Abstract
The Object Constraint Language (OCL) started as a complement of the UML notation with the goal to overcome the limitations of UML (and in general, any graphical notation) in terms of precisely specifying detailed aspects of a system design. Since then, OCL has become a key component of any model-driven engineering (MDE) technique as the default language for expressing all kinds of (meta)model query, manipulation and specification requirements. Among many other applications, OCL is frequently used to express model transformations (as part of the source and target patterns of transformation rules), well-formedness rules (as part of the definition of new domain-specific languages), or code-generation templates (as a way to express the generation patterns and rules).
This chapter pretends to provide a comprehensive view of this language, its many applications and available tool support as well as the latest research developments and open challenges around it.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anastasakis, K., Bordbar, B., Georg, G., Ray, I.: UML2Alloy: A Challenging Model Transformation. In: Engels, G., Opdyke, B., Schmidt, D.C., Weil, F. (eds.) MoDELS 2007. LNCS, vol. 4735, pp. 436–450. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Baar, T.: On the need of user-defined libraries in OCL. ECEASST 36 (2010)
Bergmann, G., Horváth, Á., Ráth, I., Varró, D., Balogh, A., Balogh, Z., Ökrös, A.: Incremental Evaluation of Model Queries over EMF Models. In: Petriu, D.C., Rouquette, N., Haugen, Ø. (eds.) MoDELS 2010, Part I. LNCS, vol. 6394, pp. 76–90. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Borgida, A., Mylopoulos, J., Reiter, R.: On the frame problem in procedure specifications. IEEE Trans. Software Eng. 21(10), 785–798 (1995)
Brucker, A.D., Krieger, M.P., Wolff, B.: Extending OCL with null-references. In: Ghosh [15], pp. 261–275
Brucker, A.D., Wolff, B.: The HOL-OCL book. Technical Report 525, ETH Zurich (2006)
Büttner, F., Gogolla, M., Hamann, L., Kuhlmann, M., Lindow, A.: On better understanding OCL collections or an OCL ordered set is not an OCL set. In: Ghosh [15], pp. 276–290
Cabot, J., Clarisó, R., Riera, D.: UMLtoCSP: a tool for the formal verification of UML/OCL models using constraint programming. In: ASE, pp. 547–548. ACM (2007)
Cabot, J., Mazón, J.-N., Pardillo, J., Trujillo, J.: Specifying aggregation functions in multidimensional models with OCL. In: Parsons, et al. [22], pp. 419–432
Cabot, J., Teniente, E.: Constraint Support in MDA Tools: A Survey. In: Rensink, A., Warmer, J. (eds.) ECMDA-FA 2006. LNCS, vol. 4066, pp. 256–267. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Cabot, J., Teniente, E.: Incremental integrity checking of UML/OCL conceptual schemas. Journal of Systems and Software 82(9), 1459–1478 (2009)
Chimiak-Opoka, J.D., Demuth, B., Awenius, A., Chiorean, D., Gabel, S., Hamann, L., Willink, E.D.: OCL tools report based on the ide4OCL feature model. ECEASST 44 (2011)
Dobing, B., Parsons, J.: How UML is used. Commun. ACM 49, 109–113 (2006)
Frias, L., Queralt, A., Olivé, A.: Eu-rent car rentals specification. Technical Report LSI Research Report. LSI-03-59-R, UPC (2003)
Ghosh, S. (ed.): MoDELS 2009. LNCS, vol. 6002. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Gogolla, M., Bohling, J., Richters, M.: Validating UML and OCL Models in USE by Automatic Snapshot Generation. Journal on Software and System Modeling 4(4), 386–398 (2005)
Gogolla, M., Büttner, F., Richters, M.: Use: A UML-based specification environment for validating UML and OCL. Sci. Comput. Program. 69(1-3), 27–34 (2007)
Heidenreich, F., Wende, C., Demuth, B.: A framework for generating query language code from OCL invariants. ECEASST 9 (2008)
Kuhlmann, M., Hamann, L., Gogolla, M.: Extensive Validation of OCL Models by Integrating SAT Solving into USE. In: Bishop, J., Vallecillo, A. (eds.) TOOLS 2011. LNCS, vol. 6705, pp. 290–306. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)
Object Management Group. OCL 2.3.1 Specification (2010)
Object Management Group. UML 2.4.1 Superstructure Specification (2011)
Parsons, J., Saeki, M., Shoval, P., Woo, C.C., Wand, Y. (eds.): ER 2010. LNCS, vol. 6412. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Queralt, A., Rull, G., Teniente, E., Farré, C., Urpí, T.: Aurus: Automated reasoning on UML/OCL schemas. In: Parsons, et al. [22], pp. 438–444
Soeken, M., Wille, R., Kuhlmann, M., Gogolla, M., Drechsler, R.: Verifying UML/OCL models using boolean satisfiability. In: DATE, pp. 1341–1344. IEEE (2010)
Tisi, M., Martínez, S., Jouault, F., Cabot, J.: Lazy Execution of Model-to-Model Transformations. In: Whittle, J., Clark, T., Kühne, T. (eds.) MoDELS 2011. LNCS, vol. 6981, pp. 32–46. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)
Warmer, J., Kleppe, A.: The Object Constraint Language: Getting Your Models Ready for MDA. Addison-Wesley (2003)
Wieringa, R.: A survey of structured and object-oriented software specification methods and techniques. ACM Comput. Surv. 30(4), 459–527 (1998)
Willink, E.D.: Modeling the OCL standard library. ECEASST 44 (2011)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cabot, J., Gogolla, M. (2012). Object Constraint Language (OCL): A Definitive Guide. In: Bernardo, M., Cortellessa, V., Pierantonio, A. (eds) Formal Methods for Model-Driven Engineering. SFM 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7320. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30982-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30982-3_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-30981-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-30982-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)