Model-driven development of large-scale Web applications

This paper describes our approach to support the development of large-scale Web applications. Large development efforts have to be divided into a number of smaller tasks of different kinds that can be performed by multiple developers. Once this process has taken place, it is important to manage the consistency among the artifacts in an efficient and systematic manner. Our model-driven approach makes this possible. In this paper, we discuss how a metamodel is used to describe part of the specification as a central contract among the developers. We also describe a tool that we implemented on the basis of the metamodel. The tool provides a variety of code generators and a mechanism for checking whether view artifacts, such as JavaServer Pages™, are compliant with the model. This feature helps developers manage the consistency between a view artifact and the related business logic - HyperText Transfer Protocol request handlers. © Copyright 2004 by International Business Machines Corporation.