Quality Improvement in Data Models with SLFD-based OCL Constraints

Rosario Baena, Roberto Aragón, Manuel Enciso, Carlos Rossi, Pablo Cordero, Ángel Mora

2013

Abstract

Software verification and modeling quality are permanent challenges in software development. So, smarter and more cohesive methods for the creation and maintenance of data models without loss of quality are required as model complexity increases in current academic and industrial MDE-based system designs. In-place endogenous model transformations (refactorings) are an efficient and straightforward approach to deal with data model complexity, but ad-hoc and frequent transformations must be performed to maintain model quality. In this paper we explore an alternative method to ensure the quality of data models: correction by contract. We propose a new method for the creation and maintenance of static data models (relational, entity-relationship or class models) with enhanced quality. We will use an executable logic for functional dependencies to characterize data model redundancy and we define a set of OCL constraints to guide the construction and maintenance of the models. We also illustrate this approach with a simplified intermediate metamodel (FDMM) for functional dependencies over a data model to show the potential benefits of the method.

References

  1. Akehurst, D., Bordbar, B., Rodgers, P., and Dalgliesh, N. (2002). Automatic Normalisation via Metamodelling. In ASE 2002 Workshop on Declarative Meta Programming to Support Software Development.
  2. Armstrong, W. W. (1974). Dependency structures of data base relationships. In IFIP Congress, pages 580-583.
  3. Brambilla, M., Cabot, J., and Wimmer, M. (2012). Modeldriven Software Engineering in Practice. Synthesis digital library of engineering and computer science. Morgan & Claypool Publishers.
  4. Cabot, J. and Gogolla, M. (2012). Object constraint language (OCL): a definitive guide. In Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Formal Methods for the Design of Computer, Communication, and Software Systems: formal methods for model-driven engineering, SFM'12, pages 58-90, Berlin, Heidelberg. Springer-Verlag.
  5. Clavel, M., Egea, M., and de Dios, M. A. G. (2009). Checking unsatisfiability for ocl constraints. ECEASST, 24.
  6. Cordero, P., Enciso, M., and Angel, M. (2013). Automated reasoning to infer all minimal keys. International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Beijin, China.
  7. Cordero, P., Enciso, M., Mora, A., and Guzmán, I. P. d. (2002). Slfd logic: Elimination of data redundancy in knowledge representation. In Proceedings of the 8th Ibero-American Conference on AI: Advances in Artificial Intelligence, IBERAMIA 2002, pages 141-150, London, UK, UK. Springer-Verlag.
  8. Demuth, B. (2004). The dresden ocl toolkit and its role in information systems development. In Proc. of the 13th International Conference on Information Systems Development (ISD2004).
  9. Enciso, M., Rossi, C., and Guevara, A. (2012). A metamodel for functional dependencies - towards a functional dependency model transformation. In ICSOFT'12, pages 291-296.
  10. Lano, K. and Kolahdouz-Rahimi, S. (2012). Constraintbased specification of model transformations. Journal of Systems and Software.
  11. Mens, T. and Gorp, P. V. (2006). A taxonomy of model transformation. Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 152(0):125 - 142.
  12. Meyer, B. (1997). Object-oriented software construction (2nd ed.). Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA.
  13. Mora, A., Cordero, P., Enciso, M., Fortes, I., and Aguilera, G. (2012). Closure via functional dependence simplification. International Journal of Computer Mathematics, 89(4):510-526.
  14. Mora, n., Enciso, M., Cordero, P., and Prez de Guzmn, I. (2004). An efficient preprocessing transformation for functional dependencies sets based on the substitution paradigm. In Conejo, R., Urretavizcaya, M., and Prezde-la Cruz, J.-L., editors, Current Topics in Artificial Intelligence, volume 3040 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 136-146. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
  15. OMG (2012). Object Constraint Language (OCL). OMG Standard, v. 2.3.1.
  16. Siikarla, M., Peltonen, J., and Selonen, P. (2004). Combining ocl and programming languages for uml model processing. In Proceedings of the Workshop, OCL, volume 2, pages 175-194.
  17. Ullman, J. D. and Widom, J. (1997). A first course in database systems. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Baena R., Aragón R., Enciso M., Rossi C., Cordero P. and Mora Á. (2013). Quality Improvement in Data Models with SLFD-based OCL Constraints . In Proceedings of the 8th International Joint Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT-PT, (ICSOFT 2013) ISBN 978-989-8565-68-6, pages 563-569. DOI: 10.5220/0004593405630569


in Bibtex Style

@conference{icsoft-pt13,
author={Rosario Baena and Roberto Aragón and Manuel Enciso and Carlos Rossi and Pablo Cordero and Ángel Mora},
title={Quality Improvement in Data Models with SLFD-based OCL Constraints},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 8th International Joint Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT-PT, (ICSOFT 2013)},
year={2013},
pages={563-569},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004593405630569},
isbn={978-989-8565-68-6},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 8th International Joint Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT-PT, (ICSOFT 2013)
TI - Quality Improvement in Data Models with SLFD-based OCL Constraints
SN - 978-989-8565-68-6
AU - Baena R.
AU - Aragón R.
AU - Enciso M.
AU - Rossi C.
AU - Cordero P.
AU - Mora Á.
PY - 2013
SP - 563
EP - 569
DO - 10.5220/0004593405630569