VIATRA2

Quick links

• Project page
• CVS
• Downloads
• BugTracker
• VIATRA2 Frequently Asked Questions
• VIATRA2 Basics
• VIATRA2 Examples
• VIATRA2 Components

Project Overview

The main objective of the VIATRA2 (VIsual Automated model TRAnsformations) framework is to provide a general-purpose support for the entire life-cycle of engineering model transformations including the specification, design, execution, validation and maintenance of transformations within and between various modeling languages and domains.

VIATRA2 intends to complement existing model transformation frameworks in providing

• a model space for uniform representation of models and metamodels
• a transformation language with
  • both declarative and imperative features
  • based upon popular formal mathematical techniques of graph transformation (GT) and abstract state machines (ASM)
• a high performance transformation engine
  • supporting incremental model transformations
  • trigger-driven live transformations where complex model changes may trigger execution of transformations
  • handling well over 100,000 model elements (see our benchmarks)
• with main target application domains in
  • model-based tool integration framework
  • model analysis transformations

Further issues frequently asked by users:

• Conformance to standards
• Known uses of VIATRA2

Conformance to Related Standards

While on the one hand, the underlying modeling and transformation concepts of VIATRA2 are nonstandard (i.e. the VPM metamodeling core is more expressive than MOF, and the transformation language is not QVT), on the other hand, VIATRA2 plans to support these related standards by offering (i) powerful and extensible model importers and exporters and (ii) domain specific languages integrated to the framework as VIATRA2 (and thus Eclipse) plug-ins. For instance, the QVT standard is intended to be supported by translating QVT descriptions into ASM and GT rules. Model importers accepting the XMI-based models of the state-of-the-art UML modeling tools (such as IBM Rational Software Architect) will be part of the initial contribution, and importers for additional tools will be added later on.

Target Audience / End Users

The VIATRA2 framework currently serves as the underlying model transformation technology of the ongoing DECOS European IP in the field of dependable embedded systems. Moreover, VIATRA2 will serve as a key underlying model transformation technology for several additional projects on the European level which will start in the upcoming 6 months.

In this way, academic and industrial partners in these projects would become the first end users of the framework, and they would highly benefit from an open source initiative. These projects would provide noticeable international visibility to VIATRA2 as well as the entire GMT project. Moreover, many interesting directions for future developments have already been evolved (and will continuously evolve) using the feedbacks from partners.

Furthermore, we start two academic courses on VIATRA2–related subjects from September 2005: a course for PhD students (Foundations of Model-Driven Systems Engineering) and a graduate course on open (Eclipse-based) development frameworks. VIATRA2 will be used during these courses for demonstration purposes as well as for homework assignments, thus valuable feedback is expected also from students.

Technical Information

Obtaining VIATRA2

VIATRA2 Downloads

Currently, there are two releases of VIATRA2 which are available for download:

• VIATRA2 Release3: the latest and much improved version of VIATRA2. This is the recommended version.
  • CVS: you can pull the sources from CVS (see below).
  • Update site: You can use the following update site URL to get the latest version: http://viatra.inf.mit.bme.hu/update/R3
• VIATRA2 Release2 (provided for historical purposes only)
  • Update site: You can use the following update site URL to get the latest version: http://viatra.inf.mit.bme.hu/update/R2

Sources

VIATRA2 is released under the Eclipse Public License v1.0. There are two ways to obtain the sources:

• Development Subversion repository: You can always check out the current development version from our development subversion repository. SVN repository URLs:
  • https://svn.inf.mit.bme.hu/viatra/
    • viatra_core/R3: R3 core (stable) components (current version)
    • viatra_core/R2: R2 core (stable) components (archived version)
    • viatra_extra/R3: R3 extra (experimental) components (current version)
    • viatra_extra/R2: R2 extra (experimental) components (archived version)

For instance, the current core components repository URL is: https://svn.inf.mit.bme.hu/viatra/viatra_core/R3. For more details on what you can get from the source repositories see VIATRA2 Components.

• Eclipse.org CVS

We synchronize the developer SVN with the official Eclipse CVS on every milestone release. Currently, you can check out VIATRA2 R3 Release Candidate 2 from the CVS repository: http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/indextech.cgi/gmt-home/subprojects/VIATRA2/sources/R3/.

Documentation

The official page has details on the available documentation. In short, the following off-line documentation is available:

• User's guide: PDF
• Transformation language specification: PDF

For more up-to-date tutorials, howtos and descriptions you can browse VIATRA2 Basics and VIATRA2 Examples.