Lessons Learned from Developing a Dynamic OCL Constraint Enforcement Tool for Java

Analysis and design by contract allows the definition of a formal agreement between a class and its clients, expressing each party’s rights and obligations. Contracts written in the Object Constraint Language (OCL) are known to be a useful technique to specify the precondition and postcondition of operations and class invariants in a UML context, making the definition of object-oriented analysis or design elements more precise while also helping in testing and debugging. In this article, we report on the experiences with the development of ocl2j, a tool that automatically instruments OCL constraints in Java programs using aspect-oriented programming (AOP). The approach strives for automatic and efficient generation of contract code, and a non-intrusive instrumentation technique. A summary of our approach is given along with the results of an initial case study, the discussion of encountered problems, and the necessary future work to resolve the encountered issues.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: UML
• Authors: Wojciech J. Dzidek, Lionel C. Briand, Yvan Labiche
• Keywords: Formal Agreement, Natural Language Processing, Non-intrusive Instrumentation Technique, Object Constraint Language, UML 2005