Order Matters: A UVL Extension for Configuration Sequences

Feature models are widely used for representing the variability of (software) systems. Existing feature model configuration tools typically display all selectable features at once. This limits their suitability for use cases that require capturing the order of selected features, or for cases where configuration benefits from gradually revealing the selectable features. Examples include guided product configuration, production process configuration, or DNA sequence synthesis. In this tool paper, we implement visibility constraints for feature models to explicitly specify conditions for when features become visible during configuration. We integrate these visibility constraints into the Universal Variability Language and offer an extension to FeatureIDE to allow modeling configuration flows while executing them within a single variability model. We demonstrate the tool’s feasibility by applying visibility constraints in two use cases. This illustrates how visibility constraints can support ordered configuration without relying on auxiliary feature hierarchies or tool-specific workarounds.