A Domain Specific Modeling Framework for Secure Network Applications

Domain specific languages (DSLs) provide a promising solution to directly represent and implement domain concepts (G. Cook, 2004). DSLs are visual or textual languages targeted to particular problem domains, rather than general-purpose languages that are aimed at any software problems. Various DSLs have been proposed and used for describing, for example, security aspects of network applications (e.g., role-based access control, data encryption and secure network links) (T. Lodderstedt et al., 2002). Although many experience reports have demonstrated DSLs can improve software development productivity (e.g., by M. Vokac, 2005), existing DSLs are supported only by specific tools and frameworks; there are few generic frameworks supporting arbitrary DSLs. This Ph.D. research investigates a generic model-driven development (MDD) framework that supports arbitrary DSLs, and empirically evaluates a series of techniques to develop such a framework. Steps towards creating the proposed framework include investigating a generic foundation to handle arbitrary DSLs; strategies, principles and tradeoffs in different DSL designs (e.g., DSL syntax and semantics); building blocks for modeling and programming domain concepts; transformation strategies from domain concepts to the final (compilable) source code; and development processes to leverage the proposed framework well