Eclipse Modeling Framework [Paperback]

Frank Budinsky (Author), Dave Steinberg (Author), Ed Merks (Author), Ray Ellersick (Author), Timothy J. Grose (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2003

EMF is a powerful framework and code generation facility for building Java applications based on simple model definitions. Designed to make modeling practical and useful to the mainstream Java programmer, EMF unifies three important technologies: Java, XML, and UML. Models can either be defined using a UML modeling tool, an XML Schema, or by specifying simple annotations on Java interfaces whereby programmers write the abstract interfaces (a small subset of what they would normally need to write), and the rest is generated automatically and merged back into their existing code. This book thoroughly describes EMF and shows how EMF-based modeling is a foundation for fine-grained interoperability and data sharing among tools and applications. The authors provide a basic overview of the most important concepts in EMF and modeling as well as clear explanations with step-by-step instructions for defining EMF models. This book shows how the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) has successfully bridged the gap between modelers and Java programmers. It serves as a gentle introduction to modeling for Java programmers and at the same time as a reinforcement of the modeler's theory that plenty of Java coding can be automated, given an appropriate tool.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

FRANK BUDINSKY, leader of the Eclipse EMF project, is co-architect and an implementer of the EMF framework and code generator. An engineer in IBM's Software Group, Frank has been involved in the design of frameworks and generators for several years, including design lead for the IBM/Taligent Compound Document Framework in VisualAge/C++, the Composed Business Object Builder in Component Broker, and most recently a common framework for mapping tools in WebSphere Studio.

DAVID STEINBERG is a core member of the EMF development team in IBM's Software Group. Dave has contributed extensively to the design and implementation of both the runtime and code generator components of EMF.

ED MERKS is project leader and lead architect of the XSD technology project and a co-architect of the EMF tools project, both at Eclipse. Ed develops software at the IBM Toronto Laboratory and has many years of in-depth experience in the design and implementation of languages and their supporting environments, including a Ph.D. on the subject.

RAYMOND ELLERSICK is an engineer in IBM's Software Group. A member of the EMF team, Ray is a key contributor to the design of EMF and was previously the development lead for IBM's earlier modeling framework from which much of EMF evolved.

TIMOTHY J. GROSE, a software engineer at the IBM Silicon Valley Laboratory, develops applications using XML and XMI technologies, including design and implementation of the default serialization support in EMF.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

This book is a comprehensive introduction to and developer's quick reference for the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). EMF is a powerful framework and code-generation facility for building Java applications based on simple model definitions. Designed to make modeling practical and useful to the mainstream Java programmer, EMF unifies three important technologies: Java, XML, and UML. Models can be defined using a UML modeling tool, an XML Schema, or by specifying simple annotations on Java interfaces, whereby programmers write the abstract interfaces (a small subset of what they would normally need to write), and the rest is generated automatically and merged back into their existing code.

By relating modeling concepts to the simple Java representations of those concepts, EMF has successfully bridged the gap between modelers and Java programmers. It serves as a gentle introduction to modeling for Java programmers and at the same time as a reinforcement of the modeler's theory that plenty of Java coding can be automated, given an appropriate tool. This book shows how EMF is such a tool. At the same time, it also shows how using EMF gives you much more than just automatic code generation.

While Eclipse provides a powerful platform for integration at the UI and file level, EMF builds on this capability to enable applications to integrate at a much finer granularity than would otherwise be possible. EMF-based modeling is the foundation for fine-grained interoperability and data sharing among tools and applications in Eclipse. All of the features provided by the EMF framework, combined with an intrinsic property of modeling--that it provides a higher-level description that can more easily be shared--provide the needed ingredients to foster such data integration. A number of companies are already using both Eclipse and the EMF modeling technology as the foundation for commercial products. IBM's WebSphere Studio, for example, is completely based on Eclipse, and most of its tools use EMF to model their data.

This book assumes the reader is familiar with object-oriented programming concepts, and specifically with the Java programming language. Previous exposure to modeling techniques such as UML class diagrams, although helpful, is not required. Part I (Chapters 1 to 4) provides a basic overview of the most important concepts in EMF and modeling. This part teaches someone with basic Java programming skills everything needed to start using EMF to model and build an application. Part II (Chapters 5 to 8) presents a thorough overview of EMF's metamodel, Ecore, followed by details of the mappings between Ecore and the other supported model-definition forms: annotated Java, XML Schema, and UML. Part III (Chapters 9 to 12) includes detailed analyses of EMF's code-generator patterns and tools, followed by an end-to-end example of a non-trivial EMF application. Part IV (Chapters 13 and 14) provides a more in-depth analysis of the EMF and EMF.Edit frameworks, including discussions of design alternatives and examples of common framework customizations and programming techniques. Part V (Chapters 15 to 18) and Part VI (Chapters 19 and 20) finish off the book with a complete API quick reference for all of the classes and methods in the 1.1 versions of the core EMF and EMF.Edit frameworks.

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (August 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131425420
• ISBN-13: 978-0131425422
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #850,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Significant Productivity Gains, September 21, 2003

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eclipse Modeling Framework (Paperback)

If you have used Eclipse to program Java, you might have gotten comfortable with its capabilities. Very intuitive and kindly donated by IBM to open source. So when I opened this book, I anticipated oodles of helpful tweaks and shortcuts.

But not so. IBM has indeed provided these in the book. But their goals were far more ambitious. The Eclipse Modelling Framework is a serious effort to incorporate into a development environment java, XML and UML. They found, perhaps correctly, that most Java programmers, including, and maybe especially the experienced ones, don't really use UML much. Okay, as an afterthought, to document a code base upon a major release. But rarely as a starting point. So one intent is to seamlessly let java programmers incorporate UML. More strongly, they claim that EMF lets you define a model in any of java, XML or UML. Then simply clicking a button will make EMF generate the other 2 forms. The greatest payoff for this is that it lets programmers, who may not be fluent in UML, make a graphical UML model and thence have EMF make the java code stubs. Much less error prone than doing it manually.

There is an analogy here with Spice, if any of you have an electrical engineering background. Until the late 80s, if you wanted to model a circuit in Spice, you typically drew it by hand on paper. Then you manually transcribed these into a text file of netlists that was input into Spice. Slow and very error prone. Then along came MicroSim, Carver Mead's Magic program and others, that let you construct a circuit diagram on a console, and from which you could press a button and a Spice input file would be made. Much more productive.

The book offers a similar gain in productivity. All you are asked to risk is your time in understanding the book.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book but also read www.eclipse.org articles, September 10, 2003

By 

Suhas Kelkar "flying bookworm" (Redmond, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eclipse Modeling Framework (Paperback)

First four chapters of this book are an excellent introduction to EMF. Last section of this book wastes too many pages by listing reference APIs. I would highly recommend that you read equally important EMF overview documents available on the www.eclipse.org site before you buy this book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential EMF Reading, September 4, 2003

By 

Sarah M. Dudney "Rocky_Mtn_Hschooler" (Breckenridge, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eclipse Modeling Framework (Paperback)

If you are doing modeling already you will find this book invaluable, if you are on the fense tetering between like and dislike for modeling this book will push you over the edge to loving it.

The authors go through each of the aspects of EMF in detail so you can not only build a great model for your application but also explain what is happening so that you understand what is going on within the framework.

My only negative comment is the inclusion of what amounts to java doc in the last 250 pages. The book would have been just as good without the extra weight.

All around a great book and worthy of purchase.