creation is an important activity;
thissectiondescribestheapproachproposedbyFieStaandalso
how to create specific feature models.
6.4.2.1. Metamodels creation
Once an MD-SPL project has been created, product line
architects can create metamodels and feature models. Product