Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework
Contents
1. Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Tool Method Features Hierarchical component Dependencies Attributes T L G Comments T L G Comments T L G Comments T L G Comments No a nodes in Child nodes are placed representation Indented List X YVR expandable an d y under their parent and indented to the 9 No representation Displayed ina Prot g j ae retractable tree right separare window Child nodes are placed under the f Tree Represented with f o ET Represented with Displayed on O representation V e rectangle nodes V parentones and linked withian isa V e labeled links V the node nto Viz link Represented as tree nodes No Tree Selected nodes are Represented as an representation soourrer e eat v R X marked with numbers Y Nodes are linked to their parents vY item placed inside the 9 9 Displayed in a GoSurfer pre with their labels feature item related separate listed underneath the window tree structure Displayed as o o rectangle nodes wW3e linked to the Tree Represented as Nodes are placed under their parent Represented with instance with a representation V e x labeled ellipses V e nodes V e x labeled links V link labeled IsaViz including in this link the name of the attribute Table 4 Representation of components in ontolo2. Table 2 Focus of the analysis 21 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 2 2 1 Existing tools of Feature Model visualization The next sections present some tools according to different visualization categories In fact the presentations of the characteristics related to each tool are a deep study of different visualization categories For example the research the Feature Modeling Tool 15 16 is an overview of the combination of the tree representation and the indented list Other tools presented are Feature Modeling Plug in for Eclipse 17 18 Pure variants 19 20 or XFeature 21 2 2 1 1 Feature Modeling Tool Feature Modeling Tool 15 16 allows creating feature models from inside Visual Studio IDE The representation of feature models is based in two visualizations the indented list and the tree structure In the left side of the window see Figure 3 is presented the feature model s hierarchy as an indented list where the nodes represent the features TE ERETTE b Debug gt Any CPU 2 X designer pidsi SterePage aumo weuine0g FF oqOO Xi Storefront egistration Infor Feature lt 2 1 gt D Credit Card Inform Card Number are 1 1 gt Generate Project Export xM B Error List Breakpoints Out
3. Administrator Browser Figure 34 Silverlight Architecture Model 89 ha Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 5 3 Software architecture Figure 35 presents the software architecture of our tool As already explained the application is developed as a Silverlight application which runs in a browser or in a virtual machine The kernel of the application contains all the relevant information that the tool needs for the development or construction of the three different types of views list view graph view and tree view silverlight application ci cae feature dependencies hierarchy component Figure 35 Software Architecture Model The kernel domain layer contains information about the features its dependencies its attributes and its hierarchy component all this information organized and serialized by the use of different data types From here each view artifact gets this information for its own convenience and models this information to create the desired environment displaying The modifications of the user are transferred directly from the different views to the kernel which in turn modifies its content and triggers the events to reload the content of the three artifacts 90 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Br
4. j gt product line if he or she selects some configuration by the use of these check boxes Figure 4 Pure variants Family Model Editing 20 see Figure 4 Pure variants adds the possibility to represent the model by graph visualizations 19 Although some common editing operations editing deletion are supported by the tool this view is primary intended for understanding the model and printing the solution The model presents the different representation of features by boxes containing the name of the feature and an associated icon for differentiating features by their type On the other hand the hierarchical component representation uses arrows to make the parent child links 24 hah Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Notation J mandatory feature optional feature e alternative feature X or feature E chaz 2 E crias chita 3 E crias chita 3 child 3 Pe chidschiag Pe chidschiag child 4 E chitas chia 2 2 childs chia 2 child 2 E crian E chic 7 17 Requires F2 Recommends F2 Conflicts F2 H I crias chia 1 childs child 1 Discourages F2 Influences F2 Conditional Requires F2 Requests Provider F2 Figure 5 Pure variants graph visualization Although the representation seems to be poor in content the graph visuali
5. m Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Figure 30 UML Diagram tree view artifact 4 3 Use Cases The Use Cases describe what the system has to do from the point of view of the user That is the description of the tool s behavior regarding the use of it and its interaction with the user 74 or Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis The Use Cases are divided in four groups depending on the origin of the actions and the users preferred visualization view For example it is not the same to add a feature from the graph view than from the indented list view In this case the division is as follows graph view tree view list view and common Use Cases 4 3 1 Graph view relevant Use Cases The set of next Use Cases are related to the relevant actions that the modeler is allowed to realize interacting with the graph view The list of these actions are Add feature Add a hierarchical relation Add attribute Add a feature dependency Delete component Delete attribute Delete hierarchical group and Grouping hierarchical group with feature s In addition each description of Use Case contains a screenshot as auxiliary information for the understanding of the flow Gp lt 2 Adda hierarchical relation Add att
6. 37 structure In other words the representation seems more like a graph than like a tree for the user point of view while in our case our tool is looking for the comprehension by the users of the tree hierarchical structure 3 3 1 6 Graph representation The graph representation is an illustration that can be understood as a set of connected or non connected nodes with links between them 45 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis A feature model represented with this method means the possibility to visualize both hierarchical links and feature dependencies as relationships as well we have to provide some notation on the edges to distinguish the two types of links Thus the clearest way to adapt the feature model with the graph method is by the representation of the features as nodes and the hierarchical components and dependencies as relationships commented previously On the other hand there is a wide range of possibilities for interpreting the rest of the model components As an example attributes can be represented as new nodes linked with the related feature or as descriptions placed inside the feature So the representation may vary according to the necessities of the feature modeling tool 3 3 2 Human computer interaction Interaction between human and computer is at the heart of the modern informatio
7. No Tree Represented by links using the representation Tree No common notation representation List Placed as an List The child nodes are placed item inside the List Placed as Indented List List Represented as indented to the right from the parent feature pa item insi de m main window an item No representation of grouping representation the feature el pure variants Graph i representation Xiv iv Graph Represented Riv iv Graph Black stroke arrows linkin Riv iVv Graph The nodes y representation Pure variants Pp P Pp p 8 p auxiliary as a box Icon inside the different features No can be expanded aaa he ae goat 7 x Graph No window it indicating the type differentiation between different showing colored f ae representation groups links representing the dependencies University of Waterloo The child nodes are placed indented to Represenicdias the right from the father While the 7 pres j Represented as an grouping of features is represented as Represented a5 an Ta Item placed Feature Ingented List V item in the list 2 V anew item indicating the group type x v Pa A E AA x v a Modeling which also includes the features related Plug in for indented to the right Eclipse Black stroke arrows to represent the hierarchical component The grouping of features is represented from an Red fill ellipse X DD Tree Represented as a origin point where the links of the situated near represe
8. Eclipse 0 0 ccc cceccesesseeseeeesceeeeeceecesseesesseeseesceaeeesesseeaeens 25 2 2 1 4 XFeature iscisisissecsscessessicdsieesversioisveascevesnuse 2 2 1 5 FaMa Tool Suite 2 2 2 Existing tools for Ontology visualization cccccccccesecsseseeusesseeseeseesecacenecseeeenseeseeseeaeeeenaes 28 2 2 2 1 Prot g leunet ene rra E a AE e EE E e caine E AEE EE aR RRE 2 2 2 2 Ont ViZ eenen 2 2 2 3 GoSurfer 2 2 2 4 EDAT E E A E E E ET 2 2 3 Conclusion of the study ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework X Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis CHAPTER 3 VISUALIZATION AND INTERACTION OF FEATURE MODEL cscscsssesssees 39 3 1 INITIAL REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS 0 cccccccccssssececececsssnsaececccecsesesaececececseseaseeceeeceeneeaeeeeeesesenees 39 3 2 FIRST CONSIDERATION 2 D VERSUS 3 D 0 0 cccececceeseeeceeeseeecseeseeecseeaeeecseeaeeecsesaeeecsesseeeeseeaeeens 40 3 3 INFORMATION VISUALIZATION AND INTERACTION TECHNIQUES cccsscccccceceesesseceeeeeeeesenees 41 3 3 1 Information visualization methods 3 3 1 1 Indented List ee 3 3 1 2 WT diagrams 555 5052 ciciics sacsekdoceteebieivbasiientevebhsotetas sd opsiee RR EAE En de coset dees a tii oi dal EEE E E 3 3 1 3 Kree SUPUCOUIEG a ain tavesasast cscs terse cays siceuasss otal ences ccset qs EE eesss EE EREET 3 3 1 4 Treemap 3 3 1 5 2D Tay per bo
9. Honours Master Thesis summarizes the major characteristics of the existing feature modelling tools From the study of this table we can extract some notes regarding the representation of the feature models in existing feature modeling tools gt It seems that the common visualization view to represent feature models is the indented list Different components and information of the feature model can easily be represented within the list although this situation sometimes causes large lists This leads to the loss of the hierarchical structure of the information and makes it difficult for the user to follow gt Most of the existing feature modeling tools are optimized for configuration of feature models rather than design of feature models Thus the indented list view usually contains check boxes for configuring different product lines from the model This is one of the reasons that this representation includes all the information The modeler is allowed to select or deselect all the possible information for the good configuration of product lines gt Some of the existing feature modeling tool tend to have more than one method for visualizing the model while the indented list method is similar in all the tools Some tools contain other visualizations which hold additional information that was not possible to represent in an indented list So generally each tool will require a different type of supporting representation depending on the
10. In addition we studied some existing tools that allow the user to visualize and modify feature models this gave us overview about the state of the current situation in feature modeling visualization To sum up this deep analysis is expanded with all the information related on the design of a feature modeling tool and based on the decisions taken during the design of our application There does not exist a standard feature model technique so this study is approached from a global point of view based on the basic feature model requirements ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Declaration I declare that this document and the accompanying code have been composed by myself and describe my own work unless otherwise acknowledged in the text It has not been accepted in any previous application for a degree All verbatim extracts have been distinguished by quotation marks and all sources of information have been specifically acknowledged Signed ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis I would first like to thank my project supervisor Lamia Abo Zaid for her support advice and help during the entire project Thanks as well to her for proof reading parts of this thesis and correcting some of the grammati
11. all three artifacts and contain all the relevant information about the state of the feature model we can consider the group of these as an internal representation of the model In addition the singleton ConfigurationTool handles the configuration and state of the tool during its running process The Canvas class Indented List is the representation of the list view in the tool It contains a TreeView the indented list representation which at the same time contains a group of Tree ViewlItems the nodes of the indented list Each of them is related to its FeatureView 4 2 3 Tree view artifact Figure 30 presents the UML of the tree view artifact This design is quite similar to the graph view but with the difference that in this case the dependency representation is not included in the UML In addition the representation of the hierarchical links varies in the design while the mandatory and optional maintain their status the or and alternative hierarchies become a part of a Group Representation class From the point of view of the tree representation each group of hierarchical links represents only one element because of the arc that encompasses all the edges Thus the definition of four types of hierarchical links does not work in the tree view artifact In this case the design shows two types of hierarchical relationship to a feature optional mandatory and two type of hierarchical grouping or alternative 73
12. attribute 12 of a feature is the characteristic defined by the relation of one or more attributes related to this feature e g age 24 height width gt 0 5 19 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis gt To finalize the external attribute is the characteristic that gets its value from an external application or device 2 1 4 Feature Dependencies In addition of the connections that represent the composition hierarchy of the model it may be possible to add additional relations between features to increase the global meaning of the model In fact these connections can also be considered as attributes of features because they also add additional information to a feature However as they involve more than one feature they are expressed explicitly between features by means of dependencies There are a lot of possible types of feature dependencies in principle as many as the user needs Each relation has got a meaning to use so when a feature is linked with another feature is not allow to link the same feature the global context of the model is modified and gets a new vision The following table gives the explanation of the types of dependencies considered in our research Dependency name Meaning Featurel excludes Feature2 when Feature and Feature2 cannot occur togethe
13. could have placed more emphasis on representations that show other information In addition this tool can be considered more a feature configuration tool than a feature modeling tool The leave nodes of the indented list provide a check box to select different combinations of features with the aim of obtaining different product lines This means that the design for representing the model is based on other requirements than in our case we focus more on providing aid for creation of feature models Therefore it is assumed that this type of representation probably is not the most appropriate solution for our problem 2 2 1 2 Pure variants Pure variants 19 20 is a feature modeling tool created by pure systems GmbH setup in 2001 as a spin off from the Otto von Guericke Universit t Magdeburg and the 23 hah Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Fraunhofer Instituts Rechnerarchitektur und Softwaretechnik The application is based on Eclipse an open source community whose projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks 22 and the main functionality of it is to be used as a framework for the design of product line architectures The modeling development on the tool is based on hierarchical structures consisting of items related to the different components feature att
14. dependency To finish the last three buttons control the grouping in the composition hierarchy The last two are used to create and edit the definition of a group while the antepenultimate button is used to relate a feature s to a group In that case the user only has to select the feature or list of features by pressing the keyboard Ctrl button and then click the group button The last step is the selection of the group from an auxiliary window The user has the option to select from already existing groups or select to create a new group If he selects to create a new group the new group window is opened 3 4 1 2 1 Editing and deleting concepts Our tool also provides the possibility to modify both the visual properties of the components position size and the actual content of the model features feature types 58 iad Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis dependencies and attributes of the components inside the graph view All these actions take place in the workspace by means of easy drag and drop operations With regard to the global representation the tool contains a scroll panel to modify the perspective of the visualization PAN In addition at the top of the window a slider is located to increase or decrease the size of the visualized components when the modeler changes its position ZOOM The
15. fDestiny Feature2 fOrigin Feature0 gt lt ListHierarchies gt lt ListLinks gt lt Link Id 3 Type 7 fDestiny Feature5 fOrigin Feature3 xOrgPos 261 yOrgPos 29 xDestPos 370 yDestPos 9 gt lt ListLinks gt lt ListGroups gt lt Group Id 0 Name G1 Type 0 Description gt lt ListIds gt lt FeatureGroup Id 4 gt lt FeatureGroup Id 5 gt lt FeatureGroup Id 1 gt Screenshot 8 XML representation of the visually created feature model 101
