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A Metamodel for Specifying Design Patterns in UML
Abstract
UML considers a pattern as a parameterized collaboration between objects replaced by their actual values during the pattern application phase. However, a design pattern differs from a simple design construct described by the collaboration mechanism. A pattern does not express a fixed and accurate structure. Rather, it defines a generic template whose different aspects can be changed in different applications. In this paper, UML is extended to provide the linguistic infrastructure that specifies design patterns. Most of the existing pattern specification approaches consider a specific solution of the pattern problem to describe the pattern. However, a pattern should be considered as a family of solutions and applications of the pattern problem; since, an unbounded number of concrete solutions and real applications may conform to it. In this paper, four models are presented to describe the general specifications of a pattern, its essence, its solutions and its instances, respectively. The main construct used in these models is the role concept that defines a family of classes. This paper also proposes a model to specify the definitions related to this concept. This model uses three relations to define the binding between the roles specification level and their implementation level. These relations define the implementation of roles, satisfying the structural relationships between roles and conforming to the behavioral specifications of roles, respectively. Finally, the semantics of the proposed models are precisely defined. This paper ends up presenting the definitions needed to support the pattern-oriented features including the pattern specification, application, validation, recognition and discovery.
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