The Virtual Single Underlying Model

The Virtual Single Underlying Model

The Vitruv approach combines legacy metamodels in a non-invasive way to serve as one single modular model. This model is called a Virtual Single Underlying Model (V-SUM). The interface of the V-SUM in the API is the VirtualModel.

Vitruv enables delta-based consistency preservation of models. Delta-based means that the sequence of changes between two models states is tracked, rather than operating state-based by deriving changes from the old and new state of a model. The VirtualModel allows propagation of these fine-grained change sequences with the method propagateChange(VitruviusChange). This keeps all sub-models of the V-SUM consistent by executing the registered ChangePropagationSpecifications.

There is also the option to work with state-based differences if fine-grained change sequences are not available. This can be achieved by giving a view on a VirtualModel a propert trait to derive changes (see views).