Component-based Software Development Toolkit

PROVIDING SCIENTIST/AUTHOR(s): Dr Cuong Tran, Dr Simone Di Cola

X-MAN II toolset is developed by the Component-based Software Development group at The University of Manchester.

X-MAN II toolset consists of the X-MAN IDE and its extension FX-MAN. The X-MAN IDE provides a set of functionalities for component-based software development. It supports the W process which captures both component and system life cycles. The extension FX-MAN provides the capability of modelling variability in order to support constructing product families.

X-MAN II toolset is developed using Eclipse model-driven engineering. Essentially, it is EMF framework instantiated with meta-models of X-MAN component model and its extensions. Included plugins provide complete semantics of the X-MAN component model and component-based software development paradigm.

X-MAN II tool development is supported by the European funded EMC2 project and the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) programme at The University of Manchester.

The W model for component-based software development should be one in the below figure. The model was defined in our publication back in 2011.

Essentially, the W model comprises of two life cycles:

  • Component life cycle: identify components, construct components and build (domain specific) component repository.
  • System life cycle: select components, instantiate (and adapt) components and construct systems.

The X-MAN II toolset fully supports the W model by using the underpinning X-MAN component model. X-MAN component model has distinctive features:

  • Components are encapsulated. They do not have functional dependencies among themselves. Simply put, they do not call each others. This is very different to objects.
  • Components are coordinated by means of composition connectors which are control structures: sequencing, branching, gating and looping. These control structures give Turing completeness and it is possible to construct any programs using them.
  • Composition is algebraic and hierarchical and hence X-MAN is scalable.

GETTING STARTED

Once your licence request has been approved, you will be able to download a word document that contains a URL. The URL is an Eclipse software repository which must be used in Eclipse.

For further information on getting started with X-MAN II please click here to view the following video guides:

  1. Downloading Eclipse
  2. Importing the dependencies
  3. Download and configure a local CDO server
  4. Install X-MAN
  5. Create a new X-MAN project
  6. Set CDO preference and test connection