Domain model slicing and constraint classification for local validation on rich clients

Abstract

Web-based rich client applications have emerged as a solid and popular approach in both web and native applications. Their capability to manage their own domain model and locally verify constraints provides a more responsive and robust user experience. This local model is often a subset of the ap- plication’s global domain model (GDM) that is managed on the server. Both ends should always man- age their entities, relationships and constraints consistently between them. Designing such client model manually implies identifying the GDM domain elements and constraints that should also be present on the client and adapting each one of them if needed. This is a complex and error-prone task, and any additional modification to the server model requires reviewing the client side. In our opin- ion, all the information needed for automating the client model generation can be derived from the GDM and the set of entities involved in the client functionality. This work includes a formal descrip- tion of a method that, from that initial information, combines model slicing and constraint analysis techniques to create the client domain model, and classifies the constraints according to their server independency.