A Metamodeling Approach to Pattern Specification and Detection

This report presents the Pattern Modeling Framework (PMF), a new metamodeling approach to pattern specification and detection for MOFcompliant modeling frameworks and languages. Patterns need to be precisely specified before a tool can manipulate them, and though several approaches to pattern specification have been proposed, they do not provide the scalability and flexibility required in practice. PMF provides a pattern specification language called Epattern, which is capable of precisely specifying patterns in MOF-compliant metamodels. The language is defined as an extension to MOF by adding semantics inspired from the UML composite structure diagram. The language also comes with a graphical notation and a recommended iterative specification process. It also contains features to manage the complexity of specifying patterns and simplify their application and detection in user models. Most importantly, the language is implemented using state-of-the-art technologies that are heavily used by major modeling tool vendors, thus facilitating its adoption. The report also presents a systematic way to derive a pattern detection algorithm from an Epattern specification. The algorithm can be configured by special semantics in the specification without compromising the structural definition of the pattern. This allows pattern authors to leverage their knowledge of the pattern’s target language to create more efficient detection algorithms.