4. Model-Driven Software Development

Model-driven Software Development (MDSD), that is, the development practice that makes use of models to automatically generate code and software artifacts, is a practice that has been gaining much attention over the last decade and that has influenced the design of many of the mashup tools we know today. Unlike the generic term “model-based” development, which indicates the use of models in the software development process (in the extreme case, also manually drawn models), “model-driven” development indicates the use of well-defined, formal models that can be processed by a machine and used for the automatic production of artifacts that are part of the final product to be developed. With this chapter, we acknowledge the importance of MDSD for the development of mashups and provide the necessary foundations for the engineering of well-designed mashup tools by overviewing the core ingredients of model-driven development, such as models, modeling languages, metamodels, code generators, and interpreters. The goal of the chapter is to provide the reader with a concise introduction to the philosophy of MDSD, to convey the different forms of MDSD that are prominent today, and to provide the reader with a starting point for the development of an own MDSD project.