An MDE-Based Approach for Solving Configuration Problems: An Application to the Eclipse Platform

Most of us have experienced configuration issues when installing new software applications. Finding the right configuration is often a challenging task since we need to deal with many dependencies between plug-ins, components, libraries, packages, etc; sometimes even regarding specific versions of the involved artefacts. Right now, most configuration engines are adhoc tools designed for specific configuration scenarios. This makes their reuse in different contexts very difficult. In this paper we report on our experience in following a MDE-based approach to solve configuration problems. In our approach, the configuration problem is represented as a model that abstracts all irrelevant technological details and facilitates the use of generic (constraint) solvers to find optimal solutions. This approach has been applied by an industrial partner to the management of plug-ins in the Eclipse framework, a big issue for all the technology providers that distribute Eclipse-based tools.