Towards a Language for Graph-Based Model Transformation Design Patterns

In model-driven engineering, most problems are solved using model transformation. However, the development of a model transformation for a specific problem is still a hard task. The main reason for that is the lack of a development process where transformations must be designed before implemented. As in object-oriented design, we believe that "good design" of model transformation can benefit tremendously from model transformation design patterns. Hence, in this paper, we present DelTa, a language for expressing design patterns for model transformations. DelTa is more abstract than and independent from any existing model transformation language, yet it is expressive enough to define design patterns as guidelines transformation developers can follow. To validate the language, we have redefined four known model transformation design patterns in DelTa and demonstrated how such abstract transformation guidelines can be implemented in five different model transformation languages.