Software customization in model driven development of web applications

Model Driven Development (MDD) of complex software systems can require manual adaptations of the generated artifacts. In fact, in order to cope with unforeseen requirements which are not completely satisfiable by means of the involved modeling languages, developer interventions could be needed. The optimal solution to deal with this issue, is based on the expressiveness improvement of the involved metamodels and refinement of the used model transformations. Nevertheless, these adaptations are not always possible or cost-effective especially if the new functionalities that have to be introduced affect only the single application being developed. This paper discusses and attempt to hand-tune the generated code by providing an approach supporting its merging with hand written modifications. For this purpose, the behaviour model of the system under study is considered to graphically specify the injection points where the modifications have to occur. The discussions are based on a running example consisting of a simple Web application. Copyright 2007 ACM.