Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Model-to-Text Transformation (M2T) Project
Alternatives exist within the Modeling project for model-to-text transformation.
Perhaps the most well-known is the Java Emitter Templates (JET) component,
which EMF itself uses. Xpand is an increasingly popular template engine, used
extensively by the GMF project. You will develop model-to-text transformations
using Xpand in Chapter 7, “Developing Model-to-Text Transformations.”
1.5.4 Model Development Tools (MDT)
The MDT project within Modeling does not fall into any previous categoriza-
tion. The focus of this project is to provide so-called big “M” modeling capabil-
ities—that is, those based on industry-standard models, such as those produced
by the OMG.
Currently, MDT consists of several components, each of which I briefly
describe next. Although this topic touches on some of these components, the
range of functionality that MDT provides deserves a topic of its own. Until such
time, you can find documentation for these components on the Modeling Web
site and wiki pages.
XML Schema (XSD)
An important component within the MDT project that extends the capabilities of
EMF is XSD. Many XSDs are available for application- and industry-standard
models, so it is useful to import them into EMF and work with them as you would
any Ecore model. Special annotations are added to the model created when
importing an XSD, which allows EMF to serialize these model instances as valid
XML documents that conform to their schema definition. Section 6.7.1,
“Importing an XSD,” uses the XSD for XHTML to produce a report using model-
to-model transformation.
UML2
The UML2 component provides an EMF-based implementation of the OMG's
UML2 metamodel. This component serves as the de facto “reference implemen-
tation” of the specification and was developed in collaboration with the specifi-
cation itself. The UML2 component also provides support for UML Profiles.
Although this component focuses on the implementation of the metamodel, it
provides an enhanced version of the EMF-generated editor. UML2 diagramming
functionality is left to the UML2 Tools component.
Noted that although this topic focuses on Ecore as the metamodel for creat-
ing the abstract syntax of DSLs, the UML2 metamodel provides another option.
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