The UML Profile for Framework Architectures

Chapter 5. Framework adaptations of UML -F pattern annotations

An efficient adaptation of a framework requires an explicit representation of its key structures and intentions. A framework user has to understand at least portions of the framework architecture, be aware of the variation points, and adapt them to meet the requirements of the application being developed. (By the term 'framework user' we mean the developer who uses a framework to produce a specific application.) Thus, frameworks should provide appropriate documentation of their structure and collaborations, and should provide a means of guiding application developers through the adaptation process.

So-called 'cookbooks' (Goldberg, 1984; Krasner and Pope, 1988; Johnson, 1992) consist of a number of 'recipes' that guide the framework adaptation process. The recipes describe, in an informal way, the use of a framework to accomplish specific tasks. The adaptation of variation points that rely on the framework construction principles follows generic recipes. This chapter presents the cookbook recipes that correspond to the Unification, Separation, and Composite construction principles. In other words, the recipes describe how to adapt the variation points that are annotated by the UML-F tags for these framework construction principles. They are also valid for the UML-F pattern tags that rely on the framework construction principles.