Language Concepts
Model Elements
There are different types of
language elements for describing ADORA domain models. There is the
distinction between nodes, which describe specific entities in a
model, and connections, which denote the relationships between the nodes.
ADORA
Specification
Nodes
Abstract Object
Abstract objects
represent single prototypical instances that are constituents of a
system or another object. (Objects are denoted as rectangled shape with
their name either in the center or in the left upper corner. An object A can consist of a
behavior description and other objects that are part of the object A.
For
example, figure 1 shows object A containing the
objects B, C and D as parts. More
formally, B, C and D have an is-part-of
relationship with A.

Figure
1: Figure
which shows an object A which contains three objects B, C and D.
Abstract objects
can be embedded in an ADORA specification or in another abstract
object. Abstract objects can have a detailed description of the
attributes, datatypes and operations that are provided by the object.
Such a description is made by using the functional specification
language described later on.
Object Set
Object sets are
sets of abstract objects, i.e. denote extensions of abstract objects.
An object set is denoted by a stack of objects. Such a stack shows the
minimal and maximal number of instances in the extension in the left
lower corner by a number pair surrounded by a pair of parentheses. Fig. 2
shows the same situation as in Fig. 1 but with the A as an object set. This means that
there is at least 1 instance
of A and not more than n instances of A.

Figure 2: The same situation as in Figure 2 as object set with
at least one instance of A
and not more than n instances.
Objects
in an object set denote initially the same type of objects, i.e.
initialized with the same attribute values but which can reach a
different state during runtime. An object set can provide special
functions that allow to retrieve objects or sub sets of the object set
by querying against one or several attributes of the extension's
objects (see the functional specification language for object sets).
Each object within the set can be addressed directly by sending a
message to it. It is also possible to broadcast a message to all objects
in the set or to some of them (multicast). How this is done can be
found in the description of how transitions are described and the
description of associations.
- carthesian product
- adressing
State
- placed in objects or object sets
- decribing the state of
Scenario
- Internal behavior
- System border crossing
-
Actor
Aspect Container
Exit Point
Connections
Association
Transition
Scenario Connection
Join Relationship
Functional
Specification Language (FSL) Syntax
Abstract Object
Body and Object Sets
Aspect Containers
Scenario
Transformation Syntax
Transition
Description Syntax