Metamodel: Architecture-model objects

The purpose of architecture-model objects is to maintain and present a body of knowledge about structure and purpose.

All architecture-model objects inherit from a common base-type (‘:THING’).

Objects are of four fundamental types derived from the same common base-type:

entities
relations (links, associations etc)
models
categories

At the most fundamental level, these interact such as to provide a means to record, describe and present in any way any number of any describable ‘things’ and any perceived relationships between any such ‘things’.

All object-types must support one or more display-methods. The recommended minimum would be as follows:

all types: return text-description of name with optional structured contents
entity: default graphic display as rectangle with enclosed text name
entity: graphic display of attached / referenced image-file (e.g. GIF, JPEG, PNG, SVG)
relation: default graphic display as line with optional label
model: default graphic display as call of default graphic display-method of contained objects at recorded location-coordinates

These defaults may be enabled by defining them as inheritable methods for the respective root-level object-types.

Entity and relation should also support a standard vector-based draw from a contained ‘spreadsheet’, similar to that used in Visio and a variety of open-source graphics packages such as Dia.

EA Toolsets project : OsMmObjects

Metamodel: Architecture-model objects