16. for representing rich knowledge representation models the tree the graph and the indented list 38 baad Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Chapter 3 Visualization and interaction of feature models 3 1 Initial requirements analysis Designing a tool for visualization and interaction of feature models should be done keeping usability in mind To obtain a good usability it is necessary to consider the target users of the tool as well as the tasks that the tool should support 33 Therefore we first have to study the future users of the tool and their requirements to be able to achieve an optimal and effective design for our visualization tool In our case the target users of the tool are ICT professionals as well as other professionals with no or little knowledge in developing feature models Also during the development of the visualization tool we always have taken into account the fact that the tool will be used by these types of users As the type of visualization used will be critical for the usability of the tool it was necessary to first perform a study of the different possible types of feature model visualizations The final decision taken after this study is described in the next pages and looks for 1 the simplicity of the tool 2 the intuitive understanding as well as 3 easy interaction and 4 a comf
17. information overload For example visualizations where all the attributes are shown linked to their features see Figure 12 become huge Showing all information at the same time is good for small models but don t scale for large ones Therefore is not only important to show all the components the visualization must also allow a human being to build a correct mental model of the model shown Even when the model is very large the visualization must support this One can say that the key to measuring the solvency of good feature model visualization is obtained by the impressions from a user when looking to the model If the user can recognize all the components of the model as well as the global context mainly understand the hierarchy and distinguish it from feature dependencies the representation can be considered as suitable In the effort to find a single visualization that meets all the characteristics discussed above we found that the best way to visualize all the content of a feature model was using the graph view However the problem with this type of visualization is that it will not be easy for the user to recognize the hierarchy of the model from the graph 50 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis The solution of this problem is to eliminate the links that represent the feature dependencies Then the gr
18. must make use of some notation applied to distinguish between the different types of relationships normally Czarnecki Eisenecker notation 11 On the other hand the model can not include feature dependencies represented as links The nature of the tree structure prohibits double connections between nodes or links that 43 had Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis create closed paths in the structure Hence it is not possible to visualize the feature model as a natural tree if the modeler wants to represent both feature dependencies and hierarchical component with links 3 3 1 4 Treemap Treemap 36 is a space filling visualization that shows nodes as a rectangle area organized in a hierarchical structure by size and color coding The representation enables users from its composition to compare sizes of nodes and sub trees see Figure 14 This technique was proposed by Baehrecke and Babaria as a tool for visualizing the GO ontology 32 2004 In the application of this method the features can be represented as colored squares of size proportional to a selected attribute In addition labels can be displayed up to a certain depth For the hierarchy component lower level nodes can be placed inside their parent nodes Figure 14 Treemap 36 One of the disadvantages of using this technique
19. set out in points 2 and 2 2 a new window will appear for selecting the group to relate these features to 2 3 2 The user selects a group from the window and click on the Accept button 80 or Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 2 3 2 1 If the type of the group is not the same as the type of the feature s selected a new alert window will appear to inform the user about this situation 2 3 2 2 Otherwise the system adds on the endings of the hierarchical links of the feature s selected Post conditions The representation of the group is added in the model 4 3 2 List view relevant Use Cases The set of next Use Cases are related to the relevant actions that the modeler is allowed to realize interacting with the list view The list of these actions is Add feature Delete feature Delete attribute C Add feature Modeler Delete attribute Delete feature Figure 32 Relevant Use Cases List view Name Add feature Description Add a new representation of a feature in the list view Actors Modeler 81 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Preconditions None Flow 1 User clicks on one node in the indented list that represents a feature 2 The background of the node chan
20. simple as possible this is indicated in the following points gt Understanding the three visualizations means depicting the commonalities between the content of the three views To achieve that our tool works with the synchronization of the three views whenever a modification in model fires e g when a representation of a feature is removed in the list view also its representation in the tree view and graph view has to be removed This gives consistency to the software and helps the user understand what is happening by switching simultaneously between three views gt Working with three different views supposes easier feature modeling Thus the tool has to be designed to facilitate the modeling process and not complicate more the modeler s job The introduction of three views is not the introduction of an obstacle to the modeler rather it introduces more possibilities for the user to understand the 68 ae Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis model Complex application design sometimes implies a hard effort from the user to know how to use the tool To facilitate the understanding and the working task for the modelers when using our tool we decided to maintain the list view as a static part of the application Then the desktop application design of our tool is divided in two parts see Figure 27 In the first pa
21. special plug ins would be needed to visualize 3 D in a browser environment Currently only little software is available that supports this As requirement 7 states that the tool should run in a standard browser without the need to install specific software this could be a problem In addition the software and the implementation needed for 3 D usually needs extra non standard tools and requires up to date hardware to have good response times Information visualization and interaction techniques 3 3 1 Information visualization methods In our effort to gather all possible information for the design we also present the following recompilation of other type of information visualization InfoVis methods useful for our tool These techniques can be useful in the field of feature model visualization and were taken in account in the design of the tool see Chapter 4 41 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 3 3 1 1 Indented List The technique of the indented list is based on a vertical correlation of a set of items that can be indented to the right in different levels From the feature modeling visualization point of view the natural representation of the method allows the modeler to position the different items features according to the hierarchical structure For instance if one feature is the specification of a
22. the comprehension to understand the structure of the hierarchy is easy for the user The child features are placed under their parents and indented to the right so if the user expands all the nodes from the model the representation becomes a complete view of the feature hierarchy Corresponding to the other components in the model the visualization of attributes is displayed in a separate window For the user this may be inconvenient due to the difficulty required to match each attribute with its feature In addition there exists no visualization of the dependencies Prot g only supports the addition and modification of them through the properties window 2 2 2 2 OntoViz The second tool analyzed OntoViz 30 is a popular Prot g visualization plug in with support of GraphViz 31 library In this case the ontology is presented as 2 D graph visualization where the nodes represent the features In addition to the name of the feature each node contains inside its attributes and its dependencies using labeled links The user is allowed to select which features will be displayed as well as prune some parts of the ontology from the panel situated in the left side When the user clicks the right button of the mouse on the view OntoViz show an auxiliary window for zooming in and zooming out the content of the visualization 30 adh Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martin
23. 1 Prot g Prot g 27 is an open source platform useful X Ontology1231266123346 owl http www semanticweb org ontolo File Edit Ontologies Reasoner Tools Refactor Tabs View for the construction of domain models and lt gt ontolosyi251266123946 0w E knowledge based applications with ontologies alive Ontobgy Enies Classes Object Properties Data Prope Inferred class hierarchy Class Annotations f Asserted class hierarchy ss Annot Hierarchy Get_conte Prot g implements a rich set of structures and actions that support the visualization of ontologies in various representation formats Get_content controll_parameter Get_name Get_password Y Registration Password gt E mail v Name Exists the name One of the structural techniques that Prot g uses for the visualization of ontologies is based on the indented list Prot g window allows the user to explore a tree view representation of the features in Figure 9 The Prot g feature class browser the model Each node of the tree represents a feature which can be expandable showing the rest of the lower features under the hierarchy or retractable hiding it see Figure 9 29 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis In this case
24. 5 EMIPLEMENTA TION isccasscsssstosccnscoscessvsncosscesscossscessossesessectsceccensvecvscccncosseoscessescos oscessceseosses 87 5 1 RIA AS THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE TOOL ccccceeccccecssseecesssececeseseceenseeeceesaeeeesseeeceessseeeesaaes 87 5 1 1 S verlight sennae E basleeiatac R E R A 88 5 2 IMPLEMENTATION ENVIRONMENT ccccsseececcccceccsssscecceccecsesesceccecssauuaescessesseuuunereeeceseuuuenenees 88 5 3 SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE ccccccccssecccessoscecsscceccosscecseccesscesscecsssseeecescensecestecesssseeceseucesecnsnees 90 wy Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS ssssscssssssscssscscccscccscssscesccssccssccssscssscsescseccnessncesecesccsscssscssscsssessssssccssesens 91 6l SUMMERY opacnem niinno p a Rn R ER OARE OO OAT TOATE 91 6 2 LESSONS LEARNT oocnancocnicnancoeeniini inr ien n EETA 92 63s FOTTURER WORK oecnonancninininine eR a eR NATRO EARTE AETA 93 REFERENCES iicssiscssoscssssscnssssessscenssesdsssavessoosseesoonssnsicasteusceessadeedssososussuensuacsiccseanssbedsotsesseonseaseasseonscessceseesscusse 95 APPENDIX TOOL SCREENSHOTS 0 ccscssscsssecccsscscecscscssccsscssscssscssscssssssscsscesecsneesscesscssscssesscesseesaes 99 wy Universitelt aa oh es ene Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis List of figures Figure 1 Example of feat
25. From the root a reader of the model gets the general product Then when starting to explore descending to the next level of nodes in the tree more details of the product components and functions and variations are explored Figure I is an example of a feature model the root Help System is a generalized description of the required product descending in the component hierarchy of the model and arriving to the leaves of the tree each composition of constraints is represented as a node more specific descriptions of the product are shown Thus the root of the tree as the name indicates is a more global concept than the interior features In addition the sub features get a type depending on their type of involvement in the hierarchy Every feature can have only one hierarchy relation that gives the type In our case we consider four types of features which are depending of the hierarchy mandatory optional alternative and or In the majority of the feature model representations the 17 hat Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis hierarchy relation used to be represented using the notation Czarnecki Eisenecker 11 see Figure 2 a Optional b Mandatory se Le c Alternative Figure 2 Czarnecki Eisenecker notation 11 An optional feature is the specialization of the
26. Image Line and two Ellipses provides the tree view the dependency representation 71 hf Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis On the other hand the class Hierarchy Representation has to be classified in four subclasses depending on the type and based on the different link representations according to Figure 18 see Chapter 3 The following table shows the composition of each type of hierarchy link in the design and how it relates to the GUI shape classes Hierarchy type GUI Ellipse GUI Line GUI Polygon Alternative 0 2 0 Mandatory 1 1 0 Optional 1 1 0 OR 0 1 1 Table 6 Relation between classes and hierarchies 4 2 2 List view artifact Figure 28 presents the UML of the list view artifact The domain of the model is represented by the classes Attribute Dependency Feature FeatureView Hierarchy and Group id name condition type id fontSize och yOGraph 1 1 Header HES width ee p Er xOTree 0 ae yOTree lt is consir ConfigurastionTool 1 lt Canvas gt Indented List scuslState e E colarependenci 7 G Figure 29 UML Diagram list view artifact 12 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis These classes are common for
27. In 63 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis this case the function of this button is different than in the graph view when the user clicks on it the main window will be reloaded with the graph view As commented previously this notation is very important because it permits the user to distinguish the characteristics of each feature in the model Furthermore the feature dependencies of the model are not placed as links because this would result in the graph view In conclusion by providing the tree view we want to achieve a visualization of feature models according to the classic representation of feature models 3 4 3 1 Editing of the components The manipulation of the components in the tree view is very similar to the graph view This is quite important because we want to ensure the consistency in our tool with respect to the user interaction As an example the user would make a double click in the feature representation for editing its information both in tree view and graph view Otherwise the tool will become more complex and difficult to learn and use if the behavior of it differs greatly with respect to the graph and the tree visualization The user would need to adapt to the two modes of use each time when changing the type of visualization In this case the modeler is only allowed to interact with the
28. Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 1 User clicks on one node in the indented list that represents a feature 2 The background of the node changes the color 3 The user clicks on the A button in the list representation 4 A new window will appear with the list of attributes related to the feature 5 The user selects one attribute from the list and clicks on the keyboards delete button 6 A new window will appear for the confirmation of the deletion by the user 6 1 If the user confirms the deletion and the feature only contains this attribute the attribute is deleted from the list and the A button of the list view representation becomes disabled 6 2 If the user confirms the deletion and the feature contains more than one attribute related the attribute is deleted from the list Post conditions The attribute related to the feature selected is deleted from the visualization and the model 4 3 3 Tree view relevant Use Cases The set of next Use Cases are related to the relevant actions that the modeler is allowed to realize interacting with the tree view These actions are Add feature Delete components Edit feature and Visualize feature dependencies gt Edit feature A Add feature SS a a j De T Modeler poo E gt Visualize feature dependencies Delete components Figure 33 Relevant Use Cases Tree view 83 YY Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontolo
29. ONAL i MANDATORY Figure 18 Representation of the hierarchy no using groups On the other hand the Czarnecki Eisenecker notation 11 is not a good solution to represent the alternative and OR links in our case That is if the representation would use this notation the model would lose the graph structure due to the grouping of the links in the composition hierarchy The solution of this problem was solved by introducing a new notation to represent groups of features Each group has a name representing the name of the feature or functionality provided by the group this name is used as an identifier to distinguish different groups The group name is included with each link to one of the group members Figure 19 shows an example alternative group Feature1 Feature3 Feature4 Figure 19 Grouping representation 56 had Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 3 4 1 2 Graph view interaction One of the requirements when designing our tool was the possibility for the modelers to create manipulate and delete components of the model through the visualization In this section we present the different user scenarios to interact with the components placed in the graph view For the ease of user interaction a toolbar that contains all the possible modeling actions is provided In our case we call this toolbar the Drawi
30. Sedan then we call the door a variation point and each different type of door is called a variant We can obtain different products cars from the configuration of this variation point 15 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Continuing with the theme a feature model tries to represent the variability requirements with certain abstraction The interdependencies between the common and variable properties called features and the organization of them into a coherent model are one of the key points to structure in a feature model If requirements and solutions are isolated structures then the modeling can be a bridge which connects these structures together Depending on the accuracy and precision of the feature definition the model can become more robust Because of this also the description of the relations between the features becomes more precise in the model More formally we can say that a feature is a common intention of a concept or a general idea derived or inferred from a specific product line 7 that is as a standard definition a distinguishing characteristic of a software item e g performance portability or functionality 8 The relations between these instances give the meaning of the global concept and the properties of these instances add information to the elements Feature models are usual
31. Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis The addition of feature dependencies is implemented by means of the second button When the user clicks on it the cursor becomes a point and the tool changes the status of operation which in this case adds a blank feature link Then the modeler has to select step by step the two features in the representation that he wants to link it an auxiliary line that goes from the origin feature to the mouse release position is placed only one feature selected To finish the user has to select the type of feature dependency between the lists of possible see Table 1 on a new window that emerges when the second feature is selected The third button is used to add an attribute to a certain feature As with the feature dependency addition button the cursor and the status of operation changes when this button is clicked The user only has to click on the related feature in the graph view and complete the information of the new attribute in an auxiliary window The following four buttons are used to develop the composition hierarchy in the model Each button represents a feature relation type subsequently optional mandatory or and alternative The way to add these components is the same as the addition of feature dependencies so the behavior of the user when adding a hierarchical link is the same than when adding a feature
32. aph becomes a tree and the hierarchy is easily recognized by the user However this introduces a new inconvenience the loss of visual information the dependencies are not visual anymore The natural way to visualize feature dependencies is by means of links from feature to feature any other way to represent this component would be unnatural Representing a dependency in or attached to only one of its feature would require an unnecessary decision from the modeler to decide where to place it Representing the dependency inside both features will introduce an unwanted redundancy Therefore our solution was to provide both types of representation in the tool the graph view and the tree view The user has to be able to visualize the two types of representations This means that when the user is interested in analyzing the hierarchy he she can use the tree view Otherwise from the graph model the user can visualize all the possible information and interact with it The more different visualizations are provided for a certain feature model the easier it will be for the user to understand and manipulate the model Following this theory we also decided to add another representation the indented list The idea is to provide the graph view with a complementary view and interaction mode representing the hierarchy of the feature model In this way the user can see the structure of the hierarchy using the indented list while is working with the g
33. aracter The representation of these icons is an ellipse that contains the correspondent character In the representation they are situated on the central point of the link Feature dependency name Symbol Color As a result it may be easier for the Q modeler to recognize in the visualization Excludes the type of each dependency by mean of Tiitik E the icons In addition it is also easy to distinguish between the different types Includes i of the links by means of the colors Incompatible Q D Requires 3 4 1 1 3 Composition hierarchy Uses il Representing the composition Same 5 E hierarchy of a feature model in the graph view is more complicated than it looks Table 5 Representation of dependencies marks Rp _ Some compositions originate from group relations such as alternative and or feature relations As mentioned previously the set of black fill links are the components responsible for displaying the power structure The destination of each edge depicts the hierarchy s type see Figure 18 In the case of optional and mandatory links the representation uses the Czarnecki Eisenecker 11 ending with an empty fill circle for optional links and ending with a black fill circle for mandatory links 55 iad Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis OPTI
34. ation of the group selected 3 The user presses the Delete button from the new window 4 A new window will appear for the confirmation of the deletion made by the user Post conditions The group is deleted Name Delete component Description Remove the representation of a feature constraint or a hierarchical link or a feature in the model Actors Modeler Preconditions The model has to contain as a minimum one link representation or one feature Flow 1 The user clicks on the link feature representation 2 The fill color of the link representation becomes red or the feature is selected by the use of four small white fill auxiliary boxes as a representation of the selection placed on the top bottom right side and left side of the feature representation 3 The user presses the Delete key from the keyboard 4 A new window will appear for the confirmation of the deletion made by the user Post conditions The representation of the link or the feature is deleted in the model Name Delete attribute Description Remove an attribute related to a feature Actors Modeler Preconditions The model has to contain as a minimum one attribute related to a feature Flow 1 The user clicks on the A button enabled from a feature 2 A new window will appear with the list of attributes related to the feature 79 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Bruss
35. bility to focus on other information by interacting with the system This technique tries to display contextual information without the loose of the modeler s relative orientation when zooming into a big representation The use of the zoom and pan allow the modeler to scale the view and preserve the focus of the content In addition sometimes it is useful to provide the visualization tool with multiple windows or viewpoints for displaying the location in the overall representation and in consequence preserve the context of the content 49 baad Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis In feature modeling the use of this technique is applicable when the representation is based on graphs or trees A feature model with a high number of features needs to use some mechanism for the modeler to focus on a subpart of the representation preserving the general context of it 3 4 Selected visualization techniques for feature models The difficulty when designing a visualization tool for feature models is how to achieve a good visualization where all the information is showed in a coherent manner Features feature dependencies hierarchy and attributes are mainly too much information to show in one representation Although it is possible to show all information at the same time sometimes the visualization will be useless due to the
36. cal mistakes Thanks also to the head of the WISE Laboratory Prof Dr Olga De Troyer my promoter for her kindness her willingness to help me all the time and allowing me to collaborate in the research of the VariBru project I would also like to thank my flatmates Marko Rezonja and Brett Terrell for giving me their point of view in some details of this thesis for being by my side in tough times and for being my friends Finally I need to thank all my friends here specially Andrea Gianluca Mari Carmen Paola Rossella Michela Ole Oliver Susana Sara Tamara Ann Sofie Laura that have been my family in Brussels during this four month But mostly I want to express all my gratitude to my mother and my sister for their infinite love and for giving me the opportunity to experience this great and unforgettable experience the Erasmus experience Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz wy Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Content LIST OE KIGURES oasesssscssessessssesstecsssvdevessouscesseseescestueddessssedevesaeeceuesesosbsoxsessbucussededs dsoscaesesseensdesesseoosssnsscsssenscess 8 LIST OF TABLES siscicssssseccssstvcsscsssecsdaaseccscessesesceaseves sebeoseedcavescacsssessaccasevedssesesuccdsussuccsessceessunssceesauecesseeesscscsece 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION piiiscacsscessccssvessocesesssoscesessassesnoscseuseteosse
37. ddition of the attribute 5 The user completes the information in the window by filling the name of the attribute the type a comparator and the result of the comparison 5 1 If exists another attribute related with the same name the system recovers the normal state and a new error window will appear to inform the user about this situation 5 2 If the feature has got no attributes related the system recovers the normal state the attribute is related to the feature and the A button placed in the box representation of the feature becomes enabled Post conditions The attribute is added in the model related with the selected feature Name Add a hierarchical relation Description Add a representation of a hierarchical relation alternative mandatory or optional in the model V7 Vrije YY Universiteit Brussel Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Actors Modeler Preconditions The model contains features not related in the hierarchy component Flow 1 User clicks on one of the buttons of hierarchically linking two features 2 The system changes the cursor that becomes from an arrow to a point 3 The user selects the feature origin of the link 4 The features from the type related to the link alternative mandatory or optional change the fill color Also the tool shows an auxiliary line which origin is the feature cl
38. des the scripting engine that processes these files or scripts and carries out the specific action that they indicate This server will receive the HTTP requests from the clients and will send by the TCP IP protocol and in this order the following HTTP content to their browsers o HTML JavaScript The HTML contains the definition of the Silverlight application and the JavaScript functions e g function to check if the navigator of the browser has installed Silverlight plug in functions to begin and control the installation of Silverlight creators of object events o XAML NET Assembly XAML represents the starting content of the application the fist image that the application will show in the browser this content will be modified according to the actions that the user will take during the live of the application These actions are fired from the interaction between the elements in the scene and the user The Assembly provides the user with the definition and implementation of all the actions that the user is allowed to call from the tool gt Different computer terminals used by Internet Users that will send HTTP requests to the web server by typing our URL in the browser One of these users will be the administrator that will be able to manage the information of the application with a password Uae Bee Ae Oe aod tne Olen f D F HTML JavaScript Assembly Fr y ard XAML we A x Ss DOM API calls O reme Pte ae 0
39. dsessonsasooseacooessatcasoesoadesesesosesoaceesessases 11 1 1 VARIABLE SOFTWARE MODELING sccis intrieis eae orr stadi PESEE E I SES PE SEEEN EEE PAES E EEES 11 1 2 MOTIVATION penite e A Gov E Ea E E E EA EREE EE RE NEEE 12 1 3 PROBLEM STATEMENT scitis e nsa ea E a aaae AE ar aaaea E gaseaberncnebeuesenenteeacedes 13 1 4 OBJECTIVES oenen E E A AE E L ESA E A E AA EEEa 13 1 5 OVERVIEW oeae e e a TE ee ee ee oe ee 14 CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK esssesessosessocessseseessecssccesssoceessecescseesssosessseoesse 15 2 1 FEATURE MODELS 550505 922052 d2escesesceisesecceecenusccecospsagecsoneccbeidacoes in a TNE aR oE S eana RE NEn Esi S EE 15 2 1 1 Components of a Feature Model c cccccccccessssseseessesecnseeseuseesecaeeacesecacesecuaeeeeaeeseeseeneeeeenaes 16 212 Featires oere E O OE 17 2h AUPIDULES E E ENER 19 2 1 4 Feature Dependencies 0 ccccccccsscesesssesecnseeecusesseesecscesecasescesaeesessecseesecaeeseceaeeeeeaeeseeaeeneeeeenaes 20 2 2 RELATED VISUALIZATION TOOLS cccceeccecesssececenscececseeeceesaececseseeessueeecsesaeeeesneeeeessueeecsenaes 21 2 2 1 Existing tools of Feature Model visualization c cccccesccesesseeseessesecneeeecuseenenseeseeseeaeeseenees 22 2 2 1 1 Feature Modeling TO ijsiisssicsejcistsicssstesictevteciedosbepse puis toasaatiasosiedletansasd EOE E n TEESE R NEEE EEEE 22 2 2 1 2 P re VAT HAINES enaa ana N AE A R EAN 23 2 2 1 3 Feature Modeling Plug in for
40. eeeeescecseeceseeseeeeeseecaeeeaeenseeeaees 71 Figure 29 UML Diagram list view artifact eee eeseceseceeeeeseecsceceseesseeeeneecsaeesaeeeseeesaees 12 Figure 30 UML Diagram tree view artifact eseseeeeeeeeseeeessrrsrerresstesresrersrrsesreeseesrreeresee 74 Figure 31 Relevant Use Cases Graph viewW sce ccisescesicessiancceaveecetoestaiccecenacecuvesancsneetetvacevniaes 75 Figure 32 Relevant Use Cases List view icicoicsccescecsiveetcnntcstaecdesbaenteseetoisdeeuvvanncnneaciaretaantiee 81 Figure 33 Relevant Use Cases Tree viewW tissinicctessecesstsenccandesasetsaniece tee eepininenmceeGueiaeds 83 Figure 34 Silverlight Architecture MGd6l v1cacicssciceesitesaieseccenestioenineliieansnics 89 Figure 35 Software Architecture Model eeseeseseeseeseeseesersersrerressresresrrnseeseenrresressesereses 90 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis List of tables Table 1 Feature dependencies description 14 i0 1s0i00svacyeseesveoneepaswesnpesecieaeoargetes 20 Table 2 Pocus of the analysis 55 20 ps0eeiseccdinaionnaietisenasdeieskiees skies tingaaeieeitie 21 Table 3 Representation of the components in feature modeling tools 068 35 Table 4 Representation of components in ontology modeling tools 0ee ee eee 37 Table 5 Representation of dependencies marks ssccsssssesesssrrrrrrrrrrres
41. eit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis features hierarchical links and feature dependencies and the addition of attributes for features Efficient in that with the visualization of the model the user can understand in an easy manner all available information Also the interaction between the user and the different components of the model should be supported by the visualization 1 5 Overview The remainder of the document is distributed in five chapters as follows gt Chapter 2 Background and related work provides the information about what is a feature model and the components related to it The chapter also includes a report about the research of different tools in feature modeling and other visualization tools such as ontology visualization gt Chapter 3 Visualization and interaction of feature models shows the requirements related to the design of our feature modeling tool In addition the chapter includes an extensive explanation about the design of the tool and justification of the decisions taken during this process gt Chapter 4 Tool Design includes the architecture of the system the Uses Cases of the tool and its UML structure gt Chapter 5 Implementation gives an overview of the technology used for the implementation and provides the tool design structure gt Chapter 6 Discussion and conclusion in this section we discuss the lessons learned from this project and g
42. el Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 3 The user selects one attribute from the list and clicks on the button delete 4 A new window will appear for the confirmation of the deletion by the user 4 1 If the user confirm the deletion and the feature only contains this attribute related the system recovers the normal state the attribute is deleted from the list of attributes and the A button placed on the box becomes disabled 4 2 If the user confirms the deletion and the feature contains more than one attribute related the system recovers the normal state and the attribute is deleted from the list of attributes Post conditions The attribute related to the feature selected is deleted from the model Name Grouping hierarchical group with features Description Addition of a group relation in a list of features Actors Modeler Preconditions The model has to contain as a minimum one feature with or or alternative as a type and a group created of the correspondent type Flow 1 User selects a feature or a list of features pressing the Ctrl key 2 User clicks on the button Grouping from the Manipulation Bar 2 1 If the features selected are from different types a new alert window will appear to inform about this situation 2 2 If there are selected other components that are not features a new alert window will appear to inform about this situation 2 3 1 If the features selected do not meet the requirements
43. elopment of these kinds of products The existence of many articles related to this technique gives us a global idea about the importance of the technique for modeling software product lines However there are only a few tools supporting variability modeling Although feature models have been around since the 11 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 1990 s visualizing feature modeling using GUI tools is quite recent In this thesis we describe the design and implementation of a GUI tool for creating and maintaining feature models in a visual way 1 2 Motivation The result of the applying the feature modeling technique to model a certain variability problem is a feature model Feature models 4 are crucial for the development of variable software correct feature models lead to correct products Thus there is a need for tools that allow specifying verifying and correcting feature models The best way to support the user is by providing a tool that allows to create and to manipulate feature models in a visual way However the visualization of feature models is not an easy task In industrial cases the number of features can be very large and then it becomes difficult to provide a good visualization of such a model The more features are needed in the visualization of the model the more complicated the drawings will bec
44. existence of these functionalities in the tool is tremendously important as it allows the modeler to visualize the full model or a reduced the perspective of the model when the representation is full of features and links For example the user can zoom in on a node when he wants to drag it more exactly in the visualization using the mouse On the other hand one of the problems that arise from the use of two types of links feature dependencies and composition hierarchy links is the overlapping of edges From one feature to one other feature a maximum of one hierarchy link and seven feature dependencies can be added Feature1 Feature2 oj Loj Figure 21 Representation of a dependency The use of curves to represent the links was discarded because of the hard calculations for positioning these curves The solution presented see Figure 21 is the possibility to modify the relative position of the dependencies using auxiliary points The two squares on the link can be clicked and dragged by the user changing the shape of link To finalize the modeler is allowed to deleted components of the representation via the selection of them for features clicking on the box for dependencies clicking on the line segment representing the relation or on the mark and for hierarchical links clicking on the 59 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Hono
