Role-Based Generic Model Refactoring

Refactorings can be used to improve the structure of software artifacts while preserving the semantics of the encapsulated information. Various types of refactorings have been proposed and implemented for programming languages such as Java or C#. With the advent of Model-Driven Software Development (MDSD), the need for restructuring models similar to programs has emerged. Previous work in this field [1,2] indicates that refactorings can be specified generically to foster their reuse. However, existing approaches can handle only certain types of modelling languages and reuse refactorings only once per language. In this paper a novel approach based on role models to specify generic refactorings is presented. We discuss how this resolves the limitations of previous works, as well as how specific refactorings can be defined as extensions to generic ones. The approach was implemented based on the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) [3] and evaluated using multiple modelling languages and refactorings.