Model Driven Development of Content Management Applications

Building applications on databases or content management systems involves various stages such as schema design, business logic design and UI design. We explore a model driven design approach, in which the application building process is initiated by building a model. The model includes various aspects such as the data model and business rules definitions. Once the model is defined, other components can be generated automatically from it. These components are then used to build the rest of the application. We have developed an integrated, extensible platform for supporting the different roles in this process: Data Architect, Application Developer & Web Interface Designer. The data architect role is supported by tooling that supports visual repository schema design and data modeling in a disconnected mode. The application developer and UI designer role is supported by tooling that allows business and process logic to be assembled at a high level of abstraction, potentially without the need for specialized coding skills. The challenge addressed by this approach is to bridge the gaps found at the boundaries of development tooling and allow for a smooth transition across the various roles, thus enabling rapid development of content management based enterprise applications.