Metamodel Search: Using XPath to Search Domain-Specific Models

A common task that is often needed in many software development tools is the capability to search the artifact that is being created in a flexible and efficient manner. However, this capability is typically absent in meta-programmable modeling tools, which can be a serious disadvantage as the size of a model increases. As a remedy, we introduce a method to search domain models using XPath – a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard that uses logical predicates to search an XML document. In this paper, an XPath search engine is described that traverses the internal representation of a modeling tool (rather than an XML document) and returns those model entities that match the XPath predicate expression. A set of search queries are demonstrated on a case study.