A formal framework to generate XPDL specifications from UML activity diagrams

Nicolas Guelfi, Amel Mammar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) is a standardized language allowing process definitions interchange between a variety of tools ranging from workflow management systems to modeling and simulation tools. On the other hand, UML activity diagrams offer a convenient notation to depict synthetic and intuitive views of systems that facilitate stakeholder communication. However, there is currently no tool able to animate activity diagrams using workflow management systems. Moreover, despite standardization efforts, diagram interchange across different modeling tools remains an issue. Hence, transforming UML activity diagrams into XPDL specifications would preserve stakeholder communication while enabling animation tool support. This paper presents a formal and optimal transformation of UML activity diagrams into XPDL specifications. This mapping is described through a set of formal translation rules defined from the UML activity metamodel to the XPDL metamodel. We demonstrate that the defined mapping process preserves some structural properties specified on the translated UML activity diagram.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationApplied Computing 2006 - The 21st Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing - Proceedings of the 2006 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages1224-1231
Number of pages8
ISBN (Print)1595931082, 9781595931085
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2006
Externally publishedYes
Event2006 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing - Dijon, France
Duration: 23 Apr 200627 Apr 2006

Publication series

NameProceedings of the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
Volume2

Conference

Conference2006 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityDijon
Period23/04/0627/04/06

Keywords

  • Correctness proofs
  • Transformations
  • UML activity diagrams
  • XPDL language

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