Marwan Abi-Antoun

Presented at SSSG
(October 21st 2004)

Architectural Refinement:
from ACME to ArchJava

 Paper in submission Semantic Issues in

Architectural Refinement
OOSPLA Demo next week by Dr. Aldrich

Dr. Jonathan Aldrich

Dr. David Garlan
Bradley Schmerl
Tony Tseng

Contributors:

Credits

 Solution space expands with decrease in

abstraction level
Narrow down implementation space with
specific middleware (or runtime libraries)

From Architecture to Implementation

Abstract and Concrete Views

Abstract: ACME
Concrete: ArchJava

Mapping of typing relationships

Refining connectors
Handling information loss and overlap
Illustrated with candidate representations:

Key Challenges

 Built-in checking of architectural rules

Flexible predicate based type system

Set of components, connectors,

Set of rules

Architectural Style or Family

System, Components, Representations,

Hierarchical representation

ACME in a Nutshell

Abstract View in ACME

 Constraints, Properties, Styles, .

No one-to-one correspondence to ACME:

Type system enforces inter-component

communication
Component substitutability

Guarantee architectural conformance

Built-in Components, Connectors, Ports, Glue...

Extension of Java programming language

Specify architecture within the code

ArchJava in a Nutshell

Concrete View in ArchJava

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 Use ACME family (style) as mixin style

controlling refinement

Explicitly stored and maintained in the model

Can be refined incrementally
Used to determine readiness for refinement
Fine-grained control over refinement

Indicate choices of refinement in the

architectural model and not in the tool

Key Ideas

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Property Set {string}

Property Set {string}

Port

Type

Instance

Component

System

ACME Construct

Required Methods
Provided Methods

Port

Component Class
Component Instance
Component Class

Component Class

ArchJava

Mapping Components

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Role

Type

Instance

Connector

ACME Construct

Connector Class

Implicit
Explicit

Connector Class
Connector Instance

ArchJava

Mapping Connectors

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Connector Instance
Java package

Attachment

Representation

Style

Constraint

Property

Glue

ArchJava

Binding

ACME Construct

Other Mappings

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Components/Connectors/Ports explicitly
declaring types
No dangling ports or roles
For connected ports, provided and
required methods must match
Component type cannot require more
methods than parent type (substitutability)

Architectural Validation

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Can only generate ArchJava for an ACME

system and not an ACME family
Cannot exclude portions of architecture
model to support iterative refinement
No support for multi-way connections
Not generating enough information to
simplify round-trip engineering

Current Tool Limitations

 No true mixin support

ACME Limitation:

Support iterative refinement

Tolerating incompleteness

E.g., family should not encode signature of

required and provided methods

Adding too much detail to abstract view

Component Substitutability too restrictive

ArchJava Limitation:

Open Issues

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 http://archjava.fluid.cs.cmu.edu/

ArchJava:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~acme

ACME:

References

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