SOFA (component system)

SOFA component system
Developer(s)Distributed Systems Research Group
Stable release
Beta / March 2009
Written inJava
Operating systemLinux, Windows
TypeComponent System
LicenseLGPL
Websitehttp://sofa.ow2.org

SOFA 2[1] is a component system developed by Distributed Systems Research Group at Charles University in Prague. It provides many advanced features: ADL-based design, behavior specification and verification based on behavior protocols, software connectors supporting different communication styles and providing transparent distribution of applications. SOFA 2 can be used not only for modeling component-based applications but also as a complete framework supporting all the stages of an application lifecycle from development to execution.

SOFA 2 basis

The SOFA 2 system includes a component model, repository of components, runtime environment and tool support.

Component Model

SOFA 2 component model is defined by means of its meta-model which captures core concepts and states relation among them.

Repository

SOFA 2 provides a repository of a components which is automatically generated from the meta-model.

Runtime environment

Tool support

  • Cushion - is a text-based tool which allows development of SOFA 2 applications and manipulation with a repository
  • SOFA IDE - is a graphical tool (plugin for Eclipse)
  • MConsole - is a plugin for Eclipse (as well as a standalone application) monitoring and maintaining SOFA 2 runtime environment

SOFA application lifecycle

  • application design
  • component development, adaptation
  • application assembly
  • application deployment
  • application execution - monitoring, maintaining

See also

References

  1. ^ Bures, T., Hnetynka, P., Plasil, F.: SOFA 2.0: Balancing Advanced Features in a Hierarchical Component Model, Proceedings of SERA 2006, Seattle, USA, IEEE CS, ISBN 0-7695-2656-X, pp.40-48, Aug 2006

A complete list of SOFA related papers can be found at the DSRG site.