Extensible Binding Mechanism for API Model Translation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional modeling tools are limited to representing models specified using a specific API description language, making it difficult to visualize and analyze software systems that use different API languages such as UML, RAML, GraphQL, and others.
Innovation Solution
A system that uses a common visualization model format to represent and visualize API models, allowing model bindings to map API description languages to this common format, enabling the visualization of multiple API languages using a single tool.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a modeling tool is based on a particular API description language, then it can represent models specified using that language, but it cannot represent models specified using other API description languages
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary component called a 'binding' that translates between different API description languages and a common model representation. This binding layer acts as a mediator that enables the modeling tool to work with multiple API languages without requiring the tool itself to be complex or language-specific. The binding contains language-specific parsing and generation logic, allowing the core tool to remain simple while supporting diverse languages.
2Adaptability or versatility
If conventional modeling tools use a specific format for modeling systems, then they can model systems in that format, but they cannot visualize and analyze software systems that use different API languages
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allowing different parts of the model representation to have different levels of specificity. The common model representation maintains language-agnostic core structures while allowing language-specific extensions and annotations to preserve unique features of each API description language. This ensures that essential language-specific information is retained while enabling universal visualization and analysis capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
A system allows translation across API models represented using different API description languages. The system stores model bindings from a common visualization model format to multiple API description languages. The model bindings map constructs of the API description language to and from modeling constructs of the common visualization model format. The system uses the model bindings to convert API models to and from representations based on API description languages to the common visualization model format. The system used the common visualization model format to generate visualizations of the API model that can be displayed via a user interface and also allow users to modify the API model.