The goal of this thesis is to develop an easily modifiable sensor system. To achieve this goal SensorML (an XML based sensor language) is combined with Java Beans (a component model language). An important part of SensorML is its process model. Each sensor in the real world is depicted in SensorML by a process model, whereas the connections between the sensors are shown by a process chain. This thesis presents a translator that reads these documents and converts them to Java Beans. Through testing the Translator is proved more efficient than the convenient Object Oriented approach. / UOIT

As a result of Internet popularly, the World Wide Web, a killer application which improves the global network, is used much more frequently. Because World Wide Web is browsed through GUI (Graphic User Interface) which allows end-user to interact and operate with internet websites easily, more and more websites are created and operating. For this moment, the web based GUI proved its advantages that it can be applied not only to general website but also to electronic commerce, enterprise information system, and system resources administration. Today, the processing architecture evolves from early centralized processing architecture to recently distributed processing architecture which is composed of several servers and in which each server is responsible for a different system service. But because each system platform runs on its own unique operating system, system administrators have difficulties operating it. Due to increased numbers of servers, a well-defined systematic management architecture and remote management is necessary. This thesis contains the designs of web based system administration architecture through the designs of united library interface to increase the convenience of expansion on library. In this paper, a prototype system created during the research development will serve as theory verification and as an example for developers of future system management platforms.

Today, modeling the software with unified modeling language (UML), model driven architecture (MDA) concept, and computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool are the main trend for the objected-oriented systems analysis and design. Furthermore, to enhance the degree of transformation automation and design reuse in the system development process, object constraint language (OCL) is used in UML modeling to specify the navigation, constraint, operation specification, and so forth. However, the guideline for using OCL in class diagram specification and its transformation to JAVA code is lacking. This research presents an approach utilizing the OCL to specify the constraint and operation specification for the class diagram when modeling the platform independent model (PIM), which can then be transformed into the JAVA platform specific model (PSM) and code using a CASE tool. A real-world case using the integrated techniques is presented and a CASE tool is used to illustrate the concepts, application, and the advantages of using the proposed approach. With this approach, the system developer can transform PIM into PSM and code automatically and thereby enhance the efficiency of system development.

This study presents a systematic methodology which integrated the model driven architecture with object-oriented technique to transform the user interface (UI) platform independent model (PIM) into Web-based UI platform specific model (PSM), and then into code model. A real-world case using the integrated techniques is presented and the Rational Rose is used to illustrate the concepts, application, and the advantages of using the proposed methodology. With this approach, the system developer can transform UI PIM into Web-based UI PSM and code automatically and thereby enhance the efficiency of system development.

Today, unified modeling language (UML) has become a standard modeling language in object-oriented systems analysis and design. Over the past few years a considerable effort has been made in synthesizing UML, MDA (model driven architecture), design patterns and CASE tool to increase the productivity of the system development. Specifying the design patterns with object constraint language (OCL) has become a main trend in this area. This study classifies the OCL expressions and design patterns and presents a method to specify each design pattern with the OCL and UML when modeling the platform independent model which can then be transformed into the platform dependent model, and to a code model. A real-world case using the integrated techniques is presented and a CASE tool is used to illustrate the concepts, application, and the advantages of using the proposed approach. With this approach, the system developer can transform PIM into code automatically and thereby enhance the efficiency and reusability of system development.

Feature modeling is a common way of representing commonality and variability in Software Product Lines. There are alternative notations reported in the literature to represent feature models. Compared to the graphical notations, the text-based notations are more amenable to automated processing and tool interoperability. This study presents an XML-based feature modeling language to represent extended feature models that can include complex relationships involving attributes. We first provide a Context Free Grammar for the extended feature model definitions including such complex relationships. Then we build the XML Schema Definitions and present a number of XML instances in accordance with the defined schema. In addition, we discuss a validation process for the validation of the XML instances against the defined schema, which also includes additional tasks such as well-formedness checking for the XML instances.

Graphical user interface (GUI) has become the key element of modern information systems and is commonly viewed as one of the decisive factors for the success of an information system project. To help develop effective GUIs, many tools have been introduced by software vendors to meet the needs of designing a variety of interfaces. Such modern design tools offer system developer vehicles to create sophisticated GUI with a few codes. However, the complicity of many GUIs and the varying expectations among users, designers and developers make the communication among them and the use of most prevailing design tools a real challenge. An integrated tool for better design and development of GUIs may help alleviate the problems caused by the mis-communication and the knowledge gaps existing among users, designers and developers. In this paper, a new design tool, which integrates the GUI design techniques embedded in Unified Modeling Language (UML) and the Presentation-Abstraction-Control (PAC) model in Web environment (Net-PAC) is proposed. The potential problems of using vendor-provided design methodology will be presented. Special features of the proposed integrated tool will then be discussed. Some real-world cases using the integrated techniques will be presented to illustrate the advantages of using proposed methodology.

