Large-scale Model-Driven Engineering of web user interaction: The WebML and WebRatio experience

This paper reports the experience of WebRatio, a company focusing on Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) tools (WebRatio and WebRatio BPM) and services since 2001. The adopted MDE approach is based on the transformation of models expressed in a Domain Specific Language called WebML (Web Modeling Language) into running applications, with the unique feature of creating not only the back-end data and business logic but also the Web/RIA front-end, without posing any limitation on the graphical and interaction quality of the user interface. WebRatio has been applied in many industrial projects, some of which have delivered large-scale enterprise applications, generated and maintained completely through MDE practices over the years. In this paper we present the lessons learned within this experience, describe some success stories and show some quantitative information and evaluation on the usage of the approach.