Model-Based Development of Web Applications Using Graphical Reaction Rules

The OMG’s Model-Driven Architecture focusses on the evolution and integration of applications across heterogeneous middleware platforms. Presently available instances of this idea are mostly limited to static models. We propose a model-driven approach to the development of web-enabled applications, seen as reactive information systems on an HTTP-based communication platform, which covers both static and dynamic aspects. To support the separate change of both platform and functionality we separate at model and implementation level the platform-independent application logic from classes specific to technologies like HTML or SOAP. We discuss a notion of consistency between models at different abstraction levels based on a concept of graphical reaction rules, i.e., graph transformation rules which integrate data state transformation and reactive behavior.