Reverse Engineering Approach for Analyzing and Transforming Graphical User Interface Source Code into Class Diagrams

In the field of software engineering, the design phase occupies a pivotal position, serving as a critical juncture in ensuring the quality, maintainability, and efficiency of software systems. The creation of software typically begins with the design phase, which is then succeeded by the production phase. In this context, model-driven engineering (MDE) represents a robust methodology for enhancing the development of complex systems by situating models at the core of the process. This method is concerned with the creation and transformation of models, progressing from abstract to concrete representations. To illustrate, in the context of MDE, models can be transformed from the Unified Modelling Language (UML) to a graphical interface. In contrast, reverse engineering such as MDE-based reverse engineering is a process that aims to understand, analyse and reconstruct design artifacts from an existing system. This approach involves transforming concrete models into abstract models. This paper proposes an innovative approach to reverse engineering based on software design using the graphical user interface model. More specifically, this project involves the transformation of a WIMP (Window, Icon, Menu and Pointer) graphical user interface into a class diagram. To do this, we will use a syntactic analysis method of the source code based on the Java language and regular expressions, and the Atlas Transformation Language (ATL) will be used to transform the graphical interface into a class diagram.