An object-oriented operation-based approach to translation between MOF metaschemas

This paper proposes a new approach to the schema translation problem. We deal with schemas whose metaschemas are instances of the OMG’s MOF. Most metaschemas can be defined as an instance of the MOF; therefore, our approach is widely applicable. We leverage the well-known object-oriented concepts embedded in the MOF and its instances (object types, attributes, relationship types, operations, IsA hierarchies, refinements, invariants, pre- and postconditions, etc.) to define metaschemas, schemas and their translations.The main contribution of our approach is the extensive use of object-oriented concepts in the definition of translation mappings, particularly the use of operations (and their refinements) and invariants, both of which are formalized in OCL. Our translation mappings can be used to check that two schemas are translations of each other, and to translate one into the other, in both directions. The translation mappings are declaratively defined by means of pre- and postconditions and invariants, and they can be implemented in any suitable language. From an implementation point of view, by taking a MOF-based approach we have a wide set of tools available, including tools that execute OCL. By way of example, we have defined all schemas and metaschemas in this paper and executed all the OCL expressions in the USE tool.