Architecture of PNML Framework

The design of this framework follows Model-Driven Engineering principles. It has been implemented using Eclipse Modelling Framework (EMF), and code generation tools.

The architecture is thus based on EMF, as shown above. Each Petri Nets type API in the Superstructure layer is provided in a jar-packaged library. Therefore, if you are not interested in a particular type, you can just discard its corresponding library, no need to integrate it in your tool. Utilities and third-party libraries are also provided in different bundles. They are required by each net type library.

To ease the use of the native EMF-generated base API, we provide a (also generated) higher-level API for each net type library. That high-level API is much more intuitive and comfortable to use for the Petri Net tool developper.

You can have a closer look at the architecture on the component diagram available on the wiki. You will also find on the same page activity diagrams describing the import and export features of PNML models as handled by the framework.