ClaferConfigurator

v0.5.3

An interactive, web-based, configurator for models expressed in Clafer. The configurator provides a novel approach to configuration (model instantiation), whereby the configurer works with multiple correct configurations at the same time instead of working with a single configuration, making configuration steps, and resolving configuration conflicts. When working with a single configuration, the configurer is often not aware of the impact of their configuration actions, and when conflicts arise, they have great difficulty resolving the conflicts. In contrast, in ClaferConfigurator, the configurers always see only correct configurations and can explore them using filtering, ordering, highlighting of the differences, and creating more configurations on demand. Read more in the paper Clafer Tools for Product Line Engineering.

Live demo

• Master branch (stable and released): ClaferConfigurator
• Develop branch (with newest features, but not guaranteed to be stable): ClaferConfigurator (evelopment)

If the demo is down or you encounter a bug, please email Michał Antkiewicz.

Background

See clafer.org.

Functions

1. Provides a web based GUI for interaction with instance generators.
2. Allows for comparing and analyzing multiple product configurations simultaneously.
3. Facilitates configuration of clafer models.

Only static Clafer models are supported: instance generation reports temporal (behavioral) models as not supported. Use ClaferIDE to edit them.

Nature

The ClaferConfigurator is a web-based application. Its server side (implemented with Node.js) only runs the chosen backend passes back its output. The client-side is implemented using JavaScript/HTML and provides configuration functionality.

Contributors

• Neil Vincent Redman, co-op student Jan-Apr 2013. Main developer.
• Michał Antkiewicz. Research Engineer. Requirements, development, architecture, testing, technology transfer.
• Alexandr Murashkin. Developer. Transition to the platform, improvements, multiple backends.
• Eldar Khalilov. Developer. Upgrade to 0.4.2 (replace XML with JSON, test suites).

Dependencies for running

• Java Platform (JDK) v17+
• Clafer v0.5.3
  • can be from the binary distribution
• Node.js, tested with v26
• Backends' dependencies must be satisfied. See the backend installation steps below.

Installation

Core

1. Download (git clone) ClaferConfigurator to some directory <target directory>
2. Go to <target directory>/ClaferConfigurator and execute

git submodule init
git submodule update

This will install the platform.

When working with a branch other then master, you need to additionally checkout that branch (e.g., develop):

git submodule foreach git checkout develop

3. Go to <target directory>/ClaferConfigurator/Server and execute

npm install

This will download all the required Node.js modules.

4. Install the backends clafer, claferIG, chocosolver into some location <bin> found on PATH. The backends in Server/Backends/backends.json run them from PATH.

The fastest way is to unzip a binary distribution into the folder <bin>.

See Installing Backends for detailed steps.

Settings

1. Make sure the port 8093 is free, or change the value of the key port in Server/config.json: "port" = "8093" to any free one.

Optional limits and settings in Server/config.json:

• allowedModelURLs: prefixes of the URLs from which models can be opened with ?claferFileURL=..., for example the ClaferWiki URL http://<wiki host>:<wiki port>/clafer/; opening models from URLs is disabled when the list is empty
• maxSessions (default 50): the maximum number of concurrent sessions
• maxUploadSize (default 16 MB): the maximum size of a submitted model or instance data
• uploadsPerMinute (30), commandsPerMinute (300), pollsPerMinute (600): rate limits per client IP address
• trustProxy: Express's trust proxy setting when running behind a reverse proxy (e.g., "loopback" or 1), so that the rate limits apply per client

The environment variables ALLOWED_MODEL_URLS (URL prefixes separated by spaces) and TRUST_PROXY override allowedModelURLs and trustProxy, e.g., when running in a container.

2. Make sure clafer, claferIG, chocosolver, node, and java are in PATH environment variables, so they can be executed without any path prefixes.

3. Running the following commands should produce the following results or later version:

clafer --version

Clafer 0.5.3

claferIG --version

ClaferIG 0.5.3

chocosolver --version

chocosolver v0.5.3.2026-10-15

java -version

openjdk version "17"

node -v

v26.11.1

4. Make sure uploads folder is accessible for writing, since temporary files will be stored there.

5. If you use Shell scipts (.sh) for running, make sure the scripts have Execute permissions.

Running

• To run the server in a standard mode, execute

cd <target directory>/ClaferConfigurator/Server/

node ClaferConfigurator.js

• If you use Node Supervisor under Linux, you can execute

cd <target directory>/ClaferConfigurator/Server/commons
chmod +x start.sh
./start.sh

Then you can go to any browser and type http://localhost:[port]/ and open any Clafer file with objectives in it.

Trying an Example

• Choose Adaptive Cruise Control Example example in the dropdown box in the upper-left corner of the tool window.
• Press Compile button right in the front of the drop down list.
• Once you see the compilation is complete, go to Instance Generator view and press Run there (the default backend is Choco-based IG (IG + MOO)).
• The Feature and Quality Matrix view should show the first 10 generated configurations (instances).

Important: Branches must correspond

All related projects are following the simultaneous release model. The branch master contains releases, whereas the branch develop contains code under development. When building the tools, the branches should match. Releases from branches master are guaranteed to work well together. Development versions from branches develop should work well together but this might not always be the case.

Need help?

• Visit language's website.
• Report issues to issue tracker