Transformation to Alloy

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi, 

I'm applying UFO/OntoUML in a conceptual modeling/data modeling context and 
found this 
great editor with the possibility of checking possible states of affairs in 
Alloy. 
Since I'm new to Alloy, I'm not sure whether this is a modeling or a software 
issue concerning the translation process to Alloy; perhaps someone finds some 
time to help me out:

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Create model as shown in attached example.
2. Simulation --> Alloy Analyzer --> Enable all (Antirigity Visualization) --> 
OK
3. Execute

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Since I want to relate 
 - 1 instance of D to 2 istances of C, 
 - 1 instance of C to 1 instance of E, and
 - 2 instances of E to 1 instance of D 
I'm expecting a solution with two relator instances of E, so that
one instance of D is connected to two instances of C via two material 
relations and corresponding mediation relations. What I get is: 
"No instance found. Predicate may be inconsistent." 
Changing the multiplicities from 2 to 1..* produces a solvable model - but 
then I don't get a world structure with more than one relator
instance of E.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
trunk (0.9.4); testet on Linux and Windows 8

Thanks for your great work and regards,
Marco

Original issue reported on code.google.com by marco.ca...@googlemail.com on 6 Feb 2014 at 10:53

Attachments:

• example.png

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi,

I checked your example and it was interesting. It seemed to be a minor bug in 
the transformation. 

1a. Just include parenthesis in the line : 
    Material1: set(C one -> one E) some -> one D,

1b. Or alternatively remove the alloy keywords of multiplicity.
    Material1: set C -> E -> D,

This should work because: In Daniel Jackson's book, p. 79 and 80. we have 
examples of nested multiplicities as 1a. And 1b also works since we have a fact 
(derivationRelationship) that I guess constrains the material relationship 
accordingly. 

We actually did this mapping quite recently and we did not have much time to 
test it appropriately. Anyhow, we will further investigate this issue and fix 
it as soon as possible. Thanks a lot. 

Please, feel free to send us your feedback any time. We are really glad that 
people are starting to use this tool to model UFO/OntoUML models. 

Best regards,
John

Original comment by johnguer...@gmail.com on 11 Feb 2014 at 8:51

• Changed state: Started

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi,

Sorry, just to correct myself, 1(a) does not work. Nested multiplicites in 
Alloy have a diferent semantic than what I expected (quite confusing in my 
opinion)

For more details about it you can check these links: 
http://osdir.com/ml/lang.alloy.general/2008-01/msg00023.html
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.alloy.general/1052

So, 1(a) is not correct even with parenthesis. The best solution is to follow 
1(b) and define the multiplicities constraints of the material relationship as 
Alloy statements (facts), what I will do in the next few days.

Regards,
John

Original comment by johnguer...@gmail.com on 12 Feb 2014 at 7:06

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Hi John,

thank you very much for your anwer(s). (1b) does the trick, and I'm glad that I 
could help a little bit. I found one other issue (the RepRel anti pattern 
correction creates invalid OCL constraints) and some minor issue (typos etc.), 
but I'll open new issues concerning these at the weekend.

The tool, especially the alloy transformation and the anti pattern search, are 
a great help in applying and understanding the UFO-Semantics described in [1]. 
I used the eclipse based editor for some time and discovered oled just 
recently. Just one more question: I'm interested in further reading related to 
semantic anti patterns in OntoUML - are there more available references than 
[2]?    

Best regards,
Marco

[1] Guizzardi, Giancarlo (2005). Ontological foundations for structural 
conceptual models.

[2] Sales, T.P., P.P.F. Barcelos and Giancarlo Guizzardi (2012). Identification 
of 
    Semantic Anti-Patterns in Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling via Visual Simulation.

Original comment by marco.ca...@googlemail.com on 12 Feb 2014 at 9:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi Marco,

Do you mind tell us how you discovered the editor? Google perhaps? 

Yes, in fact, there is a lot going on here. Specifically, the anti-pattern 
search is Tiago's master thesis. He will defend it in the next few months, so 
there is no other oficial references about it (yet), except that pointed by 
you. 

As an ongoing work, a lot of things does not work yet. But some already do. We 
have a total of 23 anti-pattern (as far as I can remember). The identification 
of 23 is working. But the correction is still being implemented, as well as 
information about them in the editor. 

Besides, we have other people aplying their masters in the tool: Victor (a 
modeling assistant to help creating models for those with less UFO expertise), 
Cássio (derived types in OntoUML), Me (OCL, already done, and currently a 
temporal extension for OCL, and the validation with Alloy). Also, we had a 
couple months before, the master defended by Antognoni (Tony) about Qualities 
in OntoUML, which we still need to incorporate in the current realease of the 
editor. 

http://www.inf.ufes.br/~gguizzardi/PID2733627.pdf (Qualities)

So, as you see, there is actually a lot of work to make this tool a great tool 
for UFO (which I think is arealdy a reality). But we have actually really 
little time to work on all of these things, mainly in the usability of the 
tool, which today still lacks some basic-things. 

Some of these issues we already know but we are working, as we can, to fix all 
of them. Glad to hear your feedback. Please, send us your issues any time.

Kind regards,
John

Original comment by johnguer...@gmail.com on 13 Feb 2014 at 11:31

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi John,

I went my way from BWW over DOLCE, GFO to UFO during my research on ontology 
based conceptual modeling for my doctoral studies (a conceptual data model for 
course structures in German higher education). I found the eclipse based tool in

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-01347-8_44

OLED was indeed a "coincidental" discovery using google: 

http://ufo-c.blogspot.de/2013/09/ontouml-model-v-tutorial-using-oled.html

I noticed the activity on this project - therefore I didn't post these minor 
things directly, since "work is still going on". The Alloy issue confused me, 
so I had to ask, whether I missed something concerning the semantics of 
material relations in UFO :). 

Thanks for the paper about qualities and regards,
Marco

Original comment by marco.ca...@googlemail.com on 14 Feb 2014 at 8:16

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Original comment by johnguer...@gmail.com on 30 Apr 2014 at 7:07

• Changed state: Verified