Automated Generation of Platform-Variant Applications from Platform-Independent Models via Templates

Model-driven development raises the level of abstraction so that software engineers can focus on design rather than implementation and platform-specific details. This paper presents a model-centric approach to MDD, where platform code is generated from a platform-independent model describing platform-variant families of products. The generation is done via templates; the variation point lies in the alternative execution platforms. Our approach is based on EP, a formal executable modelling language, supplemented with OCL, and FTL, a formal language of templates. The paper illustrates the approach by generating applications from the same abstract model that run on both Googleâ Android and Apple iPhone mobile platforms. The paper contribution are: (a) it realises the MDD approach using formal languages, in particular the use of a formal language of templates and (b) it illustrates the approach by generating code for two distinct platforms.