45. ez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Figure 10 OntoViz plug in for Prot g 30 The inconvenience of this type of representation arrives from the amount of data that the tool displays The visualization sometimes becomes hard to manipulate when the underlying visualized information exceeds a certain limit In addition when one feature contains several attributes the size of its node becomes huge while other features without attributes maintain the same size This sometimes generates problems to understand the model It is easier to distinguish some features from others in the representation Also the model provides to a certain level of differentiation in number of attributes between the features when it should not occur Besides the use of the zoom is required to visualize the smaller nodes because of the irregularity in the size of the features This means that from some perspectives the user is allowed to recognize some part of the nodes that compose the model and for the rest is necessary the use of the zoom 2 2 2 3 GoSurfer GoSurfer 28 is a data mining tool for visualizing GO 32 data i e sequences of genome wide computations Although GoSurfer is not a common tool to represent ontologies it has a characteristic way to show the content of the input data In this case the 31 aah Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martine
46. feature that may or may not be chosen in the final product when its parent is included in the final product In the graphical representation this type of features is represented by a simple edge from the parent feature optionally ending with an empty fill circle see Figure 2 a In the second type the mandatory feature the specialization of the feature must be included in the final product if its parent feature is included The no inclusion of the mandatory feature in the final product implies also that its parent feature is not included In the graphical representation this type of feature is represented by a simple edge from the parent feature ending with a black fill circle see Figure 2 b The alternative feature only gets reason of existence if it is included in a set of alternative options This means that this set of components represent the different alternatives of their parent concept every feature apart of the group has no meaning In case the parent of the set is included in the product definition then exactly one of the features from the alternative group is included as a specialization of the parent s concept In the graphical 18 r Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis representation each set of alternative features are representing by an arc that encompasses all the edges that connects the parent fea
47. features and the hierarchical links the only components represented in the model The features can be selected dragged deleted and modified like in the graph view On the other hand the hierarchical links can also be removed from the model when this happens the tree view has to remove all the components of the structure placed hierarchically under the feature that was linked from the deleted edge included itself Therefore the representation of the feature model is always consistent The user can consider the tree view as the correct visualization part of the feature model created 64 had Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 3 5 Save and restore the feature models With regard to the requirement number 4 see Chapter 3 1 Initial requirements analysis in the design of the tool we also take into account the possibility of saving and restoring consistent feature models from files Figure 25 Toolbar Save restore model Figure 25 shows the toolbar used by the modelers to save and restore the feature model The first button is the restore model button When the user clicks it a new file selection window opens when the user selects the representation model file that he wants to load into the tool by clicking this button the representations and content of the tool are updated with the content of the selected file
48. for feature modeling visualization is the difficulty to represent the feature dependencies and the attributes The structure of the model only provides the representation of components and its hierarchical relationships furthermore feature type groups will be difficult to represent Jumping from node to node by the use of the relationships and visiting the nodes only one time it is possible to arrive to the starting node visited previously 44 had Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Moreover the use of coloration and proportional sizes are not powerful enough to represent the rest of the components It means that the only option to display these components is by the use of auxiliary windows 3 3 1 5 2D hyperbolic tree The hyperbolic tree technique defines a visualization method for a graph based on a hyperbolic geometric transformation 37 Referring to features and their hierarchical structure the root of the tree representing the root of the feature model is initially placed in the middle of a circular area with the child nodes placed around it their child nodes placed around them and so on see Figure 15 This technique is not appropriate enough for our case Compared with the classic tree representation method the hyperbolic tree entails the loss of the natural tree Figure 15 Hyperbolic tree
49. ges its color 3 The user clicks on the Add Feature button in the list representation 4 A new window will appear to insert the properties of the new feature 5 The user completes the properties of the feature and confirms the information Post conditions The feature is inserted in the model and the representation of it is added in the list as a new node placed under the node selected previously indented to the right and containing the name indicated in the properties Name Delete feature Description Delete the representation of a feature in the list view Actors Modeler Preconditions The list has to contain as a minimum one node Flow 1 User clicks on one node in the indented list that represents a feature 2 The background of the node changes the color 3 The user presses the Delete button from the new window 4 A new alert window will appear to confirm the deletion 5 The user accepts this confirmation Post conditions The feature is deleted in the model and the node is removed from the list where its child nodes and their sub hierarchies become free root nodes moved to level 1 of the component hierarchy in the list view Name Delete attribute Description Delete an attribute related to a feature in the list view Actors Modeler Preconditions The model has to contain as a minimum one attribute related to a feature Flow 82 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit
50. gure 15 Hyperboli tree 37 J o acea nei yaqucueteserenadacasceenins sessen ensai re a aa aia iaiia 45 Figure 16 Example of graph model representation essssesseeereseeseesressrsereseessereresressreeresee 53 Figure 17 Different types of features esssesseseeesessessrseresressersrerresstestesrrnsteseenreesresseeeresee 54 Figure 18 Representation of the hierarchy no using groups eeesseseeereeeresrreresresrreeresee 56 Figure 19 Grouping representation ssssssesesseestteresressttsrestessetsrertessetstesrissetstesreeseesreeereset 56 Figure 20 Drawing Toolbaf sssriscsriiiiiniiecmiiiiisinsisi naasi eieiei aisea 57 Figure 21 Representation of a dependency x icccccc csiccatsnescsesuecasesseneenstbesdenevvenscnnsatiaveceaeeds 59 Figure 22 List view representation s eseseseeessstessesresstterisresserstertessetstesrensttseenreestesreeereset 6l Figure 22 Deletion in indented list view esseesesseseesrsesessessersrerressresrsrrrsersesreesresereeresee 60 Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework v bl oe Figure 25 Toolbar Save restore model oi ysccccciseucesusessadea pares cdeass rate tus inedscuasetettie decane 65 Figure 26 File content of a feature representation cee eeeesseceeeceeeeesseecsaeeneeseeeeeaees 67 Figure 27 Screenshot of the appliG at Ou cvecedesess ai eedaneeeeieyscecantiwyelaacurts cuduacanaelagiaentendedasiees 69 Figure 28 UML Diagram graph view artifact ee cesee
51. gy Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Name Add feature Description Add a new representation of a feature in the tree view Actors Modeler Preconditions Flow 1 Modeler clicks on the button Add feature 2 The system shows a representation of the new feature centered in the position of the cursor 3 The modeler drags the feature representation at the position where he wants to place the final representation and releases the mouse 3 1 If the new feature is situated on another feature the system recovers the normal state 3 2 If the new feature is not situated in the visualized model workspace cursor outside the representation the system recovers the normal state 3 3 If the new feature is situated in a free space in the visualized model workspace the user completes the properties of the new feature name description type and father feature from a new window will appear 3 3 1 If the tree representation has more than one root node or some features are not connected or dead features exist in the model a new error window will appear to inform the user about this situation 3 3 2 If the addition of the feature does not meet the requirement set out in point 3 3 1 the system recovers the normal state and the feature is added in the model Post conditions The feature is inserted in the model on the same position of the new feature and linked hierarchicall
52. gy modeling tools T tree representation L indented list G graph representation 37 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Lessons learned from these ontology modeling tools are gt Firstly Based in feature modeling quality there does not exist one specific visualization method that seems to be the most viable solution for visualizing feature models Rather a good tool is one that provides different views visualization options to allow the user to gain more flexibility when modeling Furthermore switching between these modeling views should be allowed gt Secondly A good visualization tool should provide some efficient searching mechanism or querying for features with certain properties in the model and thus ease the modeling task in the case of very large feature models The majority of ontology visualization tools provide some functionality that implements this function Browsing sometimes is not powerful enough for searching for specific features in large visualizations gt Thirdly We found quite large symmetries between representing ontology concepts and features in feature models Similarly feature dependencies resemble properties linking ontology concepts The component that is more difficult to represent in feature model is the attribute Three types of representations are the most appropriate
53. he type of environment used for its implementation was easily chosen to be RIA There are many advantages in the use of RIA that our tool requires for implementing its functionality A RIA provides a very viable technology capable of addressing the problems that we have to deal with 43 For example the most important advantage is the existence of a wide range of useful interfaces in the field of visualization This is a basic functionality that our tool requires RIA technologies generally allow constructing graphics on the fly and some of them can even provide full motion animations in response to data changes 44 Although the existence of a large number of technologies for rich internet applications the final choose for implementing the tool was between Adobe Flex 45 and Microsoft 4 Rich Internet applications RIA are web applications used for implementing desktop applications running in browsers 87 Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis YY Silverlight 46 After experimenting and testing some tools from the two environments basically to check the graphic power the development environment and language chosen for the development of the tool was Microsoft Silverlight because of the rich set of graphical functionalities and the big extension of tools that is currently using Silverlight as an envir
54. his model is the representation by our tool of the model presented as an example in the Chapter 2 Figure 1 At a first glance see Figure 16 the user can distinguish between boxes nodes of the graph and edges relationships in the representation Each box represents a feature where its name is placed right in the middle The user can differentiate between four types of boxes each represented by a different the border described further on In addition two buttons are situated on the bottom of the boxes one contains the letter A and the other one the letter L these buttons are discussed later 52 m Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Location ese tdi Language Figure 16 Example of graph model representation Also there are two set of lines relationships linking features in pairs the black lines and the colored lines The black lines ends with a graphical annotation that depends on the type of the destination feature mandatory optional or alternative while the colored lines represents feature dependencies and is annotated with a mark ellipse situated on the central point of the edge that indicates the type of dependency The next sections describe in details the different graphic notations used 3 4 1 1 1 Features and attributes inside graph view As commented previously the representati
55. icked and the destination the position of the cursor 5 The user clicks on the destination feature of the hierarchical link 5 1 If the destination feature is already linked by another hierarchical component the system recovers the normal state and a new error window will appear to inform about this situation 5 2 If the linking generates a graph representation instead of a tree the system recovers the normal state and a new error window will appear to inform about this situation 5 3 If the destination feature belongs to a different type of hierarchy the system recovers the normal state and a new error window will appear to inform about this situation 5 4 If the linking and the feature does not meet the requirements set out in points 5 1 5 2 5 3 the system recovers the normal state and the link is added in the graph view Post conditions The link representation is added in the model Name Delete hierarchical group Description Remove a group related to a hierarchical link from the model and thus the visualization Actors Modeler Preconditions The model has to contain as a minimum one group related to a hierarchical link Flow 1 The user clicks on the name of the group placed in the representation 78 YY Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 2 A new tooltip will appear with the inform
56. ies gt List all the hierarchical links Hierarchy tags of the model Each hierarchy contains the identification the type and the destination feature and the source feature of the relationship gt lt ListLinks gt List all the dependencies Link tags of the model Each link contains the identification and the destination feature and the source feature of the relationship gt lt ListGroup gt List all the groupings related to alternative or Group tag in the model Each group contains the identification the name the type of the grouping the brief description and the list of features FeatureGroup tag related to the group gt lt ListAttribute gt List all the attributes related to features Attribute tag in the model Each attribute contains the identification the name the type the comparator the result of the comparison and feature related to the attribute 66 e Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis lt Created 11 07 57 gt lt Root numLink 22 numGroup 0 numFeature 17 gt lt ListFeatures gt lt Feature Id 5 Name Help system Description Type 2 xPos 663 yPos 125 xTPos 663 yTPos 125 gt lt Feature Id 6 Name Location Description Type 1 xPos 513 yPos 131 xTPos 513 yTPos 131 gt lt Feature Id 14 Name Table of contents Description Type 3 xPo
57. if and only if the file contains a consistent and correct feature model representation Meantime in the case of saving the model second button the tool checks that there is only one root node incase this constraint is violated the application reports an inconsistent feature model error to the user The third button is used to create a new model all the content and the representations are cleared Finally the fourth button displays in a new window the content of the current model file in case it will be saved in a file 65 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 3 5 1 XML as the model file format We use XML to save the contents of the visualized model in a serializable manner This decision was taken because of the easy understanding for the users of this language and its widespread usage by industry as exchange format Figure 26 presents the content of a feature model file based on the model presented as example in the Chapter 2 Figure 1 adding some dependencies and grouping of features for a better understanding The file contains different tags represented as follows gt lt ListFeatures gt List all the features Feature tag of the model Each feature contains its identification its name description its type and its relative position in the graph view and in the tree view gt lt ListHierarch
58. ije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis ono oO ee sg g A 4 Featurel 4 Feature3 Feature6 Feature5 Feature2 Feature5 Feature4 Feature2 Feature1 LOONNNNENS Screenshot 6 Addition of a feature dependency No compatible the feature to add the hierarchy This feature is already linked Screenshot 7 Error window example XML CONTENT lt Created 8 59 12 gt Root numLink 6 numGroup 1 numFeature 6 gt lt ListFeatures gt lt Feature Id 0 Name Feature1 Description Type 2 xPos 74 yPos 285 gt lt Feature Id 1 Name Feature2 Description Type 0 xPos 541 yPos 241 gt lt Feature Id 2 Name Feature3 Descri Type 3 xPos 233 yPos 149 gt lt Feature Id 3 Name Feature4 Description Test 5 Type 1 xPos 95 yPos 40 gt lt Feature Id 4 Name Feature5 Description Type 0 xPos 580 yPos 103 gt lt Feature Id 5 Name Feature6 Description Type 0 xPos 423 yPos 30 gt lt ListFeatures gt lt ListHierarchies gt lt Hierarchy Id 0 Type 0 fDestiny FeatureS fOrigin Feature2 gt lt Hierarchy Id 1 Type 0 fDestiny Feature4 fOr Feature2 gt lt Hierarchy Id 2 Type 0 fDestiny Feature1 fOrigin Feature2 gt lt Hierarchy Id 4 Type 1 fDestiny Feature3 fOrigin Feature2 gt lt Hierarchy Id 5 Type 3
