This document presents VISON, an ontology-based approach for improving the discoverability of software visualization tools. It aims to address the challenges developers and researchers face in finding suitable visualization tools for their needs. The authors describe developing an ontology of 70 publicly available software visualization tools categorized by the type of software aspects they visualize, such as structure, behavior, or evolution. The ontology provides a standardized way to represent tools and allows for querying to match tools to usage scenarios. Future work includes developing a web interface and Git repository to dynamically update the ontology with new visualization tools.

1. VISON: An Ontology-Based Approach for
Software Visualization Tool Discoverability
Ekaterina Kozlova
HSE University, Russia
Oscar Nierstrasz
University of Bern
Daniel Weiskopf
University of Stuttgart
leonel_merino VISSOFT’19
Leonel Merino
University of Stuttgart

2. 2
Motivation

3. 3
How developers can find suitable visualizations for particular concerns?

4. How developers can find suitable visualizations for particular concerns?
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5. How developers can find suitable visualizations for particular concerns?
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6. How developers can find suitable visualizations for particular concerns?
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7. How developers can find suitable visualizations for particular concerns?
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8. 8
How researchers can find available visualizations for experiments?

9. How researchers can find available visualizations for experiments?
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10. How researchers can find available visualizations for experiments?
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11. VISON: An Ontology-Based Approach for Software Visualization Tool Discoverability
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12. 12
Implementation

13. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
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14. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
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15. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
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16. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
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17. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
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18. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
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19. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
19

20. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
20

21. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
21

22. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
22

23. Ontology design considerations
• Step 1. Determine the domain and scope of the ontology.
• What is the domain that the ontology will cover?
• For what we are going to use the ontology?
• For what types of questions the information in the ontology should provide answers?
• Who will use and maintain the ontology?
• Step 2. Consider reusing existing ontologies.
• Step 3. Enumerate important terms in the ontology.
• Step 4. Define the concepts and the concept hierarchy.
• Step 5. Define the properties of concepts.
• Step 6. Define the restrictions of the properties.
• Step 7. Create instances.
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24. 24
Protégé

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27. 27

28. 28

29. 29

30. 30

31. 31
A Curated Catalog of 70 Publicly Available
Software Visualization Tools

32. 32
Selection Process
• Inclusion criterion
A named tool that is described amongst the 180 papers included on a SLR
on software visualization evaluation
• Exclusion criterion
An identified tool is not publicly available (source code / compiled
application)

33. Behavior (28)
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34. Examples: Clack
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35. Examples: GEM
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36. Examples: Jive
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37. Examples: Synchrovis
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38. Structure (22)
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39. Examples: CodeCity
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40. Examples: Softwarenaut
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41. Evolution (12)
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42. Examples: Clonevol
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43. Examples: CVSScan
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44. Structure, Behavior, Evolution (8)
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45. Examples: CodeBubbles
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47. 47
Usage Scenarios

48. Scenario 1. Find suitable visualization tools that support the analysis of performance issues at runtime.
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49. Scenario 2. Find visualization tools under a free license that support the analysis of source code.
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50. Future Work
• Web interface for querying and visualizing (MetaVis approach) VISON
• Git repository to integrate data of new software visualization tools
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51. Summary
VISON —An Ontology-Based Approach for Software Visualization Tool Discoverability
leonel_merino VISSOFT’19