An Expression Language for Model Transformations

Model transformations are crucial for model-driven development. Many different languages exist that allow for the description of mappings between different metamodels. Over the past few years, these languages and accompanying tools have matured significantly, but they still suffer from a common problem as they lack expressiveness. In this paper, we present NICE, an expression language for model transformations that has been integrated in our bidirectional model transformation language BXtendDSL, which overcomes this dilemma. NICE is a modular, reusable, and adaptable language that compiles to plain Java code and is easy to use.