Getting Started with swift-ecore

Overview

The swift-ecore CLI provides essential operations for Ecore metamodel and model management: format conversion, validation, inspection, creation, and merging. This guide walks through common use cases to get you started quickly.

Installation

The swift-ecore tool is part of the swift-modelling package.

Add to your Package.swift:

dependencies: [
    .package(url: "https://github.com/mipalgu/swift-modelling.git",
             branch: "main"),
]

Build the tool:

swift build -c release

The executable will be available at: .build/release/swift-ecore

First Steps

Inspecting a Metamodel

Start by examining an Ecore metamodel:

swift-ecore inspect Company.ecore

Output:

Metamodel: Company
Package URI: http://example.com/company
Classes: 3
  - Company
  - Department  - Employee
Attributes: 5
References: 3

For detailed information:

swift-ecore inspect Company.ecore --detail full \
    --show-references --show-attributes

Converting Between Formats

Convert XMI models to JSON:

swift-ecore convert company.xmi --output company.json --pretty

Convert JSON back to XMI:

swift-ecore convert company.json --output company.xmi

Validating Models

Ensure a model conforms to its metamodel:

swift-ecore validate company.xmi \
    --metamodel Company.ecore

For detailed validation reports:

swift-ecore validate company.xmi \
    --metamodel Company.ecore \
    --strict \
    --report validation-results.json \
    --format json

Common Operations

Creating Empty Models

Create a new model instance:

swift-ecore create \
    --metamodel Company.ecore \
    --output new-company.xmi \
    --root-class Company

This creates an empty model with a Company root element that you can populate programmatically or with other tools.

Merging Multiple Models

Combine several models into one:

swift-ecore merge dept1.xmi dept2.xmi dept3.xmi \
    --output all-departments.xmi \
    --strategy merge \
    --validate \
    --metamodel Company.ecore

The --strategy option controls how conflicts are resolved:

• append - Add all elements

• replace - Later files override earlier ones

• merge - Intelligent merging based on identifiers

Converting with Validation

Ensure data integrity during format conversion:

swift-ecore convert legacy-data.xmi \
    --output validated-data.json \
    --pretty \
    --validate \
    --metamodel Company.ecore

The conversion stops with an error if validation fails, preventing corrupted data from being written.

Integration with Other Tools

Using with swift-atl

Transform a model then validate the output:

# Transform using ATL
swift-atl transform Company2Database.atl \
    --source company.xmi \
    --target database.xmi

# Validate the transformation result
swift-ecore validate database.xmi \
    --metamodel Database.ecore \
    --strict

Using with swift-mtl

Validate a model before code generation:

# Validate model first
swift-ecore validate company.xmi \
    --metamodel Company.ecore

# Generate code if valid
swift-mtl generate GenerateSwift.mtl \
    --model company.xmi \
    --output generated/

Batch Processing

Process multiple files with shell scripts:

# Convert all XMI files to JSON
for file in models/*.xmi; do
    output="json/$(basename "$file" .xmi).json"
    swift-ecore convert "$file" --output "$output" --pretty
done

Validate all models in a directory:

# Validate all models
for file in models/*.xmi; do
    echo "Validating $file..."
    swift-ecore validate "$file" --metamodel schema.ecore \
        || echo "FAILED: $file"
done

Next Steps

• Understanding swift-ecore - Learn about metamodel concepts

• swift-atl - Transform models with ATL

• swift-mtl - Generate code with MTL templates