Combining Versioning and Metamodel Evolution in the ChronoSphere Model Repository

Model Driven Engineering (MDE) has gained a lot of popularity in recent years and is being applied in a wide variety of domains. As teams, models and applications grow in size, the need for faster and more scalable technology emerges, in particular in the crucial area of model repositories. These software components are responsible for persisting, querying and versioning the model content and act as central hubs for interaction with the model. However, existing repository solutions do not consider metamodel evolution, which is important in long-running projects. In this paper, we present ChronoSphere, a novel model repository, targeted specifically towards developers working with MDE technology in industry, with a focus on models-at-runtime scenarios. By utilizing the latest innovations in graph databases and version control, ChronoSphere provides transparent and efficient versioning as well as metamodel evolution capabilities. This paper focuses on the core concepts of ChronoSphere, in particular data management, versioning and metamodel evolution. Our open-source implementation serves as proof of concept.