Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the specification of tag values of stereotyped elements normally implies a long
sequence of interactions with the tool. This is especially relevant in the case of
the specification of correspondences in UML4ODP, given that the number of
correspondences is normally large and the related elements need to be selected
individually for each correspondence.
Tools can be a great help in such a
situation.
It is possible to define correspondences in a more succinct and visual man-
ner, using stereotyped dependencies between the related elements (although
the direction of the dependency is not significant). For example, a tool can
extend the UML4ODP standard notation for expressing correspondences, pro-
viding a shorthand notation that is easier and quicker to draw, while, at the
same time, providing a more intuitive representation. Using it would allow
the relations between elements to be shown very quickly, with the core facili-
ties available in most UML drawing tools. The diagram depicted in figure 7.5
shows an alternative representation of the correspondence between a binding
object and an engineering channel that was shown in figure 7.4a.
«CorrespondenceLink»
«CV_BindingObject»
bindingObject1
«NV_Channel»
Ch3
FIGURE 7.5: A simpler representation of the binding object to engineering
channel correspondence.
A tool can take care of the model transformations required to convert
automatically correspondences specified in this way to correspondence speci-
fications that conform to the UML4ODP standard notation, and vice versa.
Similarly, the user does not need to specify all correspondences manually
in all cases because a tool can easily specify all correspondences between the
elements in different viewpoints that are closely related according to some
given criterion (for instance, having the same name), or defined in an implicit
way using rules (expressed, for example, using QVT relations | see chap-
ter 15). It is normally easier to fine tune a set of correspondences produced
automatically from a small set of implicit relations than to start from scratch
and then have to specify a large number of individual correspondences one by
one.
