Forschungsprojekt feasiPLe

Viewer and Editor for Feature Models

Feature models establish the foundation for the specification of a product lines problem space. They allow for a hierarchal decomposition of the variability of a product line and the specification of dependencies between features. A precise specification of the problem space forms the base for the subsequent steps of product line realisation and variant configuration.

Thus, tools for the visual development of feature models are required which can easily be integrated with tools for product line realisation and variant configuration.

Feature Modelling with pure::variants

The product pure::variants by the pure-systems GmbH is an industrial proven tool, which provides means for both, the analysis/specification of product line variability and the realisation of software product lines. For feature modelling several feature types (optional, mandatory, alternative, grouping of features and dependencies between features (mutual exclusion, implication) are supported. The feature editor offers different representations of feature models - as tree, in a table or as graph.

pure::variants

Extensions to Feature Modelling

Successing the original FODA-notation a number of extensions (e.g. binding times, cardinalities, attributes, annotations, views, constraints and templates) were proposed and partly introduced. Unfortunately, existing tools do not fully support the convenient modelling of these extensions. Thus we developed a prototype, which enhances the visualisation capabilities of existing tools and is build upon the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) and the visualisation frameworks GEF and GMF.

It implements the following FODA-extensions:

• Arbitrary feature cardinalities
• Arbitrary group cardinalities
• Typed feature attributes
• Extensible feature annotations(for binding times, test annotations, priorities)
• Feature references
• Feature templates
• OCL-based feature constraints

This screencast demonstrates the functions of the current prototype.

Watch the Screencast

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