Join Point Designation Diagrams
Join Point Designation Diagrams (JPDDs)
Join Point Designation Diagrams (or JPDDs in short) are a visual means to render join point selections in Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD). Join point selections in AOSD determine which points in program code or what instants during program execution should be affected by an aspect (i.e. by an aspectual adaptation).
Example

Tool Support
A prototypical tool has been implemented for the creation and modification of JPDDs, and for storing them in a UML2/XMI format (see [.pdf]). The tool has been realized as an Eclipse plug-in, and requires Eclipse 3.1.2, GEF 3.1.1, EMF 2.1.0, UML 1.1.0 (!), and ANTLR 4.1.1(!). For exporting JPDDs to JPG or BMP graphics, Image Export 0.9.0 can be used. To exploit code generation facilities, AJDT 1.3.3 is needed. A preliminary version can be downloaded from http://dawis2.icb.uni-due.de/jpddtools/updatesite/ using the Eclipse Update Manager. A pre-configured Eclipse installation can be found at the link below. To find out how to get started, select "Help" - "Help Contents" - "M4JPDDs".
- http://dawis2.icb.uni-due.de/jpddtools/downloads/eclipse+m4jpdd.zip (a pre-configured Eclipse installation for Windows! ...download, unzip, and run "eclipse.exe" from the "eclipse" folder)
Another prototypical tool has been implemented in Squeak for generating pointcuts from JPDDs. The tool is also released under the GNU General Public License and can be downloaded from
- here
Publications
Year: 2011
* Stein, D., Hanenberg, S.; Comparison of a Visual and a Textual Notation to Express Data Constraints in Aspect-Oriented Join Point Selections: A Controlled Experiment, in: Sim, S.; Ricca, F.; Proc. of International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2011), Kingston, ON, Canada, June 22-24, 2011.
* Stein, D.; Join Point Designation Diagrams: A Visual Design Notation for Join Point Selections in Aspect-Oriented Software Development; Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Duisburg-Essen, January 2011.
Year: 2010
* Stein, D.; Sánchez, P.; Hanenberg, S.; Fuentes, L.; Unland, R.; Facilitating the Exploration of Erroneous Pointcuts In Aspect-Oriented Models, in: International Workshop on Aspect-Oriented Modeling, UML 2010, Oslo, Norway, October 4, 2010.
Year: 2008
* Stein, D., Hanenberg, S.; M4JPDD - Tool-Support for Modeling Join Point Designation Diagrams. in: Demo at AOSD 2008, Brussels, Belgium, April 2&4, 2008.
* Sanchez, P., Stein, D., Hanenberg, S.; State Charts as an Intermediate Representation of JPDDs Which Help Developers to Map Them to Executable Artifacts, in: International Workshop on Aspect-Oriented Modeling, AOSD 2008, Brussels, Belgium, April 1, 2008.
Year: 2007
* Hanenberg, S.; Stein, D.; Unland, R.; From Aspect-Oriented Design to Aspect-Oriented Programs: Tool-Supported Translation of JPDDs into Code. In: de Moor, O., Proc. of 6th International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD 2007), Vancouver, BC, Canada, March 12-16, 2007, ACM. pp. 49-62.
Year: 2006
* Stein, D.; Hanenberg, S.; Unland, R.; Join Point Designation Diagrams: A Graphical Representation of Join Point Selections, in: Wong, W.E., Cooper, K. (guest editors), Special Issue on Aspect-Oriented Software Design Models, International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (IJSEKE), Jg. 16, Nr. 3, 2006, pp. 317-346.
* Stein, D.; Hanenberg, S.; Unland, R.; Expressing Different Conceptual Models of Join Point Selections in Aspect-Oriented Design; in: Masuhara, H., Rashid, A., Proc. of 5th International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD 2006), Bonn, Germany, March 20-24, 2006, ACM, pp. 15-26
Year: 2005
* Stein, D.; Hanenberg, S.; Unland, R.; On Relationships between Query Models; in: Hartman, A., Kreische, D., Proc. of European Conference on Model Driven Architecture - Foundations and Applications (ECMDA-FA 2005), Nuremberg, Germany, November, 7-10, 2005, LNCS 3748, pp. 254-268 © Springer-Verlag
* Stein, D.; Hanenberg, S.; Unland, R.; Visualizing Join Point Selections Using Interaction-Based vs. State-Based Notations; in: Desel, J., Frank, U., Proc. of EMISA 2005: Workshop on Enterprise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures (ER 2005), Klagenfurt, Austria, October, 24-25, 2005, LNI P-75, pp. 94-107
* Stein, D.; Hanenberg, S.; Unland, R.; Visualizing Join Point Selections for Stateful Aspects; European Interactive Workshop on Aspects in Software (EIWAS 2005), Brussels, Belgium, September 1 and 2, 2005
Year: 2004
* Stein, D.; Hanenberg, S.; Unland, R.; Query Models; in: Baar, Th., Strohmeier, A., Moreira, A., Mellor, St., Proc. of the 7th International Conference on the Unified Modeling Language (UML 2004), Lisbon, Portugal, October 11-15, 2004, Springer, LNCS 3273, pp. 98-112 © Springer-Verlag
* Stein, D.; Hanenberg, S.; Unland, R.; A Graphical Notation to Specify Model Queries for MDA Transformations on UML Models; in: Assmann, U., Rensink, A., Aksit, M., Model Driven Architecture: Foundations and Applications, LNCS 3599, pp. 77-92 © Springer-Verlag (revised version of:)
* Stein, D.; Hanenberg, S.; Unland, R.; A Graphical Notation to Specify Model Queries for MDA Transformations on UML Models; in: Aßmann, U., Proc. of the 2nd Working Conference on Model Driven Architecture: Foundations and Applications (MDAFA 2004), Linköping, Sweden, June 10-11, 2004, pp. 60-74
* Stein, D.; Hanenberg, S.; Unland, R.; Modeling Pointcuts; Early Aspects 2004: Workshop on Aspect-Oriented Requirements Engineering and Architecture Design, AOSD 2004, Lancaster, UK, March 22, 2004
* Stein, D.; Design Issues and Modeling Issues in Aspect-Oriented Software Development: A Special Focus on Pointcuts; Poster in AOSD 2004, Lancaster, UK, March 22, 2004
Student Work
Bachelor Thesis
- Nadezhda Avramova, Improving the Usability of an Eclipse-based Modeling Tool by Fully Exploiting GEF and ANTLR, Wintersemester 2007/2008 [.pdf]
- Jens Bartelheimer, Implementation of a Modeling Tool for Join Point Designation Diagrams Based on the Eclipse Frameworks EMF, GEF, and the UML2-Ecore-Meta-Model, Sommersemester 2006 [.pdf]
Seminarworks
- Nadezhda Avramova, Extension of an Eclipse-based Modeling Tool for Join Point Designation Diagrams with UML2 State Machines, Sommersemester 2007 [.pdf]
- Jens Bartelheimer, Evaluation of Modeling Tools Concerning their Extensibility to Represent Join Point Designation Diagrams, Sommersemester 2005 [.pdf]