Model-Driven Development of Cross-Platform Mobile Applications with Web Ratio and IFML

Abstract

Model-driven development can concur to address the widespread need of companies for quick development of mobile applications, combined with the chronic shortage of IT personnel with the appropriate skills. In this context, we propose a comprehensive tool suite called Web Ratio Mobile Platform for model-driven development of mobile applications. The tool supports developers in the specification of the domain model and of the interaction model for mobile applications. The specification is built according to an extended version of the OMG standard language called IFML (Interaction Flow Modeling Language), empowered with primitives tailored to mobile systems, that enable specification of mobile-specific behaviors. The tool features model-checking and full code generation that produces ready-to-publish cross-platform mobile applications exploiting the Apache Cordova framework.