Modeling application domains

摘要

Modeling the interactions among the objects in an application domain and the activities in the domain are necessary extensions of modeling the structure and behaviour of objects in the domain. Object models capture the structure and behaviour of components in the application domains. Interaction models describe how the components in the domain interact to realize the activities in the domain. Activity models are used to describe the functionality of the domain. The integration of object, interaction and activity models is essential for producing complete domain models which we refer to as Component-Interaction-Activity (CIA) models. The CIA model of a domain simplifies the development of applications in that domain because it makes extensive reuse of the elements of the domain possible. Concepts for developing the CIA models of application domains are described. A Domain Modeling Language (DML) which provides constructs for expressing the concepts in CIA models is introduced. The DML provides: (i) a class construct to define components, (ii) rule, trigger, event and relationship constructs to define interactions among components, and (iii) process and task constructs to define the activities in the domain. A Domain Modeling Tool which provides a graphic interface to DML and makes the CIA domain models expressed in DML executable is introduced. An example of using CIA models in developing applications is presented.