Eclipse Sirius

Sirius
Company type	Open source software initiative
Industry	Software development, Modeling tools
Founded	2007
Founder	Thales, Obeo
Products	Graphical modeling environments, Eclipse-based editors (diagrams, tables, trees)
Parent	Eclipse Foundation
Website	www.eclipse.org/sirius/

Sirius is an open-source software initiative managed by the Eclipse Foundation that facilitates the development of tailored graphical modeling environments by leveraging EMF and GMF technologies. These environments are composed of Eclipse-based editors—such as diagrams, tables, and trees—designed for creating, modifying, and displaying EMF models.

History

The inception of Sirius traces back to 2007, resulting from a collaboration between Thales and Obeo aimed at producing a versatile and adaptable workbench focused on model-driven architectural engineering. In 2013, Sirius was made available as Open Source under the governance of the Eclipse Foundation and has since become a part of the Eclipse platform's yearly release cycle.

Principles

Sirius enables the definition of modeling environments through declarative specifications encompassing graphical, table, or tree editors, enriched with validation rules and interactive actions. These setups demand minimal programming skills and are interpreted dynamically within the Eclipse IDE, offering immediate visual feedback without requiring code generation. Once finalized, these workbenches can be packaged as conventional Eclipse plugins.

The platform supports flexible, dynamic visualizations structured around Viewpoints—an approach inspired by the ISO/IEC 42010 standard—which allows views to adjust their presentation and functionalities according to the model’s current state and user-specific interests. Information can be concurrently displayed via diagrams, tables, and tree structures.

For developers, Sirius provides capabilities including:

Designing workbenches featuring diagrammatic, tabular, or tree-based editors.
Seamless integration and deployment within Eclipse IDEs or Rich Client Platform (RCP) applications.
Extensibility and customization through specialization mechanisms.

End users benefit from:

Advanced, domain-specific modeling editors.
Consistent synchronization across various editor formats.

Uses

Sirius is predominantly applied to the design of intricate systems spanning industrial domains and IT solutions. Its earliest significant implementation was Capella, a Systems Engineering workbench contributed by Thales to the Eclipse Working Group PolarSys in 2014.

A collection of diverse projects utilizing Sirius is available for viewing in the Sirius gallery on the official project website.

Compatibility

The most recent version of Sirius is compatible with these Eclipse releases:

Eclipse Oxygen
Eclipse Neon
Eclipse 2020-09

Built atop the EMF modeling framework, Sirius supports any tool capable of generating EMF-compliant models.

Community and communication

The Sirius user and developer community actively engages through the Eclipse Foundation’s Sirius portal. Comprehensive documentation can be accessed online via both the Eclipse Help Center and the Sirius project wiki.

Conferences

Each year, members of the community convene at SiriusCon. Additionally, Sirius contributors present their work at various Modeling and Eclipse-related conferences.

Name	Date	Location	Presentation Title
EclipseCon North America 2013	26 March 2013	San Francisco, USA	Simplifying Your Custom Modeling Environment Definition
Dasia 2013	14 May 2013	Porto, Portugal	Multiple Viewpoints System / Software Engineering for Space Applications
EclipseCon France 2013	6 June 2013	Toulouse, France	Sirius Demonstrated: Create Diagram, Table, and Tree Editors in Twenty Minutes
Bicc Net 2013	30 September 2013	Munich, Germany	Open Tools for Systems Engineering and Embedded Systems Development
EclipseCon Europe 2013	29 October 2013	Ludwisburg, Germany	Transforming Eclipse into an Arduino Programming Platform for Children
EclipseCon Europe 2013	30 October 2013	Ludwisburg, Germany	Sirius: Revolutionizing Systems Architecture Modeling
PolarSys Day 2013	22 November 2013	Stockholm, Sweden	Sirius: Graphical Editors Tailored for Your Domain-Specific Language
CSDM 2013	4 December 2013	Paris, France	Simplifying Custom Modeling Workbench Creation with Sirius
EclipseCon North America 2014	18 March 2014	San Francisco, USA	Build Diagram, Table, and Tree Editors in Twenty Minutes with Sirius Role-Playing Game Approach
Solutions Linux 2014	20 May 2014	Paris, France	Sirius: A New Open Source Paradigm for Systems Design
Eclipse Day Florence 2014	23 May 2014	Florence, Italy	Rapid Creation of Diagrammatic, Tabular, and Tree Editors Using Sirius
XTextCon 2014	26 May 2014	Kiel, Germany	Integration of Sirius with Xtext
EclipseCon France 2014	18 June 2014	Toulouse, France	Hands-On Workshop: Building Graphical Editors for Domain-Specific Languages with Sirius
Jug Summer Camp 2014	19 September 2014	La Rochelle, France	SIRIUS 1.0: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
RRLL Nantes 2014	19 September 2014	Nantes, France	Introduction to Sirius
EclipseCon Europe 2014	29 October 2014	Ludwisburg, Germany	Enhancing Your Projects with Sirius
Open World Forum 2014	31 October 2014	Paris, France	Sirius: The New Open Source Approach to Systems Design – A Successful Collaboration Between Obeo and Thales
Eclipse Finance Day 2014	31 October 2014	Zurich, Switzerland	Developing Custom Graphical Designers for IT and Enterprise Architecture Using Sirius
Eclipse Day Rhone Alpes 2014	18 December 2014	Lyon, France	Sirius – Visual Models Speak Louder Than Words

External links