AUTOSAR Application Visualization

Abstract

AUTOSAR is a very large development partnership and its standards are used in the automotive business. More specifically, AUTOSAR holds a Software Component Template which describe rules that govern application1 design in the AUTOSAR domain. Applications created using the Software Component Template can become enormous and difficult to interpret by only looking at the code. Therefore, alternative methods to look at the application are desired and one such method is creating a visual representation of the design. The report describes one way of implementing such a representation by using Zest, a graph-based visualization toolkit for Eclipse, as a framework. The tool was developed at the request of ArcCore and is therefore integrated into their software the Arctic Studio platform and developed as an Eclipse plug-in. It is realized using the MVC pattern and an agile work approach was used. The visualization tool uses a parsing method which can handle larger applications with ease. Furthermore, the tool focuses on using navigational abilities as a preferred method of simplifying the understanding of the application rather than creating advanced layout algorithms. The tool presents the application in a manner which allows the user to navigate through the application in several ways. It introduces the concept of following a connection through the application which could be used to locate different connection points and confirm correctness or locate errors in the application design.