Transformer meta-components are one of the building blocks that are provided by the OBS Framework. They are introduced to automate the tailoring process whereby the assets provided by the framework are modified to match the needs of a target application (see the framework development process). More specifically, transformer meta-components can automatically modify the source code of an existing component to endow it with some new application-specific property or behaviour.

In the OBS Framework, tranformer meta-components are implemented as aspect programs (see here for an introduction to aspect oriented programming) using the XWeaver aspect language and aspect weaver. XWeaver is an extensible, customizable and minimally intrusive aspect weaver that is specifically aimed at qualifiable applications. The mode of operation of the generator meta-components is illustrated in the figure:

The code modification process is driven by a set of specifications that are expressed in an XML document. These specifications describe a modification to be performed upon the code of some existing building blocks. The XWeaver aspect weaver takes these specifications and the existing building blocks as inputs and generates the modified building blocks as output.

The development of the transformer meta-components for the OBS Framework is currently under way and will be described in a future release of the framework.

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