59. ileadmin downloads pure variants doc pv user manual pdf 20 Pure systems GmbH http www pure systems com 21 XFeature P amp P Software http www pnp software com XFeature Home html 22 Eclipse http www eclipse org 23 Fama Tool Suite FaMaTS http www isa us es fama 24 David Benavides Sergio Segura Pablo Trinidad and Antonio Ruiz Cortes FAMA Tooling a Framework for the Automated Analysis of Feature Models Department of Computer Languages and Systems University of Seville Seville Spain 25 Krzysztof Czarnecki Chang Hwan Peter Kim Feature Models are Views on Ontologies Canada University of Waterloo Generative Software Development Group 26 T R Gruber 1993 Towards principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing Stanford University 96 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 27 Prot g http protege stanford edu 28 GoSurfer http bioinformatics bioen uiuc edu gosurfer 29 IsaViz http www w3 org 2001 1 1 IsaViz 30 OntoViz http protegewiki stanford edu index php OntoViz 31 GraphViz http www graphviz org 32 Gene Ontology Consortium http www geneontology org 33 GandrKB A knowledgebase for integrative modeling and access to Microarray annotation data www bioinf mdc berlin de schober GandrIntro 34 Joris Klerkx E
60. inimum the model has to contain two features Flow 1 User clicks on the button of adding a new dependency 2 The system changes the cursor that becomes from an arrow to a point 3 The user selects the feature origin of the link in the representation 4 The tool shows an auxiliary line with its source as the feature clicked and the destination the position of the cursor 5 The user selects the destination feature in the model 76 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 5 1 If the destination feature is the same as the source feature the system recovers the normal state and a new error window will appear to inform the user about this situation 5 2 If the destination feature is different from the source feature a new window will appear to select the type of feature dependency Post conditions A new representation of dependency linking the feature origin and the feature destiny is placed on the representation Name Add attribute Description Add a new feature attribute Actors Modeler Preconditions The model has to contain as a minimum one feature Flow 1 User clicks on the button of adding a new attribute 2 The system changes the cursor that becomes from an arrow to a point 3 The user clicks on the feature that he wants to add the attribute to 4 A new window will appear for completing the a
61. irectly represented in the model due to the problem of the possible large amount of data that should be showed But from the representation of the feature the user can recognize the existence of attributes 3 4 1 1 2 Feature dependencies As in the case of the features the modeler also must distinguish between the different types of dependencies in the model The use of colors is the first possibility to provide the representation for this differentiation each type of relation corresponds with a different color please refer to Color Encoding technique section 3 3 2 2 The problem of this differentiation lies in the fact that the users needs to know the association between color and type of dependency With the use of different colors the modeler can distinguish different feature dependencies but he may not know or recall the meaning of the colors A color has not an implicit meaning to relation with the descriptions of dependency types see Figure 1 Because of that the tool also provides icons on each link that describes the type of relation see Table 5 54 had Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis After some study on different possible icons we decided to associate a character to each kind of link For example because of the meaning of the dependency same the most obvious is to associate this type with the ch
62. ive some recommendations for future work 14 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Chapter 2 Background and related work 2 1 Feature Models In a global context we can consider a feature model as an approach for capturing variable properties and functionalities of concepts and commonalties in software systems and product lines The function of the feature model is to express the requirements regarding the variability using a high level of abstraction Variability is an abstract concept difficult to explain theoretically We can imagine a factory that creates products with certain aspects that can be variable These products with variable aspects are called product lines 6 By changing some of these aspects in a product we obtain a different product variant In case the factory needs to offer specializations of the products to achieve certain requirements at the end of its development the need of variability study arises Each aspect of the product that can vary is called as variation point 6 of the product So the usefulness of variability is when configuring this variation point the product line ends as a different product variant For example consider a car product line in the case of automobile companies If different cars are produced with different door types and numbers as an example e g 2 Door Coupe 4 Door
63. l by a set of stakeholders and modelers From there we also will get more ideas from the real user experience to enhance the tool and thus more conclusions and relevant information that can be taken into account in the field of feature modeling visualization In addition two possible functionalities that our tool could adapt are gt In the case of saving the model the tool trigger the checking the consistency of the model e g all features are connected no dead features exist in the model the graph model is connected without cycles 93 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis gt Provide a search mechanism by the use of complex queries Sometimes it is difficult for the modeler to find visually a component in the representation so it is a good idea to provide our tool with this possibility gt Study the possibility to add a mechanism for merging different feature models 94 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 1 Kwanwoo Lee K C Kang and Jaejoon Lee 2002 Concepts and Guidelines of Feature Modeling for Product Line Software Engineering pp 790 784 Korea Department of Computer Science and Engineering Pohang University of Science and Technology 2 P Clements L North
64. le a father child relationship can be represented in the model as a 42 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis large region the father that contains a smaller region the child The solution in case of the hierarchy could be the use of different colored regions e g circles red filled suggests that they include lower levels To navigate in the hierarchical representation the modeler only has to click in a region that will be magnified with the use of animation making its contents visible One of the disadvantages of this technique is the difficulty to distinguish the types of features Although this technique allows playing with the sizes and the colors of the regions these possibilities are already used to represent the hierarchy component Thus the method must use _ low efficiency solutions for user s point of view in order to achieve the representation of these types Figure 13 Venn Diagram 35 3 3 1 3 Tree structure A tree structure allows the modeler to represent hierarchical natures of a structure in a graphical form which is formed by a series of nodes connected by links between them In the field of feature modeling tools this method of visualization is most widely used The hierarchical nature of the structure is valid for representing the hierarchy component of feature models although it
65. lic tre aiiiar Eear ea sae sa ceas sa ANE AEA NEES E EEEE EEEE ER REESE 3 3 1 6 Graph representation sos icicisicscsvasesasscusisieeeidesssevaheszersbide asurdueosien N EnS EER ENEE ER ESEE EEEE 3 3 2 Human computer interaction 3 3 2 1 Explicit Representation is is5sasscisr iecticysidea ies aagh ssasise scraps de cseghcesons conbshaviice RE 3 3 2 2 Color Coding eiseressen tonino iros oen Nersa Er EV E EEE EESTE Ae SEOL EEES E EA EEES EEEE EATE SAE ESS 3 3 2 3 Details on Demand 00 eects 3 3 2 4 Techniques based on big representations 3 3 2 4 1 Incremental Browsing sisiicsscscisessscsusesscecizsassvceseascashieaitsassvesesea seneeascanaouensdentsustvoartuneie iii ek 3 3 2 4 2 Focus Context 3 4 SELECTED VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUES FOR FEATURE MODELS SAT The graph Model oici ccccsictie seis cheweartatesaescchcnanteueeteudegucudeveeaadtvscsaceutsads ii na AAE EREKE 3 4 1 1 Graph view design 3 4 1 1 1 Features and attributes inside graph View 0 0 0 ccc eceseeceseeseeeeeeseeeaeeeesaeeeeseceeeeeeeeaeeaes 53 3 4 1 1 2 Feature dependencies sists scicssisasccesvsicecasivicscetees ctevigavetisbdevsaseleestiusl doeka a Enes EES Kon ESEE EEEO 3 4 1 1 3 Composition hierarchy 3 4 1 2 Graph view interaction si i6 2 s eccescsasccsssiscessevasdeascvasiasieis sab eadsesenseabscebscaiaieveddeeessecisasaxeudae seassdszees 3 4 1 2 1 Editing and deleting concepts cee ccc eee eeeeeeseeeseeeeeeeeeeseesesseesesseeaeee
66. ly represented in a graphical way by means of a tree like diagram 2 1 1 Components of a Feature Model To understand a feature model it is essential to comprehend the components that form a feature model The basic structure of feature models is a tree representation where primitive nodes are leaves linked with compound interior nodes 9 The representation of these links varies depending on the notation that the modeler uses In the next subsections the descriptions of the three basic components used in the construction of a Feature Model are described features attributes and feature dependencies 16 at Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Help system te Language Topic structuring Context sensitive help Location English Spanish Table of Index Search contents Figure 1 Example of feature model 10 2 1 2 Features Each concept of the model represents a feature It is a concept that gives a part of the information of the complete model and it is considered as one of the basic components of a feature model Features are involved in a net of connections or arcs that represents relations between the different features and gives the global meaning of the model Some of the connections represent the composition hierarchy of the model which provides information about the specialization of a product line 9
67. mming Methods Tools and Applications Boston Addison Wesley 12 D Benavides P Trinidad and A R Cort s Automated Reasoning on Feature Models University of Seville Seville 2005 13 L Etxeberria G Sagardui and L Belategi 2007 Modelling variation in quality attributes Faculty of Engineering University of Mondragon 14 Lamia Abo Zaid Geert Jan Houben Olga De Troyer and Frederic Kleinermann 2008 An OWL Based Approach for Integration in Collaborative Feature Modelling 4th Workshop on Semantic Web Enabled Software Engineering SWESE2008 15 Grupo de Investigaci n en Reutilizaci n y Orientaci n a Objeto GIRO Feature Modeling Tool Avalaible from http www giro infor uva es FeatureTool html 16 Rub n Fernandez Miguel A Laguna Jestis Requejo Nuria Serrano 2009 Development of a Feature Modeling Tool using Microsoft DSL Tools Department of Computer Science University of Valladolid 17 M Antkiewicz K Czarnecki 2004 FeaturePlug in Feature Modeling Plug in for Eclipse In Eclipse 04 Proceedings of the 2004 OOPSLA Workshop on Eclipse Technology eXchange OOPSLA Vancouver British Columbia Canada 18 Feature Modeling Plug in Generative Software Development Lab University of Waterloo http gsd uwaterloo ca projects fmp plug in 19 Pure systems GmbH 2008 pure variants User s Guide Version 3 0 for pure variants 3 0 Available from http www pure systems com f
68. n visualization 38 One of the principles that were followed in the design of the tool see Chapter 3 was to allow as much as possible interaction between the user and the representation of the feature model The more interaction with the visualization is possible the easier it will be for the user to management the models The next sections present an overview of some HCI techniques that were helpful for the design of the tool 3 3 2 1 Explicit Representation Explicit Representation refers to drawing methods which display the hierarchy as links between nodes 39 The goal of this technique is represent the information as intuitive as possible In the case of feature models the best way to represent the hierarchical relations and dependencies is by the use of links between nodes representing the features 46 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis In addition the possibility to represent the links in different ways e g curves straight lines provides the possibility to differentiate between type of relations For feature modeling this possibility can be applied to represent different types of relations The modeler would then see the difference between three types of relationships hierarchical links feature dependencies and attributes related to features each represented by means of a different link representa
69. n them are significant because of the different representation of the content Thus from the designer point of view the application is based in a common part that contains consistently and maintained all the relevant information in addition of three different parts which make use of the information contained in this common part 4 2 1 Graph view artifact Figure 29 presents the UML of the graph view artifact This time the design varies dramatically compared to the list view artifact For example the feature representation idem name for the class is composed by a set of four classes instead of only one element in the list view artifact Rectangle representing the box TextBlock representing the name of the feature Button Attribute and Button Dependencies 70 m Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis FeatureView id fontSize xOGraph yOGraph height Dependency Representation width oooi name2 XOTree i yOTree t description type level 0 1 is father ConfigurationTool 1 actualState colorDependencies SSS Figure 28 UML Diagram graph view artifact In addition each dependency hierarchy and related group has a representation in the Canvas Graph Model The TextBlock class is responsible for relating groups with hierarchies portrayal while a set of components
70. ncoding to distinguish between the different types of information Some components of a feature models e g dependencies hierarchical links features need the use of such an encoding 92 YY 6 3 Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis The inclusion of different visualizations is good for the modeler From only one view it is quite difficult to represent all the components of a feature model Different visualizations require synchronization between all of them in the actions taken during the modeling modification deletion addition selection etc of components The more interaction between the visualization and the modeler is supported the easier the modeling will be Rich Internet Applications technology is a good choice to develop a feature modeling tool that should run in a browser also due to the rich set of graphical functionalities that are already available Future work Actually the tool is still in the implementation process At this point the graph view and the list view are implemented and they operate synchronously The next step is the implementation of the tree view Further testing and application of the use tool to a test case is required The future work with respect to our feature modeling tool after finishing the implementation is the enhancing of the prototype via testing the too
71. needs of the users and the level of support it provides for visually modeling variability represented by feature models From our point of view the above tools are optimized for configuration of feature models rather than feature modeling design For example is not essential to use an indented list view because a feature model design tool not provides the possibility to configure the product line it maybe included on a different view for example a configuration view Even the inclusion of all the components in the indented list seems excessive and difficult to understand 34 bah Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework X Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Tool Method Features Hierarchical component Dependencies Attributes T L G Comments T L G Comments T L G Comments T L G Comments List The child nodes are placed List indented to the right from the parent List Represented as Represented as While the grouping of features is an item placed inside an item placed Indented List Represented as an represented as a new item indicatin the feature inside the P P 8 Tree vY y amp item in the list and YW v amp the group type which also includes K v amp representation xiv X feature Feature representation as a node in the tree the features indented to the right representation Modeling Tool Tree
72. ng Toolbar see Figure 20 It is composed of ten buttons and the function of each one is described in the next paragraphs starting from the button situated on the top of the bar to the one situated on the bottom Figure 20 Drawing Toolbar The first button gives the modeler the possibility to add new features to the graph view When clicking this button the representation of the new feature appears as a red box situated at the position of the cursor The user only has to drag this box to the position where the feature needs to be situated in the visualization workspace user work space and release the mouse button The last step is to complete the detailed information of the new feature This information contains the feature name which will be placed in the middle of the representation a brief description of the feature in case it is necessary for the modeler and the type of it alternative mandatory optional and or feature In this case it is obligated for the modeler to provide the name and type of the feature The decision to use the dragging in the creation of features was taken because of the easy way to position the new feature in the user work space Otherwise the user would have had to indicate the coordinates when adding a new feature In addition it is easier for the modeler to control the collisions between the new feature and the existing ones than doing this automatically 57 a Vrije Feature Models
73. ng visualization tool As commented previously see section 1 2 the number of components in our model tends to grow so the need to achieve a good representation model for visualizing clearly the global contents of the model rises Furthermore the tool should allow for flexible user interaction the underlying model The visualization of the feature model also must match the needs required for the stakeholders Due to the fact that a concept can be represented by different valid models another problem confronting modelers is to decide which of them is better for satisfying their requirements In addition sometimes a good way to represent the model uses the combination of various visualizations This fact increases the visualization problem in terms of complexity because of the necessity to extend the study with all the possible combinations of visualization views providing the synchronization between them 1 4 Objectives The main goal of this project is to create an effective and useful application that solves the problems indicated previously running in a browser as a RIA and with a good response time In particular two specific objectives can be defined for the tool Usable in that with this application tool the user can create modify save and load feature models in a visual way The creation means the addition of features the links between 13 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universit
