Trace-Based Propagation of Variability Annotations

Abstract

This contribution presents a mechanism to extend single- to multi-variant model transformations based on traces created during the transformation. The approach tackles a problem typically occurring in model-driven software product line engineering. Models are the key artifacts of such product lines and annotated with variability annotations in the case an annotative approach towards product line engineering is followed. Although model transformations are well-developed by now and a key facility when developing model-driven software, they are not capable to handle the variability annotations of product lines. Consequently, they transform modeled artifacts of a product line but ignore their annotations. We propose to propagate variability annotations a posteriori, using the traces of transformation execution. This approach is generic and may be applied to heterogeneous tools.