Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
1.7.2 UML4ODP in a Nutshell
The UML4ODP standard defines both a UML-based notation for the ex-
pression of the ODP system specifications and an approach for structuring
them using that notation, thus providing the basis for model development
methods. This makes the UML4ODP notation useful not only to ODP mod-
ellers who want to use UML to describe their ODP systems, but also to UML
modellers who have to deal with the specification of nontrivial systems and
need some approach to structure their large UML system specifications.
UML4ODP uses standard UML concepts and relies on the standard exten-
sion mechanisms provided by UML for defining new languages and, in partic-
ular, on UML profiles. More precisely, UML4ODP defines seven related UML
profiles: one for each ODP viewpoint, one for describing correspondences and
one for modelling conformance in ODP system specifications (see chapter 8).
All the model diagrams shown in this topic are drawn using these proles.
Thus, an ODP system specification expressed in UML4ODP consists of
a single UML model stereotyped
«
ODP SystemSpec
»
that contains a set of
models, one for each viewpoint specification, each stereotyped
«
<X>Spec
»
,
where<X>is the viewpoint concerned (see figure 1.4). Each viewpoint spec-
ification uses the appropriate UML profile for that language.
«ODP_SystemSpec»
PhoneMob
«Enterprise_Spec»
PhoneMob (E_Spec)
«Information_Spec»
PhoneMob (I_Spec)
«Computational_Spec»
PhoneMob (C_Spec)
«Engineering_Spec»
PhoneMob (N_Spec)
«Technology_Spec»
PhoneMob (T_Spec)
FIGURE 1.4: The viewpoints contributing to an ODP system specification,
expressed using UML4ODP.
In the profiles, stereotypes are used to represent the ODP concepts as
specializations of the appropriate UML metaclasses. For example, figure 1.5
shows the UML profile for the information viewpoint language, as specified
in the UML4ODP standard. It defines eight stereotypes and the UML meta-
classes they extend. Some of the stereotypes have associated icons (shown in
the right upper corner of the stereotype box). Icons are very useful because
they provide an intuitive notation to the users of the ODP specifications.
This becomes particularly important in some viewpoints, such as the enter-
prise viewpoint. The designer must decide how much of this information to
show in any particular diagram. In this topic, for example, we generally show
the icons, and include stereotype names where doing so helps understanding,
