Annotation refactoring: inferring upgrade transformations for legacy applications

Abstract

Since annotations were added to the Java language, many frameworks have moved to using annotated Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs) in their newest releases. Legacy applications are thus forced to undergo extensive restructuring in order to migrate from old framework versions to new versions based on annotations (Version Lock-in). Additionally, because annotations are embedded in the application code, changing between framework vendors may also entail largescale manual changes (Vendor Lock-in).