The language concepts of Henshin are based on graph transformations. As such, aggregations have not been in the scope of Henshin so far. Aggregations are well known from relational database systems and are a powerful tool for counting entities, calculating minima / maxima or average values etc.
How do aggregations and graph transformations fit together? Well, in Henshin we know the concept of nested multi-rules. In graph transformation terminology this is often referred to as amalgamation. In essence, a transformation rule is extended with parts that are applied with a for-all semantics. These for-all parts are referred to as the multi-rule, whereas the core part is referred to as the kernel rule. In the graphical editor of Henshin, the multi-rule parts are indicated using *-actions.
Now, the trick for supporting amalgamations in Henshin is to allow to use the values of parameters of multi-rules in the kernel rule. What happens is that for one match of the kernel rule, the multi-rule is matched with for-all semantics, and that its parameter values are exposed to the kernel rule as a collection. This enables the use of aggregations functions in the kernel rule, which combine the values of parameters of the multi-rules.
Consider the two example rules below. Both match one :Family object (kernel rule) and all :Person objects in that family (multi-rule). Now, the set of persons can be used as basis for aggregations. In our two example rules, we use as aggregation functions COUNT and AVG to resp. count the number of family members and calculate the average age of the family members.
Note that the expressions Aggregations.COUNT(x) and Aggregations.AVG(a) are not some special syntax for aggregations. They are just calls to ordinary Java methods. The special thing about these methods is that they take a collection of values as parameters (not single values). The Henshin interpreter just calls the (possibly user-defined) functions to calculate the aggregated values. For the interpreter to know which class to use, it must be defined as part of the Java imports of the rule, as shown in the screenshot below. Additionally, you need to ensure that this class is in the Java classpath when executing the Henshin transformation.
The aggregation support is currently available in the development branch of Henshin. You can find the above rules with accompanying Java code in the examples plugins.
How do aggregations and graph transformations fit together? Well, in Henshin we know the concept of nested multi-rules. In graph transformation terminology this is often referred to as amalgamation. In essence, a transformation rule is extended with parts that are applied with a for-all semantics. These for-all parts are referred to as the multi-rule, whereas the core part is referred to as the kernel rule. In the graphical editor of Henshin, the multi-rule parts are indicated using *-actions.
Now, the trick for supporting amalgamations in Henshin is to allow to use the values of parameters of multi-rules in the kernel rule. What happens is that for one match of the kernel rule, the multi-rule is matched with for-all semantics, and that its parameter values are exposed to the kernel rule as a collection. This enables the use of aggregations functions in the kernel rule, which combine the values of parameters of the multi-rules.
Consider the two example rules below. Both match one :Family object (kernel rule) and all :Person objects in that family (multi-rule). Now, the set of persons can be used as basis for aggregations. In our two example rules, we use as aggregation functions COUNT and AVG to resp. count the number of family members and calculate the average age of the family members.
Note that the expressions Aggregations.COUNT(x) and Aggregations.AVG(a) are not some special syntax for aggregations. They are just calls to ordinary Java methods. The special thing about these methods is that they take a collection of values as parameters (not single values). The Henshin interpreter just calls the (possibly user-defined) functions to calculate the aggregated values. For the interpreter to know which class to use, it must be defined as part of the Java imports of the rule, as shown in the screenshot below. Additionally, you need to ensure that this class is in the Java classpath when executing the Henshin transformation.
The aggregation support is currently available in the development branch of Henshin. You can find the above rules with accompanying Java code in the examples plugins.
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