SPViz: A DSL-Driven Approach for Software Project Visualization Tooling

Niklas Rentz, Reinhard von Hanxleden

2025

Abstract

For most service architectures, such as OSGi and Spring, architecture-specific tools allow software developers and architects to visualize configurations that are usually spread through project files. Such visualization tools are used for documentation purposes and help to understand programs. However, such tools often do not address project-specific peculiarities, or do not exist at all for less common architectures. We propose a DSL-driven approach that allows software architects to define and adapt their own project visualization tool. The approach, which we refer to as Software Project Visualization (SPViz), uses two DSLs, one to describe architectural elements and their relationships, and one to describe how these should be visualized. We demonstrate how SPViz can then automatically synthesize a customized, project-specific visualization tool that can adapt to changes in the underlying project automatically. We implemented our approach in an open-source library and discuss and analyze three different tools that follow this concept, including open-source projects and projects from an industrial partner in the railway domain.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Rentz N. and von Hanxleden R. (2025). SPViz: A DSL-Driven Approach for Software Project Visualization Tooling. In Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: IVAPP; ISBN 978-989-758-728-3, SciTePress, pages 967-974. DOI: 10.5220/0013356800003912

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ivapp25,
author={Niklas Rentz and Reinhard von Hanxleden},
title={SPViz: A DSL-Driven Approach for Software Project Visualization Tooling},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: IVAPP},
year={2025},
pages={967-974},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013356800003912},
isbn={978-989-758-728-3},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: IVAPP
TI - SPViz: A DSL-Driven Approach for Software Project Visualization Tooling
SN - 978-989-758-728-3
AU - Rentz N.
AU - von Hanxleden R.
PY - 2025
SP - 967
EP - 974
DO - 10.5220/0013356800003912
PB - SciTePress