how to generate code from a graphical model to a specefic api?

Question

i am building an editor for manipulating graphical elements, each element must represent a type of element in an API Specification.

The elements of the API are basicaly some classes ad interfaces, they have certain usage constraints, like the element A can't be a child of the element B, or can't be connected with the element C, etc...

The editor should allow you to generate code accordinatly to what you have drawn and the generated code must be an implementation of the API that correspond to what you have drawn.

i know nothing (in practice) about model driven architecture and how i can generate code from a graphical model to some implmentation.

i don't want to mix the graphical model(containing graphical informations like the size and the coordinates, etc...) with the business model implementing the API Specification.

I am using eclipse GEF for building the editor here're the problems i am facing:

Since the graphical model and the business model are separated, i was thinking of defining an emf model, the the editor would be an editor for that emf model. Is it possible then to transform the model drawn in the editor, using the emf model as basic construct elements, to a corresponding implementation of the API specification ?

i know since the graphical model and the business model are separated i have to implement some sort of a grammer sepcifiyng the usage constraints is antlr well suited for what i want to do (speaking about code generation and the grammer) or should i go with xtext ?

what eclipse framework tool whould help me to do what i want to do ?

Answer 1

If you already have a graphical editor, then it seems mostly unnecessary to create a lower-level textual model format (e.g. using antlr/Xtext) to execute code generation. Especially, if your model is already in EMF.

There are various code generator technologies for EMF model (e.g. Acceleo or Xtend can also be used for that); these generator will use the EMF model as an input, and provide the output code specific to the API you seem to be using. In both tools you have to manually assemble your output files by defining templates, and then serialize the results of these templates. This serialization is automatic in Acceleo, or you can do it using a Java-like API in Xtend.

If your model is not in EMF now, you can still use Xtend directly - however, I believe, Acceleo will not useful in this case.