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Advanced Model Consistency Restoration with Higher-Order Short-Cut Rules

Lars Fritsche, Jens Kosiol, Alexander Lauer, Adrian Möller, Andy Schürr

TL;DR

The paper tackles the problem of sequential model synchronisation in MDE, where preserving information while applying minimal changes is critical. It proposes higher-order Short-Cut Rules that repair multiple rule applications simultaneously by deriving replacing and replaced rules on-the-fly, formalized as an ILP problem and integrated into the eMoflon tool. The key contributions include a runtime analysis to generate HO-SC rules, an ILP-based construction framework for concatenating rule candidates and mapping context elements, and an evaluation showing that HO-SC can preserve more information in complex scenarios, sometimes with acceptable or even favorable performance. Practically, this work enhances the capability of TGG-based synchronisation to handle complex change cascades without information loss, enabling more robust and scalable model management in MDE workflows.

Abstract

Sequential model synchronisation is the task of propagating changes from one model to another correlated one to restore consistency. It is challenging to perform this propagation in a least-changing way that avoids unnecessary deletions (which might cause information loss). From a theoretical point of view, so-called short-cut (SC) rules have been developed that enable provably correct propagation of changes while avoiding information loss. However, to be able to react to every possible change, an infinite set of such rules might be necessary. Practically, only small sets of pre-computed basic SC rules have been used, severely restricting the kind of changes that can be propagated without loss of information. In this work, we close that gap by developing an approach to compute more complex required SC rules on-the-fly during synchronisation. These higher-order SC rules allow us to cope with more complex scenarios when multiple changes must be handled in one step. We implemented our approach in the model transformation tool eMoflon. An evaluation shows that the overhead of computing higher-order SC rules on-the-fly is tolerable and at times even improves the overall performance. Above that, completely new scenarios can be dealt with without the loss of information.

Advanced Model Consistency Restoration with Higher-Order Short-Cut Rules

TL;DR

The paper tackles the problem of sequential model synchronisation in MDE, where preserving information while applying minimal changes is critical. It proposes higher-order Short-Cut Rules that repair multiple rule applications simultaneously by deriving replacing and replaced rules on-the-fly, formalized as an ILP problem and integrated into the eMoflon tool. The key contributions include a runtime analysis to generate HO-SC rules, an ILP-based construction framework for concatenating rule candidates and mapping context elements, and an evaluation showing that HO-SC can preserve more information in complex scenarios, sometimes with acceptable or even favorable performance. Practically, this work enhances the capability of TGG-based synchronisation to handle complex change cascades without information loss, enabling more robust and scalable model management in MDE workflows.

Abstract

Sequential model synchronisation is the task of propagating changes from one model to another correlated one to restore consistency. It is challenging to perform this propagation in a least-changing way that avoids unnecessary deletions (which might cause information loss). From a theoretical point of view, so-called short-cut (SC) rules have been developed that enable provably correct propagation of changes while avoiding information loss. However, to be able to react to every possible change, an infinite set of such rules might be necessary. Practically, only small sets of pre-computed basic SC rules have been used, severely restricting the kind of changes that can be propagated without loss of information. In this work, we close that gap by developing an approach to compute more complex required SC rules on-the-fly during synchronisation. These higher-order SC rules allow us to cope with more complex scenarios when multiple changes must be handled in one step. We implemented our approach in the model transformation tool eMoflon. An evaluation shows that the overhead of computing higher-order SC rules on-the-fly is tolerable and at times even improves the overall performance. Above that, completely new scenarios can be dealt with without the loss of information.
Paper Structure (32 sections, 10 equations, 16 figures)

This paper contains 32 sections, 10 equations, 16 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Fundamentals
  3. Running Example & Triple Graph Grammars
  4. Precedence Graphs & Synchronisation
  5. Preserving Information using Short-Cut Rules
  6. Higher-Order Short-Cut Rules
  7. Exemplifying the Need for Higher-Order Short-Cut Rules
  8. Deriving Higher-Order Short-Cut Rules On-the-fly
  9. Discussion
  10. ILP-based Construction
  11. Concatenation of rule candidates
  12. Encoding rule applications and their dependencies
  13. Encoding possible dependencies of target context
  14. Combining rule applications and context dependency
  15. Optimisation goal
  16. ...and 17 more sections

Figures (16)

  • Figure 1: Source, Target and Correspondence Metamodel
  • Figure 2: TGG Rules
  • Figure 3: Synchronisation Example
  • Figure 4: Cube-To-VillaShort-Cut Rule
  • Figure 5: Synchronisation Example
  • ...and 11 more figures