Until now, modeling tools have relied mostly on native technologies, and consequently the graphical modelers based on it are desktop applications. Today there are different initiatives to bring graphical modeling tools up to the cloud. The journey of building modeling tools has never been as exciting as it is right now. What would be the advantages of a cloud based modeling tool? What changes this requires in the architecture of such tools? At Obeo, we have been working on modeling tools in general, and on Eclipse Sirius in particular, for a long time now. During this session, we will discuss the future of development tooling, we will briefly review the progress made over the last years and where the open source community is moving towards. We will demonstrate the different levels of integration we currently have, in particular how we leverage projects like Sprotty, ELK, Theia and Che to move diagrams into the browser. We will discuss how "Server Protocols" allow to bring our tools on different platforms and environments and to run them on the cloud or locally. We will also present the Graphical Server Protocol initiative, which will define a platform-agnostic protocol between a diagram editor in the browser and a graphical server that manages the corresponding models in the cloud. Through this talk you will discover what could be the future of Eclipse Modeling on the web, discover how you can bring your own tools to the cloud thanks to Sirius, and participate in this exciting endeavour!

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The future of modeling tools
Mélanie Bats, CTO @ Obeo
📧 melanie.bats@obeo.fr
🐦@melaniebats

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Who am I ?
CTO @ Obeo
Open source addict
Committer on Eclipse Sirius, Eclipse EEF, UML Designer
Member of the Eclipse Councils
Involved on collaborative projects : RT Simex, Gemoc

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Once upon a time...

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2002-2006 -Rise of the giants
Birth of the Eclipse Modeling
Ecosystem :
GEF/EMF/GMF

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2005 - Meanwhile in France
Obeo is Alive!

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2006 - Acceleo

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Obeo
Is a tool provider : develop dedicated modeling workbenches
Creates open source technologies
Is a key player of the Eclipse Modeling Ecosystem!
Has a long experience in developing graphical tools
Is involved in the open source and Eclipse projects : Sirius, Acceleo, EMF/GMF,
EcoreTools, EMF Compare, UML Designer, M2Doc, Capella...

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Why do we develop
modeling tools ?

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Tools are helping us to be more productive and
focus our time on bringing value to the products
we are building.
Unleash our complete potential...

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2007 - The Sirius awakens

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What is Sirius ?
An open source project to easily create your
own graphical modeling workbench

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Developing a Modeling Tool ?
Domain concepts1

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Developing a Modeling Tool ?
Domain concepts1 2 Configuration+

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Developing a Modeling Tool ?
Domain concepts1 2 3Configuration Modeling tool+ =

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Developing a Modeling Tool ?
Domain concepts1 2 3Configuration Modeling tool
Tool developer End User
+ =

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Maps concepts to...
22
Concepts1
Sirius configuration2

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Maps concepts to graphical elements
Graphical workbench
Sirius configuration2
3

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Sirius Demo

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03/2013 - Let it go!
http://cedric.brun.io/introducing-eclipse-sirius/

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Sirius is alive!
One main version every year & several minor versions
Obeo Designer Community Edition => All you need to work with Sirius
Since2007

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What are the trends ?

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A new generation of IDEs
Developers love them because of :
● Lightweight
● Simplicity
● Powerful tooling
● Easy customization
● High release cadence

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The VS code example
● <100Mb download
● Light UI
● Marketplace
● Extensions, Language
Servers
● Every month a new
version

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And other light editors
And now Atom IDE

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A developer today:

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A developer today:
- Works mainly on his localhost.

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A developer today:
- Works mainly on his localhost
- Codes in only few technology sets

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Since time immemorial ...

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Light client

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Light client
Rich application
vs

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Not afraid
anymore by...
browser IDE

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Codesandbox

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The newborn: Eclipse Theia

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Online modeling tools
Lucidchart
Draw.io
GenMyModel...

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Eclipse Che

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Che workspace
IDE RuntimesProject Files

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Workspace Runtimes
Application stack + “Dev Mode”
IDE Tooling as microservices in sidecars
Language
IDE
Debugger
Test
App

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Dedicated workbenches

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The well known… RCP applications

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Don’t touch it, it’s
mine!

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Use a
sledgehammer to
crack a nut!

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ONE tool
dedicated to ONE
task!

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The way we develop is changing
40%
Of enterprise developers are
already using >3 languages in
development.
Using Many Languages
66%
Of enterprises are already
using containers in
development, test or
production.
Adopting Containers
Source: Cloud development Survey 2017 - Evans Data Corp

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Being more agile with our tools
Iterate faster
Focus on value to create
Share workspace with all stakeholders
Pair programming
Live collaboration

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Live collaboration

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What is the future of
modeling tools ?

