EMF Ecore Based Meta Model Evolution and Model Co-Evolution

The description of data used for e.g. persisting or transmitting information should be defined in a structured way. The structure itself can therefore be seen as a meta model specifying the data model. Over time a software system evolves and the inherent meta models tend to be unstable. Nevertheless, older formats often have to be supported during transition periods. Previous data models, as being instances of the old meta models, inevitably need to get converted to be valid against the new meta model versions. In this paper we present our approach of restructuring EMF Ecore based meta models together with coevolving their instances which incorporates constructing a meta model patch format.