A Model-Driven Framework for Android Supporting Cross-Platform GUI Development

The rapid growth of users makes android application development one of the most focused areas in the software industry. Among others, the screen size is a considerable problem in developing mobile graphical user interfaces. Quite a work has been done in the field to solve this issue programmatically. However, truncated reusability and insufficient portability along with other challenges are posed, which results in multiple designs of an application that need to be maintained equally as major applications. This article introduces a novel model-driven framework that serves the purpose of a prompt development of responsive User Interfaces (UI) for various screen sizes. Particularly a Meta Model is proposed. As tool support, a Sirius graphical modeling tool has also been developed. Furthermore, Model to Text Transformation code has been written using Acceleo language to transform the modeled UI scenario into an executable Java and XML code. The framework allows modeling of UI scenarios using our graphical modeling tool and generates executable platform-specific code (Java & XML) resulting in prompt development of a complex application with simplicity. The applicability of the proposed framework has been demonstrated by developing a mobile application as a case study.