GraMMi: using a standard repository management system to build a generic graphical modeling tool

Commercial off-the-shelf repository management systems claim to provide a solid basis for building CASE tools by offering special meta data management facilities (like versioning, configuration management, long transactions support). Another important area of application for these systems is the management of meta data in data warehouse environments. The ISO-IRDS standard defines a framework for the modeling of repository data. The paper describes a case study that implements a generic graphical modeling tool (GraMMi) on top of such a repository management system using the IRDS standard to guide the design process. To show the feasibility of our approach, we present a case study where GraMMi is used for the conceptual design of data warehouse models based on a specific modeling technique. The paper describes the overall system architecture, the object oriented design (including the repository schema) and the user interface design. Furthermore, we present experiences from the implementation of the system using an industry-standard platform (Softlab Enabler as the repository system and Visual C++ for implementing the modeling tool).