Mapping Aspect-Oriented Models to Aspect-Oriented Code

When aspect-oriented modeling techniques are used in the context of Model-Driven Engineering, a possible way of obtaining an executable from an aspect-oriented model is to map it to code written in an aspect-oriented programming language. This paper presents important challenges that a modeler has to face when mapping aspect-oriented models to an aspect-oriented programming language: mapping structure and behavior of a single aspect, mapping instantiation of structure and behavior in target models, mapping conflict resolution between aspects, and mapping aspect dependencies and variability. To explain these mapping issues, our paper presents details on how to map aspect-oriented models as defined in the Reusable Aspect Models (RAM) approach to AspectJ source code. Example models from the AspectOPTIMA case study and the corresponding mapped code are used as illustration and together with our general mapping they could serve as a first step towards a code generator for RAM or other aspect-oriented modeling approaches.