Tutorial
The following presents a step-by-step guide to the functionalities of Echo.
Model consistency management consists of the consistency checking and recovering of the consistency between models and their metamodels. A model can be tracked by Echo by right-clicking in a XMI resource, and selecting Echo > Track model.
Once tracked, Echo automatically tests the consistency every time the resource is updated. When an inconsistency is detected, Echo flags the model as inconsistent and creates error markers over it.
The markers show up in the Problems view, where the user can then choose to repair that model by right-clicking Quick fix.
Echo provides two alternative distances to fixe the model: graph edit distance or an operation-based distance.
Once a metric is selected, Echo starts searching for a solution following our least-change algorithm. Once a minimal solution is found, it is presented to the user in the Graph Viewer view.
The user is able to inspect the proposed solution depicted as a graph. If the user is not pleased with the proposed solution, he can ask for the next minimal solution by clicking Next. In case there are no more minimal solution, Echo increases the distance to the original model and proposes next-to-minimal solutions. Once the user finds a suitable solution, he may click Select, and the proposed solution is applied to the XMI model resource.
The list of tracked models can be managed at any time by clicking Manage tracked models at the Echo toolbar, or at the Project Properties under Echo > Tracked models.