74. nother feature the indented list represents this specification as a sub item indented to the right from the position of its item father A list can contain a large number of different items so the rest of the components in a feature model attributes dependencies types can be represented and placed inside the list Nevertheless when the feature model contains a large number of components the inclusion of all these components can generate huge lists very inefficient to modeler s work In addition this problem supposes a big effort for the reader to find and differentiate the types of items For example the inclusion of all possible feature model components supposes at least five different types of items feature type of feature hierarchical grouping attribute feature dependency 3 3 1 2 Venn diagrams Designed by John Venn around 1880 the Venn diagram 34 is an illustration of the relationships between and among sets or groups of objects that share some or all characteristics The principle of the diagram is the use of regions to represent classes or sets These regions use to be represented with ellipses which could be overlapping with each other depending on the relationships between the classes or sets see Figure 13 This idea can be adapted to represent the structure of a feature model The features can be displayed as regions in the diagram and the hierarchy component can use the structure of this method For examp
75. ntation YVIRI node in the ane v R X group emerge 9 9 No representation oY R amp the box that XFeature represents the Uses cardinality to give the modeler related feature the information about the existence of groups and the type of features The child nodes are placed indented to Indented List Represented as a the right from their parent Features Represented as a No V node in the list V form the same group is placed inside VY node representation the same node relation Table 3 Representation of the components in feature modeling tools T tree representation L indented list G graph representation 35 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis We also studied other visualization of data in different domains such as ontologies Ontology modeling tools also have to deal with massive amount of data structured in a rich hierarchical manner Table 4 provides the representation of the components in of ontology modeling tools the aim of this study was to gain some experiences in how other domains dealt with the scalability issue when visualizing knowledge 36 Vrije x Universiteit Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz
76. ome and the more difficult it will be to understand and to manipulate the content of the model In addition to the large amount of features the visualization should also support the specification and visualization of all necessarily details attributes feature dependencies feature and or alternative hierarchies so the problem becomes more complicated because showing all this information together may result in diagrams that are too complex to understand and manipulate and therefore unusable In this project our objective was to identify from a HCI perspective the best method to visualize feature models and interact with them In addition for the sake of interoperability and ease of use in a distributed setting it was required to develop such a tool using Rich Internet Application RIA technology 5 12 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 1 3 Problem statement This work relates both feature modeling techniques and information visualization techniques We try to provide the best possible view s that visualize feature models and thus ease the modeling process Visualizing and a representing feature models in industrial models where the number of components included sometimes becomes very large which is not an easy task Therefore we foresee visualization scalability as an important issue for any good feature modeli
77. on based in cardinalities is a good solution for the representation because the user gets the type of the feature and its group from the same component the ellipse On the other hand at first glance it is difficult to distinguish the different types from the representation the modeler has to relate the cardinality with the type imposing sometimes a big mental effort for the user To finalize the existence of attributes are represented as a red fill ellipses placed near the features Thus the modeler can recognize in the representation that a feature has related attributes from the situation of this ellipse 2 2 1 5 FaMa Tool Suite FaMa Tool Suite FaMaTS is a tool for the automated analysis of variability models 23 The application provides an extensible framework for easily reading variability models and automating also used in a semi automated way the configuration of a final product 27 haf Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis As the majority of the feature modelling applications FaMa Tool Suite uses GUI tree tree structure in indented list as a representation of the model The difference in this case lies in the process of modeling the user has to develop the structure of the feature model writing it in an XML Then the tools read the document and visualize the content of it like in the Figure 8 allo
78. on of features are based on boxes The different border of the boxes depends on the type of the feature see Figure 17 The reason for this differentiation is to support different ways of creating feature models For example if the modeler starts adding all the features at the moment that he she starts to create the hierarchy there is some visual aid to distinguish the different types of features Otherwise the user has to remember the types of all the features that were already created The two buttons situated at the bottom of the boxes gives to the user visual information about dependencies and attributes related to the features The A button reports on the existence of attributes while the D button reports on the existence of feature dependencies 53 had Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis The A button is not enabled when the feature does not have attributes The same happens for the D button MANDATORY when the feature is not linked with other features by means of feature dependencies then the D button is not enabled On the other hand if the user clicks on the A or D buttons when they are enabled the tool shows a OPTIONAL new window with the list of attributes or feature dependencies respectively Figure 17 Different types of f f features The attributes are not d
79. onment 5 1 1 Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is a programmable web application plug in that enables functionalities such as animations graphics and audio video among others 47 The support of NET languages provides the programmer the possibility to work with different program languages e g Visual Basic C JavaScript IronPython IronRuby etc Silverlight applications are delivered to a browser in a text based markup language called XAML the Extensible Application Markup Language which offers markup capabilities that target user interface creation and programmable object creation The XAML contains a Canvas an object type that represents the presentation layer i e the visual information that the application will show The user calls the functions from the kernel already implemented by the NET languages which modifies the properties of the XAML and the content of the Canvas In addition and as a good property the Canvas provides the developers with a number of rich graphics effects like rotate scale skew translate and matrix transforms 5 2 Implementation Environment Our feature modeling tool is defined as a web based application Figure 34 shows the architecture which consists of these elements 88 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis gt A web server where the files are hosted It inclu
80. ons one rectangle and link for every new attribute For example if a feature has got four attributes two hierarchical links and two feature dependencies it means that from this node emerges a total of an eight links to eight new features in case there are no features used twice for different relations Graph eoe Definitions nna foaf Person countiin foat knows gt 0 and foaf ttleNext Ma ioat nomepage dc ttionoxt0 Found 3 path s Evaluate Expression Figure 12 IsaViz environment 27 2 2 3 Conclusion of the study Studying related tools was the starting point of the design of our tool From the conclusions more details later of this work we already get some first ideas on how to design our tool On the other hand the information obtained in this way is quite limited and a more theoretical study in the area of information visualization was considered useful This will be given in section 2 3 and 2 4 In this section we have looked at different feature modeling visualization tools to understand the existing support given to software modelers developing variable software and thus help us identify the shortcomings of these tools from a Hc prospective Table 3 Human computer interaction HCI is the study of interaction between people users and computers 33 r Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single
81. ons of the 48 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis visualized structure displayed 39 The rest of the representation is hidden and can be showed when modeler s desire to In feature modeling the high level nodes of the hierarchy component can be displayed as a starting point The modeler can visualize the rest of the hierarchy as he explores the visualization by the use of mouse events applied on the components The representation sometimes can provide a level of distinction between the components in different levels for making the distinction between of the hierarchy s components easier On the other hand sometimes this solution becomes a problem in the case of models with a high number of levels For instance if the representation of the feature model is based on a graph the incremental browsing of the information space is based on visualizing only limited sections of the whole graph 40 according to the user clicks the rest of the graph is visualized 3 3 2 4 2 Focus Context To quote Diirsteler 41 The main problem of information visualization is the insufficient space which restricts the user in showing detail and context contemporaneous is called presentation problem The Focus Context system allows the user to show detailed information linked with the context by also having the possi
82. ortable user experience 39 YY Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Starting from the observation that the target users will be ICT professionals as well as other professionals with no or little knowledge in developing feature models we can derive the following basic requirements l A non experienced user has to be able to use the tool and understand what he can do with it with minimal training The visualization used in the tool has to show all the possible information contained in a feature model without resulting in a visual overload The user should be able to manipulate easily the different components of the model Move edit or delete are basic actions that the tool must support Save and load feature models from a file are necessary actions of the tool as the development of the models may be spread over time Good response times are necessary the actions of the user must have an instantaneous response from the tool Interaction with the components of the model represents the power of the tool The more actions take place inside the model representation instead of in auxiliary windows the more intuitive the use of the tool will become To avoid the need for installing software which may be difficult for non experienced users the tool has to run in a browser These requirements are only the basic one
83. put E Code Coverage Results 594 Find Results 14g Find Symbol Results Ey l 9 I Figure 3 Feature Model Tool main window 15 22 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis The modeler can recognize the hierarchy composition from this representation and also distinguish or groups and alternative groups due to the use of a new node in the list that contains as child the features of the related group However the introduction of a new node that represents the existence of a group of features can be confused with the actual features when comprehending the hierarchy composition it also means adding an extra level to the indented list The central window represents the modeler s design where it is allowed to add modify delete features The representation is based on a tree where the links symbolize the hierarchy component and the nodes symbolize features All the changes produced on this representation will propagate automatically to the other views One inconvenience of this view relates on the non visualization of the feature dependencies so the main functionality of the representation lies in the basis to show the information in a hierarchical form as well as in the indented list One of the tools disadvantages is the excessive use of two similar views that represent the information in a hierarchical manner The tool
84. r Excludes a Ex Raining day excludes Sunny day ae Featurel extends Feature2 if Featurel adds to the functionality of Feature2 xtends Ex Full registration extends Simple registration Feature includes Feature2 if Featurel contains Feature2 Includes Ex Add username includes Check user name exists When Feature is mutual exclusive due to a conflict with Feature2 it is considered that Feature is Incompatible i incompatible with Feature2 Ex Advanced graphics incompatible with Basic graphic controller Featurel requires Feature2 when Feature is functionally dependent on Feature2 Requires Ex Advanced editor requires Spelling checker Feature1 uses Feature2 then there is a dependency relation so logically if Feature is required then Uses Feature2 should also be required Ex Search uses Provide hints Constraint used to indicate that two features are the same ame Ex Advanced graphics same AG Table 1 Feature dependencies description 14 20 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Two features cannot be given the same type of dependency between them because of the strict meaning of each role On the other hand two features can get different type of dependency for example Add use
85. r with the properties of the feature name description and type 3 The user modifies the properties and saves the modification Post conditions The properties of the feature are modified in the model In case the type of the feature changes the hierarchical link is reloaded with the representation of the new type of relation 85 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Name Visualize feature dependencies Description Navigates to the graph view to visualize the dependencies of a feature Actors Modeler Preconditions The model has to contain as a minimum two features Flow 1 The user clicks on the D button of a feature 2 The tree view is replaced by the graph view Post conditions The tree view window is reloaded by the graph view positioned the center of the screen on the position of the feature that the user clicked the D button 86 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework X Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Chapter 5 e Implementation 5 1 RIA as the environment of the tool With regard to the requirement number 7 see Chapter 3 1 Initial requirements analysis to avoid that users need to installing software our tool should preferably operate in a browser Due to the fact that our tool is ideated as a desktop application t
86. raph model Thus the final decision was the utilization of three types of visualizations for the feature models the graph model the indented list and the tree view The following subsections show in detail the design of the different visualizations and also how the user can interact with each one Having these three different visualizations has added an additional requirement to the tool 8 The three visualizations need to be kept consistent with each other while the user is manipulating one of them 51 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 3 4 1 The graph model A graph is a diagram that shows a set of relationships often functional between a group of points or numbers Each of these points or numbers has coordinates determined by their relationships This diagram represents a mathematical structure or a symbolic representation of a network 42 The graph representation of our tool is based on this definition This is the only representation that tries to show almost all the content of the model at once The graph representation will be given in the main window of the tool From there the user will work most of the time when developing the feature model 3 4 1 1 Graph view design To make the understanding of the graph view design easier Figure 16 shows a representation of graph view model in our tool T
87. relationships between them using a descriptive notation As commented previously a basic feature model is also a concept description technique 25 where its representation is quite similar to that of ontologies features linked by dependencies and parent child like relations Therefore the study of the following tools is useful for our purpose because ideas implemented in ontology visualization gives insight The Extensible Markup Language XML is a general purpose specification for creating custom markup languages 28 bad Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis on how to represent rich complicated information structures which also apply to the case of representing feature models In this case the study is done from the feature model point of view i e the components of ontology can be used to represent the components of a feature model Thus instead of referring to classes we will refer to features Also attributes and hierarchy are considered instead of properties and taxonomy classifications respectively As in the research of feature modeling tools the study is based on different visualization categories For example the research in Prot g 27 is an overview of the indented list model representation characteristics Other tools presented are GoSurfer 28 IsaViz 29 and OntoViz 30 among others 2 2 2
