Integration of textual and graphical editors in Eclipse ... · PDF fileIntegration of textual and graphical editors in Eclipse ... • Where do we instantiate the Xtext editor?

Integration of textual and graphical editors in Eclipse (Mid-term presentation)

Edin Dudojević Supervision: • Mark van den Brand (TU/e) • Arjan Mooij (ESI)

Presentation overview

• Introduction • Integration requirements • Available technology

• Partial-model editing

• Graphically • Textually

• Questions

/ Department of Computer Science PAGE 1 19-2-2014

Introduction SHESim


SHESim Editor

Need for this master project as a result from work of Zlatka Manevska: • re-design SHESim, improve usability and user experience • Migrate to the Eclipse platform • Use both graphical and textual editors for models

• Integration of graphical and textual editor no success

Eclipse

Focus in my project is not on SHESim but on the problem in general

Introduction Problem

When creating models we usually also want to view and edit them in some way:

• View: a representation of (a part) of the model − Textual, graphical, tree-view, ..

• Editor: a view that allows us to manipulate and save our model


Introduction Problem

Models tend to get big • Use high-level (layered) or partial model views • Show only relevant parts of model

But we want more • Multiple editors on the same (partial) model • Both textually and graphically

We need full synchronization! • Propagation of changes to all views


Introduction Problem statement

We want to be able to edit our model from multiple editors, both textually and graphically, while keeping everything synchronized, independent of the model language being used. Questions: • How can this be done in a systematic and generic way? • Are there any patterns that we can identify?


Integration requirements

Use cases: • SLCO and POOSL languages

High-level integration requirements • Hierarchical views • Propagation of changes − Adding/removing elements − Dealing with references


Frameworks for textual editors • Xtext, EMFText Frameworks for graphical editors • GMF/EuGENia, Graphiti/Spray..

Available technology

A lot of technologies available, which ones to use?


Low-level Intermediate level

High level { { {

Available technology


Easy choice: Xtext and GMF! • Most widely used • Large communities • Good documentation

(relatively)

But what do Xtext and GMF provide out of the box?

Available technology (cntd.)

Xtext – GMF synchronization

Greetings DEMO

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• Xtext – GMF synchronization DEMO

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greetings.mydsl greetings.mydsl_diagram

Xtext editor

….. <element xmi:type="myDsl:Greeting" href="greetings.mydsl#//@greetings.0"/> ….

GMF editor

Hello Earth!

Hello Earth! Earth



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greetings.mydsl greetings.mydsl_diagram ….. <element xmi:type="myDsl:Greeting" href="greetings.mydsl#//@greetings.0"/> ….

Hello Earth!

Meta-model

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These are synchronizations on entire models

How about partial-model editing?

/ Department of Computer Science

Partial-model editing


ecore

genmodel

HL.gmfgraph Sub.gmfgraph

HL.gmftool

HL.gmfmap

HL.gmftool

Sub.gmfmap


HL.gmfgen Sub.gmfgen

We can even create recursive sub-diagrams (i.e. folders and files on an OS)

Partial-model editing GMF sub-diagrams



Web application DEMO



high-level model editor Meta-model

A B



Meta-model

A

x

y

B

z

sub-diagram model-editor

high-level model editor

Partial-model editing


✓

Partial-model editing Xtext

Can we simply do the same thing with Xtext?


• Unfortunately, no. (no out-of-the-box feature to do this) • There are a couple of significant issues:

1. Xtext usually only works with physical files − Should we create separate files for sub-models? − Separate Xtext editors, similar to the GMF approach?

2. Xtext+GMF on same semantical in-memory model = problem − A separate in-memory resource for an Xtext instantiation?

This is still a work in progress


Other things to keep in mind


• Where do we instantiate the Xtext editor? • Adapt the default code or can we extend it? • Performance issues? • Maintenance of code • Future-proofness − To some point resistant to Xtext/GMF/Eclipse changes − Small changes to meta-model should not be a problem



What have others done? • Multiple repositories with proof-of-concept code

− Old versions of Xtext/Eclipse/EMF/etc. (period of 2009-2011) − No documentation

• Multiple eclipse-based tools with embedded editors − MPS (DSL development environment) − Yakindu Statecharts Tools (seems most promising approach a.t.m.) − Evolve (architecture modeling) − etc.

Summary

• Graphical model navigation (GMF) • ☑ Graphical partial models in new tabs

• Textual model navigation (Xtext)

• ☑ In-diagram embedded label editor • ☐ In-diagram embedded sub-tree editor • ☐ Textual partial models in new tabs


Questions?

? / Department of Computer Science PAGE 23 19-2-2014

Documents

Integration of textual and graphical editors in Eclipse ... · PDF fileIntegration of textual and graphical editors in Eclipse ... • Where do we instantiate the Xtext editor?