System Cartography Tool

Last modified Jul 12, 2018

Objective

The System Cartography Tool SyCaTool (formerly known as SoCaTool) provides functionalities to automatically generate semantically consistent visualizations of data modeled according to an arbitrary object-oriented information model. The tool has initially been developed in the project Software Cartography to support the generation of software maps. With the extension of the focus of our research concerning maps as means for describing complex systems, the tool has migrated to the System Cartography project.

Summary

The SyCaTool is written in java and developed as a plug-in architecture to the eclipse OSGI-platform implementation equinox. The core components of the tool are

a resource manager for (dynamically) loading and unloading of data as well as respective object-oriented information models (based on the eclipse modeling framework - EMF),
a transformer for performing model-2-model transformations written in java,
a two-step layouter for computing the layout of the graphical visualizations, and
a basic renderer building the infrastructure for actually rendering visualizations.

The above components are employed in both variants of the tool, namely

the rich-client standalone version - realized in the rich-client platform (RCP) of eclipse based, among others, on the graphical editor framework - GEF and
the web-based service version - realized in the jetty-eclipse integration based on eclipse server-side equinox as a restful webservice.

This screenshot shows the rich-client standalone version of the tool "in action".

OpenSource, Evaluation, and Download

Please note, that the software as provided here is not further developed. Visualization are part of the Web-based enterprise collaboration platform Tricia as from now. They are dynamically generated based on adaptive information structures and can be configured flexibly.

System Requirements

Java Version: Sun JRE 1.6
Eclipse 3.4 including eclipse modeling tools
Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows
Hardware Requirements: 1GB RAM, 2GHz+ CPU or equivalent

SyCaTool Videos

To see the SyCaTool in action you can use the following videos. Click on the images to open a new window showing the video.

Introduction to SyCaTool (2 MB)

SyCaTool generating a
Process Support Map (1 MB)

SyCaTool generating a
Time Interval Map (2 MB)

SyCaTool generating a
Cluster Map with Layers (2 MB)

Student theses (in reverse chronological order)

[Gr08]	Gröhl, K.: Analyse und Realisierung von Linienführungsalgorithmen in einem Werkzeug für die Softwarekartographie.Technische Universität München, Fakultät für Informatik, Master's Thesis, 2008.
[Ra08]	Ramacher, R.: Werkzeugunterstützung für das graphische Nachbearbeiten von Softwarekarten. Technische Universität München, Fakultät für Informatik, Systementwicklungsprojekt, 2008.
[Wi08]	Wiegelmann, J.: Analysis and Application of Model Transformation Languages for Generating Software Maps. Technische Universität München, Fakultät für Informatik, Bachelor's Thesis, 2008.
[La07]	Lauschke, S.: Automatische Generierung von Softwarekarten: Entwicklung eines Ansatzes zum Layout deklarativ beschriebener Visualisierungen. Technische Universität München, Fakultät für Informatik, Master's Thesis, 2007.
[Sc06]	Schweda, C.: Architektur eines Visualisierungswerkzeuges für Anwendungslandschaften - Anforderungsanalyse und prototypische Realisierung. Technische Universität München, Fakultät für Informatik, Diplomarbeit, 2006.
[Sc05]	Schweda, C.: Atomare und komplexe Darstellungsregeln der Softwarekartographie - Identifikation, Konzeption und prototypische Implementierung. Technische Universität München, Fakultät für Informatik, Projektarbeit, 2005.
[BuSp05]	Buckl, S.; Spiegel, R.: Modellierung und prototypische Implementierung eines Werkzeuges zur Softwarekartographie. Technische Universität München, Fakultät für Informatik, Projektarbeit, 2005.