Towards Better Document To Model Synchronisation: Experimentations With A Proposed Architecture

The Model Based Engineering approach is centred around the use of a model repository and a modelling tool. A drawback of the approach is that the evolution of derived documents or other artefacts requires to go back to the model. This process involves tracing the source element back in the model editor before triggering updates. This can reveal quite inefficient and even cause user rejection. This paper presents a reusable architecture including a back channel from a document to the related model. It efficiently supports the locate operation of model elements from the document, model updates from the document (including in-place text editing, e.g. to fix typos inside a description), and even concept creation from a text document. We also report on our experience in implementing this architecture in two modelling tools: the Objectiver goal-oriented requirements engineering tool and the Eclipse Modelling Framework, both with mainstream commercial and Open Source text processors.