Architecture-Centric Derivation of Products in A Software Product Line

It is essential to architecture-centric product line development that product line architecture can be used to drive activities specific to product line development, such as product derivation. This requires a mechanism that can automatically derive the architecture and code of a product instance from the customization of product line architecture. In this paper, we analyze the insufficiency of two existing solutions in this area and present an architecture-centric approach that meets the requirement. The approach can support product line differences in platforms and functions, and generate both product line code and product code. It is based on a product line implementation mechanism that combines a code generation and separation pattern with an architecture-based code annotation technique. We have implemented the approach, and finished a preliminary evaluation with a chat application.