88. resentation also includes a text panel situated on the bottom that reports the essential information of the feature selected its name its type the number of feature dependencies linked to it and the number of attributes that it contains Another functionality of the list view is the possibility to add a new child feature to the selected node The user only has to click on the button Add in the representation and after it introduce the information about the new feature Also it is possible to delete the 61 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis selected node using the keyboard Delete button The child features of the deleted node and their sub hierarchies become free root nodes so they are moved to level 1 of the component hierarchy in the list view Figure 23 shows in detail an example of a deletion according to the model analyzed throughout the document The figure shows the state of the list view before and after deleting the nodes Language and Search in the model In the case of the Language feature deletion all the nodes placed under it Spanish English are repositioned as free root nodes at the end of the list In addition the tool provides synchronization between the graph view and the list view to achieve better user interaction and facilitate model manipulation So when the modeler selec
89. retractable hiding it The user only must click on the arrow situated on the right of the parent feature see Figure 22 When a node is expanded this arrow changes shape and becomes a black fill Arrows of non expanded nodes are represented as an empty fill arrow 60 Vrije Universiteit Brussel x Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 4 Help system 4 Location Local Online 4 Language English Spanish 4 Topic structuring Table of contents Index Search Context sensitive help Add _ Delete Figure 22 List view representation In the area below the list visualization the user is allowed to visualize the information about links and attributes of a feature using the buttons situated at the left side see Figure 22 As in the graph view disabled buttons means that there are no attributes and or dependencies related to the feature selected The info window showed when the modeler clicks on these buttons is the same than when clicking the correspondent buttons on the graph view 4 Help system 4 Help system 4 Location 4 Location Local Local Online Online 4 Language Context sensitive help English 4 Topic structuring Spanish Table of contents 4 Topic structuring Index Table of contents English Index Spanish Search Context sensitive help Figure 23 Deletion in indented list view In addition to this the rep
90. ribute Delete component Add feature p Modeler Delete attribute Add a feature dependency a Delete hierarchical group Grouping hierarchical group with feature s Figure 31 Relevant Use Cases Graph view Name Add feature Description Add a new representation of a feature in the graph view 75 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Actors Modeler Preconditions Flow 1 Modeler clicks on the button Add feature 2 The system shows a representation of the new feature centered in the position of the cursor 3 The modeler drags the feature representation at the position where he wants to place the final representation and releases the mouse 3 1 If the new feature is situated on another feature the system recovers the normal state 3 2 If the new feature is not situated in the visualized model workspace cursor outside the representation the system recovers the normal state 3 3 If the new feature is situated in a free space in the visualized model workspace a new window will appear to insert the properties of the new feature Post conditions The feature is inserted in the model on the same position of the new feature Name Add a feature dependency Description Add a new representation of dependency between two features in the model Actors Modeler Preconditions As a m
91. ribute dependency those make up the final model These logical items can be augmented based on the user needs and preferences Fle Edt Navigate Search Variant Project Run Window Help Ena EAE FE Similar to one of the representations of the v 7H P snpe vm 9 D Rektions E Result 1 Fapwsee Ul a ha previous tool the items are situated as nodes 1 GH ExampleConfiggpace Ew Fomat all Pore A cvsignore f amp nl E evs 0 E indde cn gem ont in an indented list Each check box placed fg Runtine Systemem Sv J Language BE corf E gp Runtime System Soltions M Engish F f Runtine Systemfm 1 German w T System F Aam f Weather Station ccfm TIX Freeze Point iG Weather Station Solutions TX Storm Alert al E Weather Station sfm r oF fles na K amp gegm near each component is used to configure a lt Q psiproject mits include EER Sensas orci MEE product line from the feature model Thus the Properties Tasks Problems 3 Navigator Search Outlne 6 Visualisation 8 eee aul E Layouts D Fiers Berras 0 warnings 4 infos Lon ace nii user is allowed to display a final result of a open alternatives are Internet Demo External Sen Simplewrdm Tutorial Wetterstation Wetters open alternatives are xmi htm Smplevdm Tutorial Wetterstation Wetter epen or alternatives are Pressure Temperature W Simple vdm Tutorial Wetterstation Wetter gj l
92. rik Duval and Michael Meire Using Information Visualization for Accessing Learning Object Repositories Computer Science Department K U Leuven Leuven Belgium 35 World Wide Web Consortium W3C http www w3 org 36 Ketan Babaria Using Treemaps to Visualize Gene Ontologies Human Computer Interaction Lab and Institute for Systems Research University of Maryland 2001 37 Jason L Baumgartner Timothy A Waugh Roget2000 A 2D Hyperbolic Tree Visualization of Roget s Thesaurus School of Library and Information Science Indiana University Bloomington IN 47405 38 Robert Spence Information Visualization Design for Interaction Pearson Prentice Hall Edinburgh 2007 38 Stone R B amp Chakrabarti A 2005 Special Issues Engineering applications of representations of function AI EDAM 19 39 Daren Nestor Steffen Thiel Goetz Botterweck Ciaran Cawley Patrick Healy Applying Visualisation Techniques in Software Product Lines Lero the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre University of Limerick Ireland 40 Maria Bielikov and Michal Jemala Adaptive Incremental Browsing of Ontology Structure Institute of Informatics and Software Engineering Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies Slovak University of Technology Bratislava Slovakia 41 Juan C Diirsteler 2002 Retrieved at 2004 Focus Context Inf Vis http www infovis net E zine 2002 num_85 htm 42 Thesaurus dictionar
93. rname includes Check user name exists Add username uses Check user name exists 2 2 Related Visualization Tools There exist some tools that allow the manipulation and visualization of feature models The purpose of this section is to present and study some techniques of visualization based on the tools studied In addition these tools are analyzed with the requirement to achieve an effective view model in mind The goal of this study was to gain insight on the visualization problem and to obtain some useful ideas for the design of our tool The analysis presented in the next sections is based on how the visualization of the different components is done and how the user can manipulate these components Speaking about components we mean speaking about features dependencies or attributes Therefore the focus of the study is on the visualization and manipulation of features attributes dependencies and hierarchy as these are the basic components of a feature model In Table 2 there is an overview of the relevant details to study about the tools Component Important details to analyse Feature Representation of the feature in the visualization interaction with the user Attribute Is it visualized in the model How is it visualized Dependency Is it visualized in the model Differentiation between the different types Hierarchy Is it visualized in the model Differentiation between the different types
94. rop and L M Northrop 2001 Software Product Lines Practices and Patterns Addison Wesley Professional 3 H Gomaa 2004 Designing Software Product Lines with UML From Use Cases to Pattern Based Software Architectures Addison Wesley Professional Part of the Addison Wesley Object Technology Series 4 M pka Exploring the Commonality in Feature Modeling Notations Bratislava Slovak University of Technology Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies 5 D S Batory 2005 Feature Models Grammars and Propositional Formulas Austin University of Texas at Austin 6 J Santos 2006 Software and Factories and making sense of it for you FAQ What is it and when to use it http blogs msdn com jezzsa default aspx 7 M Riebisch J O Coplien D Streitferdt 2003 Modelling Variability for Object Oriented Product Lines BookOnDemand Publ Co Norderstedt 8 IEEE Standard for Software Test Documentation IEEE Std 829 1998 9 D S Batory 2008 Using modern mathematics as an FOSD modeling language Nashville Generative Programming and Component Engineering 10 L Etxeberria G S Mendieta L Belategi 2007 Modelling Variation in Quality Attributes VaMoS 2007 51 59 95 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 11 K Czarnecki and U Eisenecker 2000 Generative Progra
95. rt left side is placed the Drawing Toolbar for manipulating two possible views the graph and the tree The user can decide which of them he wants to visualize Therefore the right side of the tool represents the list view Figure 27 Screenshot of the application The decision to show the list view as a static part of the application was taken because the list is the best representation to work as a complement to the other two views Firstly the list view occupies a small space in the desktop application And secondly and the more important from this small space the user is allowed to distinguish the hierarchy component of the model important when modeling with the graph view where it is hard to understand the hierarchy 69 baad Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 4 2 UML Model for the feature modeling visualization tool In order to explain the design of the tool this chapter provides the basic UML component diagram The specification of the application is divided in three artifacts responsible for the visualization the graph view artifact list view artifact and tree view artifact This division is done to provide the design independence between the main artifacts which form together the global specification Although these three share some components the kernel of the application the differences betwee
96. s 652 yPos 352 xTPos 652 yTPos 352 gt lt Feature Id 15 Name Index Description Type 3 xPos 760 yPos 354 xTPos 760 yTPos 354 gt lt Feature Id 16 Name Search Description Type 3 xPos 885 yPos 351 xTPos 885 yTPos 351 gt lt ListFeatures gt lt ListHierarchies gt lt Hierarchy Id 6 Type 1 fDestiny Feature6 fOrigin Feature5 gt lt Hierarchy Id 21 Type 2 fDestiny Feature9 fOrigin Feature5 gt lt ListHierarchies gt lt ListLinks gt lt Link Id 0 Type 1 fDestiny Feature2 fOrigin Feature1 xOrgPos 108 yOrgPos 148 xDestPos 108 yDestPos 194 gt lt ListLinks gt lt ListGroups gt lt Group Id 0 Name Alternative Group Type 0 Description gt lt ListIds gt lt FeatureGroup Id 6 gt lt FeatureGroup Id 16 gt lt ListIds gt lt Group gt lt ListGroups gt lt ListAttributes gt Rant gt Figure 26 File content of a feature representation 67 baad Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Chapter 4 Feature Modeling Visualization Tool Design 4 1 Interaction between views The modeler s key guide to understanding the tool is to realize he is working with three types of visualization We support this understanding by making the design of the interaction between the modeler and the three views as
97. s During the development of the design more requirements were added because of the programming environment used or because a new issues that emerged at that time 3 2 First consideration 2 D versus 3 D The first question that arises in the design of a visualization tool is whether representation should be in 2 D or be in 3 D All the tools studied in chapter 2 are using a 2 D visualization and the existence nowadays of 3 D tools for feature modeling is almost obsolete 40 YY Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis The idea of developing a 3 D visualization was discarded mainly because of the difficult manipulation of 3 D models The reason of this discarding was based on the next points 3 3 gt Both the screen and the mouse are 2 D devices via those ones it is difficult to achieve a real 3 D visualization It is difficult to manipulate 3 D spaces with the current interaction techniques Almost all the well known types of manipulations are based on 2 D applications e g scrolling dragging Navigation in a 3 D model is not easy and the user first needs to get acquainted to this This would complicate his task of creating correct feature models significantly and would increase the learning time which is in conflict with the first requirement 3 D is not yet supported by default browsers Therefore
98. seeseetneaeeaseaes 58 3 4 2 Indented list 3 4 2 1 Interaction with the indented list 0 0 0 0 ccc ceceeceeseeeceeeceseeeceseceeesecseeeaeeeceaeceeeaeeeeseaeeneee 60 SATs AT CO VIOW rrene coecessiaccecs tatvenss E E A O inne E E E catia tse uae 62 3 4 3 1 Editing of the components 3 2 02 5 03 csesseaneesessncsconesnedsraidbecsezscandassstactvacsanesqnassbediaaseuetatenseceseanss 64 3 5 SAVE AND RESTORE THE FEATURE MODELS 00 0 ccccescccseseeecseeseeecseeseeecaeeseeecseeseeecseeseeecseeaeeeens 65 3 5 1 XML as the model file forimat cccccccceccesesscsseessesecsseeecnceeeceseeceesesseesecnaeeeeaeeaeeaeeeeeaeeaeeeens 66 CHAPTER 4 FEATURE MODELING VISUALIZATION TOOL DESIGN ccssscssssssscsescsesceseeees 68 4 1 INTERACTION BETWEEN VIEWS 0 00 ccccceseescsseeeeceseseeecoeeseecseeaeecaesseecsesaeeecsesaeeecsesaeerenenseseens 4 2 UML MODEL FOR THE FEATURE MODELING VISUALIZATION TOOL 4 2 1 Graph view artifact 4 2 2 List view artifact 4 2 3 Tree view artifact 4 3 USE CASES ee re E E E ee eee 4 3 1 Graph view relevant Use Cases c ccccccsccscceseescsseeseeecsseecsseseceseesecuaeeesaeeaceecsaeeaeeaeeaeeaeeneeseen 4 3 2 List view relevant Use Cases ccccccccccccccccsssscsscccccccsssssssccsccecsssesssccssceceesessesscescessesssssesssesess 4 3 3 Tree view relevant Use Cases ccccccccccccccssesscscccesesssssscscccccecsessssssccscsesscsssssscecsesesssssseseceesees CHAPTER
99. srrrrreeere 55 Table 6 Relation between classes and hierarchies ccceeeee eee eens eeneeeene eens 12 10 ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1 Variable Software Modeling Feature modeling 1 is a popular domain analysis technique which analyzes commonality and variability in a domain to develop highly reusable core assets for a product line A software product line is defined as a set of software intensive systems sharing a common managed set of features that satisfy the specific needs of a particular market segment or mission and that are developed from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way 2 The development of software product lines emerged from the field of software reuse i e the process of creating software systems from predefined software components 3 This arise was caused because the more obtaining benefits from reusing software architectures abstract concepts of elements instead of reusing individual software components elements Feature modeling techniques supports requirements analysis and domain engineering in software product lines The need of this technique lies in the fact that the number of possible configurations quickly grows as the variability increases resulting in an increasing complexity Therefore organizations need support for the dev
100. t initially the origin feature and then the destination feature As in the graph view the boxes representing features contain more information than only the name of Figure 24 Tree view example the feature It is indispensable for the user to recognize if a feature contains attributes and dependencies in a brief and easy manner For this reason the view uses the notation based only on annotating the feature components with letters same case than graph view called AD notation Thus inside the boxes representing features two buttons containing the capital letters A and D are placed The have the same meaning as in the graph view When the A button is enabled it informs about the existence of attributes in this feature As in the graph view the tool opens a new window with the information of the attributes related with the feature when the user clicks on this letter To increase the user interaction this window is a non modal window and stays open until the users closes it in fact if the user clicks on another feature the window will be reloaded with the information about the attributes of the newly selected feature In addition the window is moveable on the main layer so it can be move when it obstructs in the construction of the model When the D button is enabled it informs that this feature has dependencies It is important to show that there exists links in the model because these are not placed in the model
101. the visualization because of the large size of its representation or because of the abstract meaning of the information difficult to obtain a clear representation In these cases the use of the technique Details on Demand could be a good solution for the problem This technique refers to the facility whereby the stakeholder can choose to display additional detailed information at a point where this data would be useful 39 In the case of feature modeling for example the representation of the attributes can create a problem when a feature contains a large list of attributes this then by using this technique we show information about attributes only when the user is in need of it or requests it 3 3 2 4 Techniques based on big representations The modeler may have difficulty understanding the model s representation when it contains a large amount of components In addition depending on the number of components contained in the visualization the displaying of all this information becomes a difficult task for the tool because of the small size of these components when visualizing the full of content The next sub sections present two techniques that try to bring solutions to such problems Incremental Browsing and Focus Context 3 3 2 4 1 Incremental Browsing Incremental browsing is a technique used to solve some aspects in these cases The method is based on the filtering the content of the representation by limited secti
102. tion From my point of view it is more intuitive to provide as the nodes of the model only the representation of features Therefore it obviates the use of links to represent the related attributes of features otherwise these attributes should remain as nodes 3 3 2 2 Color coding The encoding based on colors adds another layer of information for visualizing information 39 The colors can be used to provide information about the state of components or to differentiate between types of components This technique can be used at different moments during feature modeling and could help the modeler in the development process of a feature models For example when the user clicks on a node to add a hierarchical link nodes that can be linked features not linked with the same link type could change their fill color This could help the modeler to recognize from the visualization the set of nodes that can be related by e g the hierarchical link In addition the coloring of features or dependencies can also be useful distinguishing their types each type can be associated with a color Therefore this method can be applied in many different ways when visualizing feature modeling 47 baad Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 3 3 2 3 Details on Demand Sometimes it is hard to represent all information graphically in
