Generic Metamodel Refactoring with Automatic Detection of Applicability and Co-evolution of Artefacts

Abstract

Refactoring is an essential operation in software engineering, with the purpose of improving the structural qualities of software. An emerging trend in software engineering is the use of model-driven approaches in which models are used as first-class entities. The problem domain concepts used in models are formalised by a metamodel. Refactoring of metamodels is an important task in increasing the extensibility and maintainability of metamodels. However, changing the definition of a metamodel comes at the cost of introducing inconsistencies in modelling artefacts that are defined relatively to the metamodel. In this report, we present a framework extension for refactoring of metamodels that allows re-establishing consistency between the artefacts and the metamodel. We also discuss how refactoring patterns can be applied automatically on metamodels. The framework has been formally defined by a deductive system.