Metamodeling Architectures and Interoperability of Web-Enabled Information Systems

ion by conceptualization Abstraction by conceptualization strives to structure a given description of an information system in several layers that constitute a metamodeling architecture. Many modeling environments refer to the OMG’s metamodeling architecture [UML, 2000], depicted in Figure 4, which goes beyond the twolayer description of databases by proposing four layers: instance, model, metamodel, and meta-metamodel layers. • The metamodel layer describes –at an abstract level– an application domain. More precisely, the metamodel layer defines which modeling constructs are to be used for modeling of all information systems belonging to a given application domain. For example, the profiles of the OMG are standard extensions of the UML metamodel that are dedicated to specific application domains.