research-article

On reverse engineering an object-oriented code into UML class diagrams incorporating extensible mechanisms

Authors:

Vinita,

Amita Jain,

Devendra K. TayalAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, Volume 33, Issue 5

Article No.: 9, Pages 1 - 9

https://doi.org/10.1145/1402521.1402527

Published: 31 August 2008 Publication History

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Abstract

Reverse engineering is the key idea for reconstruction of any existing system. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to reverse engineer an object-oriented code into Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagram. Our algorithm is very general in nature and can be applied to any object-oriented code irrespective of the object-oriented programming language. In our paper we consider an object-oriented pseudocode similar to C++ to implement our algorithm. Some of the researchers have dealt in the past the problem of reverse engineering an object-oriented code to UML class diagrams. However, none of these researchers have treated all the constructs available in UML class diagrams. Unlike the previously done work on reverse engineering into UML, our algorithm generates rules for a complete set of constructs available in UML class diagrams. It includes classes, relationships, objects, attributes, operations, inheritance, associations, interfaces & other extensible mechanisms also. This algorithm can be viewed as a solution to reverse engineer any available object-oriented software. An application for the implementation of above said rules using C++ code is also included in the paper. We thoroughly compare our work with the similar type of earlier work in this area and uncover the deficiencies in these previous available works. Moreover our motive in this paper is to prepare rules to reverse engineer C++ code into UML class diagrams and not to generate any tools.

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Cited By

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Nawaz ARana TAzam FAnwar M(2021)Reverse Engineering of Object Oriented Systems to ALFInternational Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering10.1142/S021819402150022431:05(745-774)Online publication date: 21-May-2021
https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218194021500224
Okubo TKaiya HYoshioka N(2012)Analyzing Impacts on Software Enhancement Caused by Security Design Alternatives with PatternsInternational Journal of Secure Software Engineering10.4018/jsse.20120101033:1(37-61)Online publication date: Jan-2012
https://doi.org/10.4018/jsse.2012010103

Index Terms

On reverse engineering an object-oriented code into UML class diagrams incorporating extensible mechanisms
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software post-development issues
      1. Software reverse engineering
  2. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types
        Object oriented languages

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Published In

cover image ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes

ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes Volume 33, Issue 5

September 2008

68 pages

ISSN:0163-5948

DOI:10.1145/1402521

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Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 31 August 2008

Published in SIGSOFT Volume 33, Issue 5

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Nawaz ARana TAzam FAnwar M(2021)Reverse Engineering of Object Oriented Systems to ALFInternational Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering10.1142/S021819402150022431:05(745-774)Online publication date: 21-May-2021
https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218194021500224
Okubo TKaiya HYoshioka N(2012)Analyzing Impacts on Software Enhancement Caused by Security Design Alternatives with PatternsInternational Journal of Secure Software Engineering10.4018/jsse.20120101033:1(37-61)Online publication date: Jan-2012
https://doi.org/10.4018/jsse.2012010103

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A Typed Attributed Graph Grammar with Inheritance for the Abstract Syntax of UML Class and Sequence Diagrams