AMARETTO 2018 Abstracts


Full Papers
Paper Nr: 1
Title:

Formal Description and Verification of a Text-based Model Differencing and Merging Method

Authors:

Ferenc A. Somogyi and Mark Asztalos

Abstract: Version control is an integral part of teamwork in software development. Differencing and merging key artifacts (i.e. source code) is a key feature in version control systems. The concept of version control can also be applied to model-driven methodologies. The models are usually differenced and merged in their graph-based form. However, if supported, we can also use the textual representation of the models during this process. Text-based model differencing and merging methods have some useful use cases, like supporting the persistence of the model, or having a fallback plan should the differencing algorithm fail. Using the textual notation to display and edit models is relatively rare, as the visual (graph-based) representation of the model is more common. However, many believe that using them both would be the ideal solution. In this paper, we present the formal description of a text-based model differencing and merging method from previous work. We also verify our algorithm based on this formal description. The focus of the verification is the soundness and completeness of the method. The long term goal of our research is to develop a modeling environment-independent algorithm. This could be used in version control systems that support textual representations.
Download

Paper Nr: 3
Title:

Automatic Model Transformation from UML Sequence Diagrams to Coloured Petri Nets

Authors:

João António Custódio Soares, Bruno Lima and João Pascoal Faria

Abstract: UML Sequence Diagrams are used in different domains for specifying the required behaviour of software-based systems. However, the created diagrams are often used only as documentation, and not as a basis for generating subsequent lifecycle artifacts or for automated analysis. Several authors have proposed the transformation of Sequence Diagrams to executable Coloured Petri Nets (CPN), for simulation and testing purposes, but the transformations are not automated or are implemented in an ad-hoc way. To overcome those limitations, we present in this paper an approach to automatically translate Sequence Diagrams to CPN ready for execution with CPN Tools, taking advantage of model-to-model transformation techniques provided by the Eclipse Modelling Framework (EMF). The transformation rules are implemented in the Epsilon Transformation Language. We use the standard UML metamodel provided by EMF and the CPN metamodel provided by CPN Tools, so any Sequence Diagram created with an EMF compliant modelling tool can be transformed. An application example is presented to better illustrate the approach.
Download

Short Papers
Paper Nr: 2
Title:

Data Harvesting, Curation and Fusion Model to Support Public Service Recommendations for e-Governments

Authors:

Gayane Sedrakyan, Laurens De Vocht, Juncal Alonso, Marisa Escalante, Leire Orue-Echevarria and Erik Mannens

Abstract: This work reports on early results from CITADEL project that aims at creating an ecosystem of best practices, tools, and recommendations to transform Public Administrations with more efficient, inclusive and citizen-centric services. The goal of the recommendations is to support Governments to find out why citizens stop using public services, and use this information to re-adjust provision to bring these citizens back in. Furthermore, it will help identifying why citizens are not using a given public service (due to affordability, accessibility, lack of knowledge, embarrassment, lack of interest, etc.) and, where appropriate, use this information to make public services more attractive, so they start using the services. While recommender systems can enhance experiences by providing targeted information, the entry barriers in terms of data acquisition are very high, often limiting recommender solutions to closed systems of user/context models. The main focus of this work is to provide an architectural model that allows harvesting data from various sources, curating datasets that originate from a multitude of formats and fusing them into semantically enhanced data that contain key performance indicators for the utility of e-Government services. The output can be further processed by analytics and/or recommender engines to suggest public service improvement needs.
Download

Paper Nr: 7
Title:

Toward a Consistent and Strictly Model-Based Interpretation of the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 for Early Testing Activities

Authors:

Reinhard Pröll and Bernhard Bauer

Abstract: Effective and sufficient testing has always been a challenging task in software development. The ongoing increase of software complexity forces developers and testers to make extensive use of the concept of abstraction, thereby leading to model-based approaches. Further, standardization organizations aim for harmonized process templates to assure a certain quality level of the processes behind. In order to combine the process-level advice as well as the concept-level advice, we aim for a consistent and strict application of model-based methodologies throughout the testing processes, introduced by the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 standard for software testing. After a brief introduction to the standards content and a critical view on it, we focus on our model-based interpretation of the postulated processes. Thereby, we extend the original idea of model-based testing, incorporating the separation of concerns on the model-level, to form a broad information basis. Subsequent activities are aligned with these concepts, in order to make sure a purely model-based testing life cycle, with respect to consistency and quality of development artifacts. Following the related work of impacted research areas, we end up with a conclusive statement on the intended combination of approaches.
Download

Paper Nr: 9
Title:

User Impersonation as a Service in End-to-End Testing

Authors:

Boni García, Francisco Gortázar, Micael Gallego and Eduardo Jiménez

Abstract: Testing large distributed heterogenous systems in cloud environments is a complex task. This situation becomes especially difficult when carrying out end-to-end tests, in which the whole system is exercised, typically through its graphical user interface (GUI) with impersonated users. These tests are typically expensive to write and time consuming to run. This paper contributes to the solution of this problem by proposing an open source framework called ElasTest, which can be seen as an elastic platform to carry out end-to-end testing for different types of applications, including web and mobile. In particular, this piece or research puts the accent on the capability to impersonate final users, presenting a real case study in which end-to-end tests have been carried out to assess the correctness of real-time communications among browsers using WebRTC.
Download

Area 1 - Software Agents and Internet Computing

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 10
Title:

Supporting CPS Modeling Through a New Method for Solving Complex Non-holomorphic Equations

Authors:

Giulio Masetti, Simone Dutto, Silvano Chiaradonna and Felicita Di Giandomenico

Abstract: Modeling cyber-physical systems (CPSs) for assessment or design support purposes is a complex activity. Capturing all relevant physical, structural or behavioral aspects of the system at hand is a crucial task, which often implies representation of peculiar features/constraints through non-linear equations. Values that fulfill the constraints, described with a domain specific language, are obtained solving the equations through a properly developed solution tool. Only for a limited set of CPSs it is possible to find a straightforward strategy to design the software that solves the constraints equations. In the general case, instead, the modeler has to develop an ad-hoc artifact for each different system. This is the case of non-holomorphic but real analytic complex equations, adopted to represent system components with wave behaviors. In this paper, we present a new approach to develop a software for solving such complex equations following a generative programming strategy, based on Wirtinger derivatives within the Newton-Raphson method.
Download