SOFA (component system)

SOFA component system
Developer(s)	Distributed Systems Research Group
Stable release	Beta / March 2009
Written in	Java
Operating system	Linux, Windows
Type	Component System
License	LGPL
Website	http://sofa.ow2.org

SOFA 2^[1] is a component system developed by Distributed Systems Research Group at Charles University in Prague. It provides many advanced features: ADL-based design, behavior specification and verification based on behavior protocols, software connectors supporting different communication styles and providing transparent distribution of applications. SOFA 2 can be used not only for modeling component-based applications but also as a complete framework supporting all the stages of an application lifecycle from development to execution.

SOFA 2 basis

The SOFA 2 system includes a component model, repository of components, runtime environment and tool support.

SOFA 2 component model is defined by means of its meta-model which captures core concepts and states relation among them.

SOFA 2 provides a repository of a components which is automatically generated from the meta-model.

Cushion - is a text-based tool which allows development of SOFA 2 applications and manipulation with a repository
SOFA IDE - is a graphical tool (plugin for Eclipse)
MConsole - is a plugin for Eclipse (as well as a standalone application) monitoring and maintaining SOFA 2 runtime environment

^ Bures, T., Hnetynka, P., Plasil, F.: SOFA 2.0: Balancing Advanced Features in a Hierarchical Component Model, Proceedings of SERA 2006, Seattle, USA, IEEE CS, ISBN 0-7695-2656-X, pp.40-48, Aug 2006

A complete list of SOFA related papers can be found at the DSRG site.