Mapping Extended Feature Models to Constraint Logic Programming over Finite Domains

As feature models for realistic product families may be quite complicated, automated analysis of feature models is desirable. Although several approaches reported in the literature addressed this issue, complex feature-attribute and attribute-attribute relationships in extended feature models were not handled effectively. In this article, we introduce a mapping from extended feature models to constraint logic programming over finite domains. This mapping is used to translate basic, cardinality-based, and extended feature models, which may include complex feature-feature, feature-attribute and attribute-attribute cross-tree relationships, into constraint logic programs. It thus enables use of off-the-shelf constraint solvers for the automated analysis of extended feature models involving such complex relationships. We also briefly discuss the ramifications of including feature-attribute relationships in operations of analysis. We believe that this proposal will be effective for further leveraging of constraint logic programming for automated analysis of feature models.