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Go to : www.menti.com
and
use the code 20 03 94

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Modeling Tools we have today

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Based on the Eclipse Platform → Desktop applications
- Installation is necessary
- Deployment is painful
- Updates are (re)painful
- Extra storage is needed
Modeling Tools we have today

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Modeling Tools we want tomorrow

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Modeling Tools we want tomorrow
Based on the web technologies → Cloud applications
- No need to install
- No upgrades needed
- Easy access
- Adaptable to workload increase
- Access from various device

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Evolution of the IDE concept?
More accessible tool
Tools integrated
Different “views” for different use cases and different users

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IDE-agnostic tools
Tools to be opened to more “domains”, not only engineering
Tools to be available more broadly, to more platform, to more users

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Carry the Sirius spirit… to the cloud
● Define your modeling workbench in the .odesign file
● Dynamic, no code generation involved
● Flexible even for complex models
… RENDERED IN A BROWSER

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The challenges we meet...
Ease the deployment & the maintenance
Ease the creation of modeling workbench
Manage a technology switch
Keep providing new features for existing solutions

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Our plans to victory
Ease the deployment & the maintenance → Use web technologies
Ease the creation of modeling workbench → Extend the Sirius capabilities
Manage a technology switch → Switch from Eclipse platform based
application to web application
Keep providing new features for existing solutions → Integrate web based
feature to desktop application

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What we have
prototyped
today

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1. Introduce
web technologies
in existing
Eclipse views
Step by step, side by side...

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Light client
Rich application
vs

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HTML
renderer

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Sirius
Designer
s
HTML
renderer
Sirius 6.0

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Sirius
Designer
s
HTML
renderer
Sirius 6.0

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Web components...
Sirius 6.0
Available within Sirius 6.0 : https://github.com/eclipse/sirius-components

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Sirius 6.0

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Web components... in Eclipse views
Integrate in existing Sirius workbench new features
Sirius 6.0
Eclipse view
Web
Component

74. Demo : Workflow
Sirius 6.0

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2. Make Sirius
independent from
Eclipse platform
Step by step, side by side...

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Split the architecture
● Progressively modularize the Sirius code base
● Isolate dependencies : Eclipse UI, GMF Runtime, Eclipse Workspace, Eclipse Runtime
● Keep the framework working at all time & keep releasing new features
● Split core business code from rendering technologies
○ Core deployable in headless (web) server
○ Exposes services through well-defined API & protocols

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Open Core
● Contribute new architecture to existing Eclipse Sirius project
● Still involved in the Eclipse community & release train
● As today some components will be proprietary licensed
○ Community Edition vs Team Edition

78. Demo : Sirius Headless
Prototype

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3. Expose services
through the
Graphical Server
Protocol
Step by step, side by side...

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ServerClientsDesktop Application
Path to go
Sirius Client
Sprotty
Sirius ServerGraphical
Server
Protocol
Sirius Core
Sprotty
Browser
Modeling tool
Eclipse
Sirius
GEF
GMF
Modeling tool
Today Tomorrow

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Graphical Server Protocol
● Lowering the cost of integrating a graphical tool in a platform
● Defining a protocol used to communicate between a platform and a graphical
designer
● Open source initiative : https://obeonetwork.github.io/GraphicalServerProtocol/

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4. Render
Sirius diagrams
in a browser
Step by step, side by side...

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Diagrams in the Web
First components contributed this fall
to Sirius
★★★Stay tuned!★★★
@EclipseSirius
https://blog.obeo.fr
Prototype

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Based on ...
Sprotty :
● A simple JS based graphical library
● Small & lightweight open source project
● Well integrated with Eclipse ELK for auto-layout
And other mainstream technologies as React & Jetty

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Layout & Layers in the Web
Prototype

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Your modeling tool in the Web
Prototype

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5. Sirius
integrated with
Cloud IDEs
Step by step, side by side...

88. Demo: Sirius integrated with Theia
Prototype

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Demo : Sirius integrated with Che
Prototype

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What’s next ?

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“Cloudifying” our tools
More resources
More computing power
Simplification of deployment
Tools lifecycle

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IA for developers
Machine learning applied to :
● Code recommendation
● Team collaboration
● Auto layout mechanism

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Chatbots
W
hyNot?

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Deep learning
Soundscool:)
Layout?

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Blockchain
Buzzword!
Model collaboration?

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Virtual Reality?
OM
G!

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What do you want ?
Come to chat with us

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Open source is the only way
Convergence of energies
Sharing of different ideas and visions
Open protocols : language server, debugger, and others...

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To go beyond…
We need you!
Share needs &
feedback
https://www.eclipse.org/sirius/com
munity.html
Contribute to
Sirius
https://www.eclipse.org/sirius/
Participate to the
Graphical Server
Protocol
https://github.com/ObeoNetwork/G
raphicalServerProtocol
Support Obeo
https://www.obeo.fr/en/contact

100. Thanks! Questions ?
melanie.bats@obeo.fr / @melaniebats
@EclipseSirius
https://blog.obeo.fr