103. ts a node in the indented list this feature also becomes selected in the graph representation and vice versa The goal of this synchronization is to help the user comprehending the model by easily switching from one view to the other 3 4 3 Tree view The last type of visualization that our tool provides is the tree view The design of this representation tries to resemble as good as possible as the classic representations of feature models 7 This is a good option for users who are used to work with this type of representations and wish to view the model in this way The features are represented as boxes in the diagram see Figure 24 and the hierarchy component is represented as a black fill links connecting the different nodes The Czarnecki Eisenecker 11 is the notation chosen to distinguish the different links mandatory optional or alternative 62 bag Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis From the Drawing Toolbar the modeler is allowed to add new features To give more possibilities for interaction the user can also add features clicking the mouse s right button anywhere in the workspace In this case a drop down menu is showed with the options of adding features or links among others The links can also be added from the Manipulation Bar the user only has to click on the correspondent button and selec
104. ture with the different features see Figure 2 c Finally the or feature is meaningful only if the component is grouped in a set of or features If the parent feature is included in the final product definition then any non empty subset from the or group is also included in the product In the graphical representation each set of or features is representing by edges that connects the parent feature with the or features and a black fill arc that encompasses all these connections see Figure 2 d Features used to have characteristics These characteristics give extra information and are called attributes so each feature may contain a list of attributes or no attributes 2 1 3 Attributes Attribute is any characteristic related to features that adds information about the description of the feature and can be measured 12 There are many ways to classify the attributes in types depending on the needs of the model In our case the modeler can distinguish between three types of attributes depending of its functionality and meaning gt The first type called quality attribute 13 is the inherent or distinguishing characteristic which is measurable in an abstract manner In addition the modeler has to provide rules for measuring this type of attribute e g security usability gt The second type quantity attribute is the characteristic that is measurable mathematically e g weight age gt The extra functional
105. ty the modeler can get the type of the feature for example the optional features are linked with the cardinality lt 0 1 gt and mandatory with lt 1 1 gt In addition these auxiliary points represent the grouping of features alternative or when the origin point of the links are shared 26 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 8S Navigator 63 IesrControlSystem xdm IcsrContralsystem xfm E IcsrControlSystemExample build xml gt IesrControlSystem gcd ka IcsrControlSystem xdm IcsrControlSystem xfm SpacecraftControlSystem fod IcsrContralSystemApp xdm i 7 i amp amp IcsrContralSystemApp xfm Ay S ets La IcsrControlSystemApp xfmm build xml lt o ICSR xdm lt gt ICSR xfmm a lt gt IesrXfmmGen xsl ON a lt 1 1 gt _ lt 0 1 gt lt 1 1 gt B Outline ug N amp AllCoverageTestOflcsrSampleModel a Eh sper convl tom awacsoeae gSensors 1 gActuators O Actuator gActuatorOptions O Atitudeactuator Property Value gSelfTest Basic O Selftest FeatureCardinality tel Tasks Error Log Problems Properties gProcessors name f value Processor Processor ComponentPropertySet glntMem StatusProperty provided C InternalMemorySize Y TypeProperty OR_Processor Figure 7 Screenshot of XFeature tool 21 The notati
106. ure an auxiliary window shows the information about the node attributes description etc In addition the feature 25 r Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis dependencies are not presented in the model there is another window that informs about their existence and their information As with the Feature Modeling Tool 15 16 see section 2 2 1 1 the purpose of this tool is to configure different product lines from the representation of the model Therefore once more it is assumed that this representation probably is not the most appropriate solution for our problem 2 2 1 4 XFeature XFeature 21 is another plug in for the Eclipse platform 22 tool which supports feature modeling of product families Ondrej Rohlik and Alessandro Pasetti from P amp P Software GmbH and the Automatic Control Laboratory of ETH Z rich designed and developed the XFeature tool to demonstrate a concept for automating the modelling and configuration process of reusable software assets in a tool The visualization of the feature model in the tool is based on a tree structure where the nodes represent the features and the links the hierarchy composition see Figure 7 The modeller has to indicate the cardinality of the relations using the auxiliary points placed on the origin of the links Therefore depending on this cardinali
107. ure model 10 cisscecececgsecesjaceaceasseusiecsnavendsvadsceespausenessocesGeunagendeces 17 Figure 2 Czarnecki Eisenecker notation 11 0 ce eee eeseseeeeeseecsseceeeteeeesneecsaeesaeesseeeaees 18 Figure 3 Feature Model Tool main window 15 ce ceeeeeeeeesceeseceseeeeeeesseesnaeenseenseeenaees 22 Figure 4 Pure variants Family Model Editing 20 eee eee eeseceeeeeeeeeeseecnaeeneeneeeenaees 24 Figure 5 Pure Variants graph visualization so eaccsccccavecesunvsedexyeedueacanareeecevaurdevensseeesesetveanunues 25 Figure 6 Feature Modelling plug in for Eclipse 18 eee eee eeseeeseeeeeeseeceaeenseeeeeeeenees 24 Figure 7 Screenshot of X Feature tool 21 cccccccccetecintesendesceeatenteceacividaveredtiectceeutineceniiee 27 Fig re 8 FaMa Tool Surte 24 xsesccnnesanerasraxe cesenenacenianeeteeea pense essences 28 Figure 9 The Prot g feature class DrOWsSer eseseseeseseesressreesrressresrisrrrserseeseresreseeeeresee 29 Figure 10 OntoViz plug in for Prot g 29 ccsecocecccaircesenvsedenssedtuncesaacessvenreeteay daieaseetieanwnys 31 Figure 11 GoSurfer Molecular Function representation 30 cee ceecessessteeeeeeeeeeeenees 32 Figure 12 IsaViz environment 27 sssscccssnsesscnetiisttativndhgaeatsatechdnaasennpiesbaansdedadmneacthsusneoeapeise 33 Figure 13 Venn Diagram 35 neeeeeeeeeseeeseesrereessersrestesressessrerressttstestensetseeseesresreseresee 43 Figure 14 Treemap 30 rnein aa N E Ea 44 Fi
108. urs Master Thesis edge Once the selection is made the deletion is done simply by pressing the Delete button on the keyboard The user is first asked to confirm the delete operation and then after confirmation the model is modified with the removal of the selected items which includes also all the components connected or associated with it 3 4 2 Indented list The indented list is the second type of visualization in our tool The reason for the inclusion of this representation is due to the difficulty for the users to recognize the composition hierarchy from the graph view So the indented list can be considered a visualization support for the graph view A list is a series of objects organized in a logical order In our case the objects are the features of the model and the organization is the composition hierarchy of this elements Sometimes a list representation is difficult to read especially when the organization of the list elements is more than a simple succession of objects The indented list is a solution to represent the hierarchical organization of the feature model as a serial The structure is very similar to the one used by Prot g see section 2 2 1 1 the child elements in the list are placed under their parents and indented to the right 3 4 2 1 Interaction with the indented list Like in Prot g the nodes included in the list are expandable showing the rest of the lower features under the hierarchy or
109. ussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Chapter 6 Conclusions 6 1 Summery The main objective of this thesis was to design a user friendly application visual interactive application for feature modelling Current feature models do not scale very well in real industrial cases were the number of features becomes very large As the number of features grows along with the increasing number of relations between features the need rises to have good visualization tools that allow modelers to quickly and efficiently create scalable feature models that clearly show features and their relations The main challenge in this project was to identify from an HCI perspective the best method s to visualize feature models such that not only inspect and understand the model but also efficiently create and interact with the model In addition the existence of feature modeling tools is not very large and the majority of these tools are designed with regard to support the configure product lines from the feature models Therefore the design was more difficult because of the lack of information and examples This thesis tried to provide the state of the art complemented with some own reflections about the visualization and interaction of feature models From this research and the design of the tool we can now answer the following questions 91 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martine
110. wing the user to interact with the representation The nodes represent the features relations and S D meane nee E A Root James ie ce m ps Binary Relation R1 cardinalities of relations in the model In this case the XY Cardinality 1 1 Solitary Feature User Management Binary Relation R3 modeller obtains the type of the feature by the node XY Cardialty 0 1 _ Solitary Feature WSInterface Binary eas R4 cardinality that each feature contains as a description Binary Relation R6 Binary Relation R7 XY Cardinality 1 1 In addition all the features that form a group are e E A Set Relation R8 X Y Cardinality 1 4 Grouped Feature Calendar Grouped Feature Forum hierarchy component is based on the indentions of the Grouped alre ie egg Grouped Feature Repository contained inside the relation nodes Furthermore the S gt Requires RE1 list lt gt Exdudes EX1 Figure 8 FaMa Tool Suite 24 2 2 2 Existing tools for Ontology visualization The motivation of researching ontology visualization tools is due to the existence of a big quantity of them and the many similarities between this type of tools and the feature modeling tools 25 A commonly accepted definition done by Gruber 26 of ontology is the explicit specification of a conceptualization Ontology visualization tries to represent the semantics of concepts and the
111. y http www thefreedictionary com 97 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis 43 Joshua Duhl 2003 WHITE PAPER Rich Internet Applications Global Headquarters Speen Street Framingham MA 01701 USA Sponsored by Macromedia and Intel 44 Cameron O Rourke 2004 A Look at Rich Internet Applications Oracle Technology Network http www oracle com technology oramag oracle 04 jul o44dev_trends html 45 Adobe Flex www adobe com es products flex 46 Microsoft Silverlight silverlight net 47 Wikipedia http en wikipedia org wiki Microsoft_Silverlight 98 tied Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Appendix Tool Screenshots i 3 Feature1 Feature2 X A D Add Delete Screenshot 1 Addition of a feature Feature Screenshot 2 Addition of feature information 99 Viet Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Add Delete Screenshot 4 Zooming out P bed J O a wy LJ a a Feature4 A a EEE E Feature3 A Feature1 T Feature2 a Screenshot 5 Associate list of features with a group 100 Bf Vr
112. y Vrije Universiteit Brussel FACULTY OF SCIENCE Department of Computer Science Web amp Information Systems Engineering Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master Computer Science Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Academic Year 2008 2009 Promotor Prof Dr Olga De Troyer Supervisor Lamia Abo Zaid ash Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Abstract The goal of this project is the design and development of a tool for creating and visualizing software variability by means of visualizing the development of feature models Allowing for different user perspectives and thus using different views for visualizing feature models Visualization of feature models is not an easy task The feature models is something more than hierarchy of concepts due to the enrichment of role relations between features and the various attributes related to each concept For these reasons it is not simple to create a visualization that will display effectively all this information and will at the same time allow the user to perform easily various operations on the feature model All the information presented in this document is a research and study of the actual visualization techniques that can be applied in the field of feature modeling visualization
113. y as a child of the parent indicated in the description Name Delete component 84 a Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis Description Remove the representation of a hierarchical link or a feature in the model Actors Modeler Preconditions The model has to contain as a minimum one hierarchical link representation or one feature Flow 1 The user clicks on the link feature representation 2 The fill color of the link representation becomes red or the feature is selected by the use of four auxiliary boxes placed on the top bottom right side and left side of the feature representation 3 The user presses the Delete key from the keyboard 4 A new window will appear for the confirmation of the deletion by the user Post conditions The representation of the link or the feature is deleted in the model and all the components related to these representation In the case the deletion of a hierarchical link creates two different and isolated trees all the components from the tree that no contains the node are remove from the representation Name Edit feature Description Change the properties of a feature in the model Actors Modeler Preconditions The model has to contain as a minimum one feature representation Flow 1 The user makes double click on the feature representation 2 A new window will appea
114. z Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis gt Why feature model visualization gt What are the different possible presentations of feature models gt How can we benefit from the different type of relations available in the feature model to have multi types of representation gt Is it possible to have more than one presentation of a feature model available at the same time in a tool and being efficient for feature modeling gt Applying an HCI perspective in visualizing feature models how can we make the user experience better 6 2 Lessons learnt The design and development of our feature modeling tool and the research done for this has resulted in the following lessons learnt among others in the field of feature modeling visualization gt The design of a feature modeling tool requires a big effort in the study of the requirements and the desires of the stakeholders A small modification in the requirements represents a variation in the way to visualize the model gt There exist many techniques adaptable to represent feature models the common ones are the indented list the tree and the graph and are the more appropriate for this situation gt The representation of a feature model needs to take the use of HCI techniques for large big representations into consideration Zoom and pan are basic techniques that the tool has to provide gt Diverse types of information require adding to the representation some e
115. z Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis particularity lies in the way showing the large number of nodes using a top down tree see Figure 11 Figure 11 GoSurfer Molecular Function representation 30 The highlight of this representation is that the user can distinguish without problems the hierarchy of the model even with a big amount of nodes The key is to situate the nodes according with the level of each one in the hierarchy presenting a precise structured tree model On the other hand sometimes this representation can produce anti aesthetic trees e g if in a big hierarchy the majority of nodes belong to the same level the tree becomes small and very wide 2 2 2 4 IsaViz IsaViz 27 is a visual environment for browsing and authoring RDF ontologies A common representation of ontology in IsaViz is a set of labeled ellipses representing the ontology concepts a set of links representing the hierarchy another set of labeled links representing the role relations and a set of rectangles linked to the nodes ellipses features representing the attributes 32 hah Vrije Feature Models Visualization Based on Ontology Framework Universiteit Jose Evelio Martinez Saiz Brussel Erasmus Single Honours Master Thesis In IsaViz there also exists the problem of the large amount of data shown on the visualization If some features have several attributes the graph becomes huge containing many elements and connecti
116. zation adds an interesting functionality to visualize the feature dependencies The boxes can be expanded to visualize the dependencies using colored connection lines between the related elements where the color of the connection line depends on the relation see Figure 5 The possibility to visualize these dependencies gives the model more information meaning better overall understanding of the representation On the other hand the model could become unintelligible if there are many expanded nodes because of this big representation EShop e Payment ae PaymentTypes ak rere 2 2 1 3 Feature Modeling Plug in for Eclipse DebitCard O PurchaseOrder M FraudDetection Shipping C 5 A rie cosge Feature Modeling Plug in 17 18 is an Eclipse 22 co D Method String FlatRate Float e rl ales plug in that represents feature models based on an indented list e Method StandardShipping String FlatRate 10 0 Float D1 shieningcatoways The design of the tool is very similar with the above tool Feature Modeling Tool 15 16 Chapter 2 2 1 1 The nodes Expiration g M ra 30 Integer uon of the visualization represent the features also the or groups M Lowercase eee and alternative groups are placed under a new node that O Specialchars informs about the type of the grouping Figure 6 Feature Modelling plug in for Eclipse 18 gt p When the user clicks on a feat
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