| |
| h2. Components Model |
| |
| The AMALTHEA component model is central accessible through the __ComponentsModel__ element. |
| |
| It holds the following types: |
| |
| * *Components* / *Composites* |
| * *Systems* |
| * *Interfaces* |
| * *Structures* |
| |
| !(scale)../pictures/model_components.png! |
| |
| h3. Component Interfaces |
| |
| !(scale)../pictures/model_components_interface.png! |
| |
| |
| h3. Architecture of Systems / Composites |
| |
| The inner architecture of a System or a Composite is defined with the ISystem interface. Both elements contain component instances and connectors. The ports of the instances and the containing architecture can be identified as QualifiedPort. |
| |
| !(scale)../pictures/model_components_composition.png! |
| |
| h3. Components Model Elements |
| |
| The elements of the Components Model inherit several capabilities from common elements. |
| |
| !(scale)../pictures/model_components_common.png! |
| |
| Ports, Components, Composites and ComponentInstances are referable by unique names. |
| A Connector also has a name but the name is optional and does not have to be unique. |
| |
| h4. Component |
| |
| The 'Component' class represents a component. Components could be created directly within the 'ComponentModel' and are used as a type for a component instance. |
| |
| !(scale)../pictures/model_components_component_references.png! |
| |
| It contains several ports of type 'Port'. A component refers the classes 'OsEvent', 'Label', 'Runnable' and 'AbstractProcess' from the software model and the class 'Semaphore' from the OS model. |
| |
| h4. System and Composite |
| |
| Systems are defined as top level elements within a component model. A system contains several Component- and |
| Connection-instances and is used to define the architecture of a technical system. |
| |
| A 'Composite' is a special component type to aggregate Component- and Connection-instances compositely. |
| So it could be used to create hierarchical component architectures. |
| |
| System and Composite implement the interface 'ISystem'. |
| The following diagram shows the main elements to represent the hierarchical architecture. |
| |
| !../pictures/model_components_isystem.png! |
| |
| In general each inner port should be connected. If a port is intentionally left unconnected it has to be added to the list of 'groundedPorts'. |
| |
| h4. ComponentInstance and Connector |
| |
| The 'ComponentInstance' and the 'Connector' can be created within a 'System' or a 'Composite'. 'ComponentInstances' are used to represent instances of component- or composite-types. The 'Connector' class is used to connect the component instances to each other via their Ports. The connector contains a source and target 'QualifiedPort'. |
| |
| !(scale)../pictures/model_components_connector.png! |
| |
| To specfiy the implementation details of a connection between ports it is possible to specify an interface/channel pair for each connector. This links additional information from the channel implementation like the access behavior to the connector. The connector can contain multiple interface/channel pairs since an interface can contain multiple sub-interfaces realized by multiple data types implemented by multiple channels. |
| |
| |
| |
| h4. QualifiedPort |
| |
| A 'qualified' port refers a 'ComponentInstance' and a 'ComponentPort'. |
| If the 'instance' link is null then the QualifiedPort refers to a port of the enclosing composite. |
| |
| h4. ComponentPort |
| |
| The 'ComponentPort' class contains the attribute 'kind' to set the port direction. |
| The attribute 'interface name' can be used to refer to an external definition, e.g. described in detail with the Franca IDL. |
| |
| h4. Structures |
| |
| Structures enables structuring/ordering of components, composites and interfaces. In contrasts to namespaces the structure does not add to the qualified name but supports the design of a hierarchical structure to order the elements in a package/folder like scheme. |
| |
| h3. Example |
| |
| |
| h4. Diagram |
| |
| The diagram of the example shows a composite 'A' that contains two component instances 'X' and 'Y' of type 'B'. The connections between the ports are named 'c1' to 'c4'. The grounded port 'in_3' of instance 'X' (intentionally left unconnected) is marked green. The second unconnected port 'in_2' of instance 'Y' is unspecified. It is marked red and has to be changed, either declared as grounded or connected to another port. |
| |
| !../pictures/model_components_example.png! |
| |
| h4. Model Editor |
| |
| The same example is shown in the standard AMALTHEA editor. |
| |
| !../pictures/model_components_example_treeview.png! |
