Reactive Blocks is a

visual The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception (the ability to detect and process light). The system detects, transduces and interprets information concerning light within the visible range to construct an image and buil ...

model-driven development environment based on Activity Diagrams supporting formal model analysis, automated code generation, hierarchical modelling, and an extensive library of ready-to-use components for the Java platform.

Concept

The core technology originated from research at the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Norway and the largest in terms of enrollment. The university's headquarters is located in Trondheim (city), Trondheim, with region ...

and th
Institute for Telematics
Reactive Blocks is a visual model-driven development environment supporting formal model analysis, automated code generation, hierarchical modelling, and an extensive library of ready-to-use components for the Java platform. By combining re-usable blocks, a developer can create complex applications graphically. These building blocks are defined by a combination of graphical models and Java code. The graphical model is based on UML activity diagrams and state machines. The existing library can be extended by user-implemented custom blocks which can include the full abilities of the Java platform. Each block has an extended interface description in the form of input and output pins and a contract. The contract indicates which states a block has, and which pins can be interacted with during which state. Reactive Blocks uses the graphical model together with the information from the contracts to formally analyse the application to discover common problems such as deadlocks or incorrect terminations. If the analysis finds a problem, the according state of the application can be highlighted to identify the cause. The development environment offers a step-by-step animation of the chain of state transitions leading up to the problem. An application which passed validation can then be automatically converted into Java code. Since a building block´s application is a correct formal definition, the builder can transform its logic into code. The generated code is packaged in a standard Eclipse Java project and can thus be treated as any other code; exporting runnable JARs, debugging, and profiling work the same.

Supported Platforms

Java (software platform) Java is a set of computer software and specifications that provides a software platform for developing application software and deploying it in a cross-platform computing environment. Java is used in a wide variety of computing platforms fr ...

* Open Services Gateway initiative * Eclipse Kura, an interoperability open source project for M2M applications. * ESF, an inclusive and targeted Java OSGi software framework for M2M multiservice gateways, smart devices and IoT applications.

Literature

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References

{{reflist Eclipse (software)