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Improving the definition of general constraints in UML

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Abstract

An important aspect in the specification of conceptual schemas is the definition of general constraints that cannot be expressed by the predefined constructs provided by conceptual modeling languages. This is generally achieved by using general-purpose languages like OCL. In this paper we propose a new approach that facilitates the definition of such general constraints in UML. More precisely, we define a profile that extends the set of predefined UML constraints by adding certain types of constraints that are commonly used in conceptual schemas. We also show how our proposal facilitates reasoning about the constraints and their automatic code generation, study the application of our ideas to the specification of two real-life applications, and present a prototype tool implementation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Llenguatges i Sistemes Informàtics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

    Dolors Costal, Cristina Gómez, Anna Queralt, Ruth Raventós & Ernest Teniente

Authors
  1. Dolors Costal
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  2. Cristina Gómez
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  3. Anna Queralt
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  4. Ruth Raventós
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  5. Ernest Teniente
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dolors Costal.

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Communicated by Prof. Oscar Nierstrasz.

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Costal, D., Gómez, C., Queralt, A. et al. Improving the definition of general constraints in UML. Softw Syst Model 7, 469–486 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-007-0078-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-007-0078-4

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