Octopus: OCL Tool for Precise Uml Specifications

Octopus is a tool to support the use of OCL. Octopus which stands for "OCL Tool for Precise UML Specifications". Octopus offers two important functionalities:

1. Octopus is able to statically check OCL expressions. It checks the syntax, as well as the expression types, and the correct use of model elements like association roles and attributes.

2. Octopus is able to transform the UML model, including the OCL expressions, into Java code.

The user interface tier consists of an implementation of a plug-in for the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. From a Navigator view that shows you all instances in the system, you are able to create and examine instances of your UML/OCL model. Of course, the invariants or multiplicities of an instance can be checked by pushing a single button.

The code generation part of Octopus was developed as a proof of concept. It is a proof that the MDA vision is correct: you can build an application by creating a platform independent model and transforming it to platform dependent code. Indeed, Octopus is able to generate a complete prototype application from your UML/OCL model. We call the generated application a prototype because we see the need for even better transformation tools. Our research is targeted towards this. We wish to extend Octopus with, for instance, a generator that creates a Hibernate storage layer, and a generator that creates a web-based user interface. However, this will take some time, we do not expect them to be part of the next version of Octopus.

Octopus is an Eclipse plug-in. You therefore need to install the Eclipse platform in order to run Octopus. More information on Eclipse can be found at www.eclipse.org.