Bidirectionalization For The Common People

TL;DR

This paper introduces Bifrons, a C# library that makes bidirectional transformations more accessible for practitioners by simplifying implementation and ensuring correctness, demonstrated through a practical database synchronization case study.

Contribution

It presents a practical library for bidirectional transformations in C#, replacing complex DSLs and providing a testing framework for correctness.

Findings

Successful synchronization of heterogeneous databases using Bifrons

Simplified implementation of bidirectional transformations in C#

Validated correctness with a lens-testing framework

Abstract

This paper presents an innovative approach to applying bidirectional transformations (BX) in practice. To introduce BX to a wider audience of technologists, engineers, and researchers, we have chosen to use C# to develop Bifrons - a library of BX lenses that replaces domain-specific programming languages (DSL) in practical use. The proposed approach simplifies the implementation effort for two-way transformations by using simple symmetric lenses as the initial design pattern. It ensures correctness within reason by providing a simple lens-testing framework. We demonstrate the usability of BX lenses in a realistic scenario by using Bifrons to perform a case study experiment synchronizing data from two structurally and technologically heterogeneous databases.