Generic tool for visualization of model differences

• Authors: Mark van den Brand;Zvezdan Protić;Tom Verhoeff
• Venue: Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Model Comparison in Practice
• Year: 2010

Model comparison includes three major concerns: presentation, calculation, and visualization of model differences. In this paper we address the concern of visualization of model differences in the context of model configuration management systems. Since models are considered the main artifacts in model configuration management systems, we require that the differences between models are represented by means of a differences model, which conforms to a differences metamodel. The traditional approaches to visualization of model differences based on a textual, tree-like, or even diagrammatic representation of differences do not scale well in the presence of large differences models. The cause for this is that it gets harder to comprehend the meaning of differences as the size of the differences models increase. We focus on this problem and propose a solution that extends and combines two existing approaches, namely polymetric views and a generic visualization framework for metamodel-based languages. Polymetric views offer good overview, zoom, and filtering capabilities. A visualization framework for metamodel-based languages is used to visualize differences details. By using the combination of these two approaches, it becomes easier to comprehend the meaning of differences even in large models. This paper describes both the details of our solution, and a generic tool that implements the described solution.