Authors:
Xiaoping Jia
and
Christopher Jones
Affiliation:
DePaul University, United States
Keyword(s):
Model-Driven Development, Domain-Specific Modeling Languages, Cross-platform Development, Mobile Application Development.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Cross-Feeding between Data and Software Engineering
;
Model-Driven Engineering
;
Programming Languages
;
Software Engineering
;
Software Engineering Methods and Techniques
Abstract:
The use of a DSL is a common approach to support cross-platform development of mobile applications. However, most DSL-based approaches suffer from a number of limitations such as poor performance. Furthermore, DSLs that are written ab initio are not able to access the capabilities supported by the native platforms. This paper presents a novel approach of using an adaptive domain-specific modeling language (ADSML) to support model-driven development of cross-platform mobile applications. We will discuss the techniques in the design of an ADSML for developing mobile applications targeting the Android and iOS platforms, including meta-model extraction, meta-model elevation, and meta-model alignment. Our approach is capable of generating high performance native applications; is able to access the full capabilities of the native platforms; and is adaptable to the rapid evolutions of its target platforms.