UML & ORM

A Formal ORM-to-UML Mapping Algorithm

admin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:10:37 GMT

Abstract

The object-role model (ORM) data structure can be represented in the unified modeling language (UML) using the five fact encoding constructs: class attribute, association, association class, sub-class and the association qualifier. In the existing literature there exist numerous mappings of how individual fact types from an ORM information model can be mapped onto ‘well-formed’ UML expressions.

What is lacking in the existing literature is a precise description of the conditions on the ‘source’ object-role model under which a specific UML fact encoding construct can be applied in the ‘target’ UML class diagram. In this paper we will show under what conditions, a specific UML fact encoding construct must be applied in a way that results in a wellformed UML class diagram.

Contributed bt Dr Peter Bollen, University of Maastricht, P.O. Box 616, p.bollen@mw.unimaas.nl, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands

Thanks Peter!

P10 UML data models from an ORM perspective: Part 10

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:13:59 GMT

This article first appeared in the August 1999 issue of the Journal of Conceptual Modeling.

Tenth in a series of articles examining data modeling in the UML from the perspective of ORM, this paper discusses changeability and collection types in UML and ORM.

P09 UML data models from an ORM perspective: Part 9

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:12:46 GMT

This article first appeared in the June 1999 issue of the Journal of Conceptual Modeling.

Ninth in a series of articles examining data modeling in the UML from the perspective of ORM, this paper examines initial values and derived data in ORM and UML.

P08 UML data models from an ORM perspective: Part 8

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:11:46 GMT

This article first appeared in the April 1999 issue of the Journal of Conceptual Modeling.

Eighth in a series of articles examining data modeling in the UML from the perspective of ORM, this paper covers some recent updates to the UML standard, then discusses aggregation.

P07 UML data models from an ORM perspective: Part 7

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:10:52 GMT

This article first appeared in the February 1999 issue of the Journal of Conceptual Modeling.

Seventh in a series of articles examining data modeling in the UML from the perspective of ORM, this paper discusses some other graphic constraints (value, ring and join constraints.)

P06 UML data models from an ORM perspective: Part 6

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:09:47 GMT

This article first appeared in the December 1998 issue of the Journal of Conceptual Modeling.

Sixth in a series of articles examining data modeling in the UML from the perspective of ORM, this paper examines subtyping in ORM and in UML.

P05 UML data models from an ORM perspective: Part 5

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:09:00 GMT

This article first appeared in the October 1998 issue of the Journal of Conceptual Modeling.

Fifth in a series of articles examining data modeling in the UML from the perspective of ORM, this paper discusses ORM subset and equality constraints, and how these may be specified in UML.

P04 UML data models from an ORM perspective: Part 4

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:08:02 GMT

This article first appeared in the August 1998 issue of the Journal of Conceptual Modeling.

Fourth in a series of articles examining data modeling in UML from the perspective of ORM, this paper examines associations in more detail, contrasting ORM nesting with UML association classes, and ORM co-referencing with UML qualified associations, then discusses exclusion constraints, and summarizes how the two methods compare with respect to terms and notations for data structures and instances.

P03 UML data models from an ORM perspective: Part 3

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:06:57 GMT

This article first appeared in the June 1998 issue of the Journal of Conceptual Modeling.

Third in a series of articles examining data modeling in UML from the perspective of ORM. This paper compares UML associations and related multiplicity constraints with ORM relationship types and related uniqueness, mandatory role and frequency constraints. It also contrasts instantiation of associations using UML object diagrams and ORM fact tables.

P02 UML data models from an ORM perspective: Part 2

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:05:49 GMT

This article first appeared in the May 1998 issue of the Journal of Conceptual Modeling.

Second in a series of articles examining data modeling in UML from the perspective of ORM. This paper compares UML multi-valued attributes with ORM relationship types, including basic constraints on both. As part of this discussion, we also consider how these structures may be instantiated, using UML object diagrams or ORM fact tables.

P01 UML data models from an ORM perspective: Part 1

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:04:42 GMT

This article first appeared in the April 1998 issue of the Journal of Conceptual Modeling.

Although the Unified Modeling Language (UML) facilitates software modeling, its object-oriented approach is arguably less than ideal for developing and validating conceptual data models with domain experts. Object Role Modeling (ORM) is a fact-oriented approach specifically designed to facilitate conceptual analysis and to minimize the impact on change. Since ORM models can be used to derive UML class diagrams, ORM offers benefits even to UML data modelers. This 10-part series provides a comparative overview of both approaches.

Part 1 provides some historical background on both approaches, identifies several design criteria for modeling languages, and discusses how object reference and single-valued attributes are modeled in both.

Data modeling in UML and ORM: a comparison

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:03:38 GMT

This paper appeared in the Journal of Database Management, vol. 10, no. 4 (Oct-Dec, 1999), Idea Group Publishing, Hershey PA, USA.

This paper presents a detailed comparison of the conceptual data modeling capabilties of UML and ORM. It is based on the EMMSAD'98 conference paper listed above, but has been revised and extended for journal publication.

Data modeling in UML & ORM revisted

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:02:10 GMT

This paper appeared in Proc. EMMSAD'99: 4th IFIP WG8.1 International Workshop on Evaluation of Modeling Methods in Systems Analysis and Design, Heidelberg, Germany in June, 1999.

This paper further examines the relative strengths and weaknesses of ORM and UML for data modeling, focusing on attribute multiplicity, association arity, advanced constraints and subtyping. This analysis is given wider generality by addressing various language design principles (e.g. parsimony, orthogonality, convenience, expressibility) and illustrating how metamodel extensibility can be used to capture some features of one approach within the other.

Augmenting UML with Fact-orientation

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:00:43 GMT

This paper discusses various problems with UML (e.g. poor support for verbalization, weak constraint primitives, and multiplicity constraints that do not scale properly for n-aries) and shows how ORM can compensate for these deficiencies.