Welcome to the MDE4CPP Project

Further information can be found on the project site.

(Find detailed instructions here)

• Java Development Kit (JDK) version 21
• Eclipse Modeling Tools
  • Install Eclipse Modeling Tools 2025-06
  • Add plugin Acceleo 3.7.15
  • Add plugin Sirius 7.4
  • Add plugin Papyrus 7.0.0
• MinGW-w64
  • MinGW-w64 v13.0.0, select architecture = x86_64 during installation
• CMake
  • CMake 4.1.1

There are no recommendations for a specific software version. The specified versions were used for testing MDE4CPP.

Clone the MDE4CPP Git repository.

• Copy the prepared environment settings file and remove the .default extension:
  • Windows: setenv.bat.default
  • Unix: setenv.default
• Open this file and configure the variables:
  • MDE4CPP_HOME … path to the MDE4CPP home folder
  • Compiler and Gradle task configuration variables
  • Tool path configuration
• Note for Unix users:
  You must call the script with . ./setenv so that the variables are applied to your shell.

MDE4CPP uses Gradle for builds. Some basic commands:

• gradlew tasks … list available tasks
• gradlew projects … show package overview
• gradlew help … Gradle help
• gradlew <taskName> … run task <taskName>

Note for Unix users:
First, give the script execution permissions:

chmod +x application/tools/gradlew

• buildAll … generate and compile all metamodels (Ecore, UML, fUML, …)
• Use gradlew tasks to see all top-level commands under MDE4CPP tasks
• Generator tasks:
  • createAllGenerators … create executables of all generators
  • create<GeneratorProjectName> … create executable for the specified generator (e.g. createUML4CPP)
• Examples are located in src/examples.
  • Navigate to this directory and explore existing examples and tests using gradlew tasks. Start a specific task with gradlew <taskName>
  • Alternatively: Navigate to a specific example model directory and run the generate script.
• Universal generation task:

  generateModel -PModel=<path-to-model-file>

  Generates C++ projects for Ecore or UML models.

Notes:

• The model file must be located in <project-folder>/model.
• Generated C++ projects are placed in <project-folder>/src_gen.
• ecore4CPP is used for .ecore models.
• fUML4CPP is used for .uml models.
• To use UML4CPP (structural part only, no fUML-specific executions), add -PStructureOnly or -PSO.
• (experimental) To generate a REST API for the model, enable it in MDE4CPP_Generator.properties.

There are dependencies between tasks, projects, and models which are currently not built automatically:

In general:

• Generators must be compiled before model source code can be generated.
• Metamodels must be built before models can be built.
• Dependent models must be built before depending model can be built.

Schema:

<command><ModelName> <buildMode>

• Commands:

  • build … generate and compile
  • generate … generate C++ code using the generator (independent of build mode)
  • compile … compile generated files

• Model name: Starts with a capital letter.

• Build modes:

  • Not specified … build debug and release versions
  • -PDEBUG or -PD … debug version (compiler flags -g -ggdb)
  • -PRELEASE or -PR … release version (compiler flag -O3, debug disabled)

Build modes can be preconfigured in environment settings:

ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_DEBUG=1    # Build debug version  
ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_RELEASE=1  # Build release version  

To disable a build mode, set the variable to 0, e.g.:

-PDEBUG=0

Examples:

• No preconfigured build mode in gradle.properties:

  • buildEcore … generate and compile ecore.ecore in debug and release
  • generateEcore … generate C++ code for ecore.ecore
  • compileEcore -PRELEASE … compile in release mode

• Preconfigured ORG_GRADLE_PROJECT_DEBUG=1:

  • buildEcore … generate and compile in debug
  • compileEcore -PRELEASE … compile in debug and release
  • compileEcore -PRELEASE -PDEBUG=0 … compile in release only

All binaries and header files are delivered to:

${MDE4CPP_HOME}/application

• Ecore tutorial
• UML tutorial

This project is generally licensed under the MIT License.

The following folders are excluded and are subject to the Eclipse Public License v1.0:

• src/common/ecoreReflection/model
• src/common/primitivetypesReflection/model
• src/common/umlReflection/model
• src/ecore/model
• src/uml/types/model
• src/uml/uml/model