Graphical modeling is becoming an increasingly important part of software engineering as it provides means of increasing productivity by raising the level of abstraction in software devel-opment. One of the most widely adopted modeling notations is the Unified Modeling Language (UML) which has gained popularity due to its generality and broad applicability. Despite its advantages, this general purpose notation is burdened with the lack of purpose specific model-ing abstractions. The modeling abstractions in the language lack specialized properties and thus models might not precisely express the intentions of the modeler. In consequence, this leads to ineffectiveness of using models in UML. This thesis presents research aimed at improving modeling with UML. By exploiting the language customization mechanisms inherent in UML – stereotypes and profiles – the research presented in the thesis explores such aspects of improving modeling as creating language cus-tomizations or using a customized modeling language. The context, in which the modeling is considered, is delineated by the principles of model driven software development (MDD). The principles recognize the usage of models as the primary artefacts in software development thus providing a solid foundation for considering the use of models in software development. One of the contributions in the thesis is the identification and definition of factors determin-ing the successful realization of MDD in industry. These factors provide means of positioning language customization in the forefront of MDD. Another contribution in the thesis is eliciting and prioritizing a set of criteria for choosing between language customization mechanisms, which is a result of another industrial case study. A series of experiments in academic and industrial environments showed the magnitude of improvements to be expected after replacing a standard modeling language with a customized modeling notation. This series of experiments provided a basis for experimenting with stereo-types and software inspections which indicated a considerable increase in effectiveness of the reading techniques used in software inspections after replacing a standard notation with a cus-tomized one. The results from all empirical studies affected the development of quality assessment crite-ria for stereotypes. The criteria and the exploration of several existing profiles led to the devel-opment of guidelines for creating “good” stereotypes by analyzing existing UML profiles. An additional contribution in the thesis is exploring the usage of an alternative mechanism to stereo-types – model libraries – for adaptation of a modeling language. The way in which model librar-ies can be created in an efficient way is studied by creating a method for extracting knowledge from ontologies into UML domain models. The results of the research presented in the thesis show how to improve modeling with UML by customizing the language with stereotypes. The main contribution is the exploration and evaluation of issues related to creating language customizations and using the customized language.

H Ενοποιημένη Γλώσσα Μοντελοποίησης (Unified Modeling Language) αποτελεί την πρότυπη και πλέον δημοφιλή γλώσσα για την οπτικοποίηση, προσδιορισμό, ανάπτυξη και τεκμηρίωση συστημάτων λογισμικού και όχι μόνο. Η πλούσια γραφική σημειολογία της UML σε συνδυασμό με τις δυνατότητες μοντελοποίησης που παρέχει, την καθιστούν ικανή να χρησιμοποιηθεί στην ανάπτυξη ενσωματωμένων συστημάτων. Ωστόσο, στα ενσωματωμένα συστήματα, αλλά και γενικότερα σε συστήματα συγκεκριμένου πεδίου υπάρχουν κάποιοι επιπλέον παράγοντες που πρέπει να ληφθούν υπόψη. Οι επεκτάσεις της UML δίνουν τη δυνατότητα αναπαράστασης των βασικών χαρακτηριστικών των ενσωματωμένων συστημάτων. Επιπλέον, παρέχουν νέες μεθόδους σχεδιασμού που επιτρέπουν τον διαμερισμό εφαρμογής και αρχιτεκτονικής, για ένα πιο αποδοτικό και επαναχρησιμοποιήσιμο σύστημα. Στην παρούσα εργασία μελετώνται τα βασικά στοιχεία της UML καθώς και η χρήση της στην ανάπτυξη ενσωματωμένων συστημάτων. Στη συνέχεια, χρησιμοποιώντας τη UML μοντελοποιείται και αναπτύσσεται η εφαρμογή ελέγχου ενός συστήματος γραμμής παραγωγής, του Festo MPS. Επιπλέον, αναπτύσσεται και υλοποιείται εφαρμογή εξομοίωσης του φυσικού συστήματος Festo MPS για την επιβεβαίωση της σωστής λειτουργίας της εφαρμογής ελέγχου. / The Unified Modeling Language (UML) constitutes the most popular standardized language for visualizing, specifying and documenting all the artefacts of a software system. Its rich graphical notation, in combination with the modelling facilities it provides, makes it possible for UML to be used in the development of embedded systems. However, in embedded system design, as well as in specific domain problems, there are some additional factors that should be taken into consideration. The extensions of UML provide the opportunity for representing the basic features of embedded systems. In addition, these extensions provide new design methods which allow the separation of the application from the architecture, leading to a more efficient and reusable system. At this thesis the basic elements of UML as well as its use in the development of embedded systems are studied. Moreover, using UML, the control application of a linear production system, Festo MPS is modelled and developed. Finally, a simulator application of the physical system Festo MPS is developed, in order to verify that the constructed control application works properly.

La tesis propone un lenguaje específico de dominio (DSL) para modelar Sistemas Colaborativos (CSSL - Collaborative Software System Language). Este lenguaje fue diseñado como una extensión de UML usando el mecanismo de metamodelado y posee una sintaxis abstracta formalizada que permitirá entre otras cosas definir más de una sintaxis concreta a partir de ella, lo cual aumenta la legibilidad y flexibilidad del lenguaje. Finalmente se presenta una guía que facilita la construcción de Sistemas Colaborativos. Dentro del paradigma MDD (Model Driven Development) y utilizando el lenguaje CSSL se describe las etapas iniciales de un método para modelar los Sistemas Colaborativos.