GMF

• Eclipse Graphical Modeling Framework
• Runtime is an application framework for creating graphical editors using EMF and GEF. It aims to provide a generative bridge between EMF and GEF.
• It is a powerful and widely-used framework for implementing graphical editors for EMF-based modelling languages.
• For e.g UML2 Tools is a set of GMF-based editors for viewing and editing UML models.
• GMF Tooling Workflow:

• Core to GMF is the concept of a graphical definition model. (.gmfgraph) This model contains information related to the graphical elements that will appear in a GEF-based runtime, but have no direct connection to the domain models for which they will provide representation and editing.
• An optional tooling definition model is used to design the palette and other periphery (menus, toolbars, etc.). (.gmftool)
• A goal of GMF is to allow the graphical definition to be reused for several domains. This is achieved by using a separate mapping model to link the graphical and tooling definitions to the selected domain model(s). (.gmfmap)
• Once the appropriate mappings are defined, GMF provides a generator model to allow implementation details to be defined for the generation phase. (.gmfgen)