GEMS is designed to allow developers to rapidly create a graphical modeling tool with no coding and immediately begin addressing the challenging aspects of these types of complex domains.

GEMS provides extensive support for integrating intelligent mechanisms into a modeling tool to provide visual modeling queues, simulation, constraint-compliant batch processing, and analysis.

The goal of the Generic Eclipse Modeling System (GEMS) is to bridge the gap between the communities experienced with visual metamodeling tools, such as the Generic Modeling Environment (GME), and those built around the Eclipse modeling technologies, such as the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) and Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF).

GEMS is an open project and encourages developers to extend, enhance, and use its tools. GEMS has been developed in conjunction with research work done in collaboration with Siemens, IBM, and PrismTech. GEMS is an open source project, based on the Eclipse License.

Here are some key features of "GEMS":

· A graphical language for metamodel specification that can capture
· domain entities
· attributes of entities
· inheritance relationships
· connection and containment relationships between entities
· distinct modeling views
· graphical information, such as connection styles, colors, and fonts
· constraints
· GEMS provides extensive support for intelligent modeling guidance including
· automatic solving of inference-based constraints for connection and containment
· applying batch changes to a model that are guided by a set of global constraints
· visually suggesting connection endpoints and element parents that conform to the specified constraints
· support for simulations
· mechanisms for integrating constraint solvers
· mechanisms for creating re-usable templatized constraint solvers
· mechanisms for discovering why a model cannot meet a set of global domain constraints
· graphical mechanisms for suggesting optimal modeling decisions derived from a constraint solver
· A code generation framework, which does not require any coding or XML editing, for transforming a GEMS metamodel into a working Draw2D/GEF Eclipse plug-in for editing instances of the language
· Ecore Model
· EMF Classes
· GEF/Draw2D Figures
· GEF/Draw2D Edit Parts
· other GEF/Draw2D Infrastructure for creating the palette, etc.
· plugin descriptor for the tool
· build descriptor for the project
· classpath descriptor for the project
· The visual appearance of the generated modeling tool can be customized by creating CSS stylesheets to modify the icons, colors, fonts, connection styles, and other visual attributes of the modeling entities
· The views available to a modeler can be customized through a mechanism similar to CSS stylesheets
· The generated graphical modeling plug-ins, created by GEMS, support extensive external customization through extension points for
· adding code generators and transformation, such as Open Architecture Ware, Java Emitter Templates, and Atlas Transformation Language
· model pre and post processing
· model event listeners
· triggers for invoking actions (similar to database triggers)
· constraint languages
· menus
· palette customizers
· intelligent modeling guides
· model serializers
· GEMS provides built-in support for constraints written in Java, OCL, and Prolog
· constraints can also be used as triggers for invoking actions
· Models and constraint solvers can be accessed remotely using a built-in CORBA server


Requirements:

· Java 1.5 (or higher), the Eclipse Modeling Framework, and the Graphical Editor Framework.