Textual, Graphical, and Form-Based Data Modeling with Eclipse Theia (AI)

We’re excited to share another highlight from TheiaCon 2025: a talk on CrossModel, an innovative data modeling tool that showcases the power of Eclipse Theia’s extensibility and the seamless integration of complementary technologies like Langium and GLSP.

In the talk “Shifting Perspectives: Unified Textual, Graphical, and Form-Based Data Modeling with CrossModel,” Harmen Wessels and Martin Fleck from CrossBreeze and EclipseSource present their journey of building a unified data modeling environment on top of Theia.

The Vision: Everything is a Perspective

CrossModel addresses a common challenge in data modeling: different users and tasks benefit from different views of the same model. Rather than forcing users into a single editing paradigm, CrossModel embraces the concept that textual, graphical, and form-based views are all valid perspectives on a single source of truth—the underlying data model.

This approach provides:

• Form-based editing for structured data entry
• Graphical diagrams for visual modeling and understanding relationships
• Textual editing for bulk operations, search-and-replace, and direct code manipulation
• Programmatic access for code generation and automation

All perspectives remain perfectly synchronized, allowing users to seamlessly switch between views and use the most appropriate tool for each task.

The Architecture: Language Server as Single Source of Truth

The technical implementation builds on a clever architectural choice: using a language server (built with Eclipse Langium) as the central source of truth. This allows all perspectives—textual (Monaco editor), graphical (GLSP), and form-based (React components)—to stay synchronized through a well-defined protocol.

The presentation also demonstrates how this foundation made it straightforward to integrate AI features, leveraging Theia’s AI integration to enable capabilities like generating data models from meeting notes and automatically fixing validation errors.

Key Takeaways

The talk offers valuable insights for anyone building custom tools with Theia:

• How to integrate multiple UI technologies (Monaco, GLSP, React) in a single Theia application
• The benefits of using a language server as a synchronization hub
• Practical lessons learned from adopting Theia, Langium, and GLSP
• How Theia’s AI integration can quickly add intelligent features to domain-specific tools

CrossModel is a great example of how Theia’s modular architecture enables innovative tool builders to combine best-of-breed technologies to create unique, purpose-built development environments. You can learn more about similar Theia adopters in our recent article on The Active Ecosystem of Eclipse Theia Adopters.

Build Your Custom Tool with Theia

If you’re inspired to create your own custom tool or IDE using Eclipse Theia or Theia AI, EclipseSource can help. We provide expertise in:

👉 Theia consulting and implementation services

👉 AI-powered tools and IDEs

👉 Cloud hosting solutions with Theia Cloud

Get in contact with us to discuss your custom tool requirements.

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