Model-Driven Web Form Validation with UML and OCL

Form validation is an integral part of a web application. Web developers must ensure that data input by the user is validated for correctness. Given the importance of form validation it must be considered as part of a model-driven solution to web development. Existing model-driven approaches typically have not addressed form validation as part of the model. In this paper, we present an approach that allows validation constraints to be captured within a model using UML and OCL. Our approach covers three common types of validation: single element, multiple element, and entity association. We provide an example to illustrate an architecture-centric approach.