UML to RDF/OWL (based on OWS-8 encoding rule)

1. Overview

The basic schema conversion rules have been documented in the OGC Engineering Report "OWS-8 Cross Community Interoperability (CCI) Semantic Mediation", OGC document number 11-063r6. See sub-clause 8.1.

The conversion rules have been amended to support hierarchical code lists.

Ontologies are created as RDF/XML documents.

2. Target Configuration

The <Target> element definition for the Ontology target is a standard ShapeChange target. An example is given below:


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  <Target class="de.interactive_instruments.ShapeChange.Target.Ontology.RDF" mode="enabled">
  <targetParameter name="outputDirectory" value="./NAS_v1_3_MDB/rtf"/>
  <targetParameter name="language" value="en"/>
  <targetParameter name="taggedValueForTitle" value="name"/>
  <targetParameter name="taggedValueForCode" value="nsgAlphaCode"/>
</Target>

2.1. Dependencies

The Ontology target is standalone; it can be run independently of a <TargetXmlSchema> definition in the configuration file.

2.2. Class

The class for the Target implementation is de.interactive_instruments.ShapeChange.Target.Ontology.RDF.

2.3. Parameters

The <targetParameters> recognized for RDF/OWL include the following:

Parameter Name	Default Value	Explanation
outputDirectory	<the current run directory>	The path to which the RDF file will be written.
language	"en"	The language code to be used to populate the "xml:lang" attribute.
taggedValueForTitle	null	Name of the tagged value whose contents are to be used as the label. If null, then element name will be used.
taggedValueForCode	null	Name of the tagged value whose contents are to be used as an alternative label. If it is null, <altLabel> will not be used.
codeListOnly	false	If 'true' only convert code lists to SKOS concept schemes.
idReplacePattern	null	A regular pattern that can be used to remove certain characters from identifers. An example pattern might be '[\s/,_:\-]+' to remove whitespace and other separators from names.
idReplaceChar	"-"	The character to be used for all occurrences of idReplacePattern.

Parameter Name

Default Value

Explanation

outputDirectory

The path to which the RDF file will be written.

language

"en"

The language code to be used to populate the "xml:lang" attribute.

taggedValueForTitle

null

Name of the tagged value whose contents are to be used as the label. If null, then element name will be used.

taggedValueForCode

null

Name of the tagged value whose contents are to be used as an alternative label. If it is null, <altLabel> will not be used.

codeListOnly

false

If 'true' only convert code lists to SKOS concept schemes.

idReplacePattern

null

A regular pattern that can be used to remove certain characters from identifers. An example pattern might be '[\s/,_:\-]+' to remove whitespace and other separators from names.

idReplaceChar

"-"

The character to be used for all occurrences of idReplacePattern.

2.4. Additional conversion rules

Hierarchical code lists as specified in the IMGeo specification in the Netherlands are supported by adding the conversion rule "rule-rdf-prop-parent" to the encoding rule. For example:


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  <EncodingRulename="imgeo"extends="*">
   <rule name="rule-rdf-prop-parent"/>
</EncodingRule>

3. Sample Output

The output of the RDF/OWL target is an ontology in XML. The filename will follow that of the application schema name, with ".rdf" appended.

The following is sample output from the RDF/OWL target:


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  <Class
  rdf:about="http://metadata.dod.mil/mdr/ns/GSIP/2.0/nas#VehicleBarrierTransportationSystemCodeMeta"
  xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#">
  <subClassOf rdf:resource="http://metadata.dod.mil/mdr/ns/GSIP/2.0/nas#DatatypeMeta"
    xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"/>
  <label xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#">Vehicle Barrier Transportation
    System Code(s) or Reason; with Metadata</label>
  <description rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string"
    xmlns="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Vehicle Barrier Transportation System Code(s) or
    Reason; with Metadata: A sequence of coded domain values denoting the transportation system
    type(s) of a vehicle barrier, accompanied by the reason that the value may be absent and
    associated metadata.</description>
</Class>


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  <DatatypeProperty
  rdf:about="http://metadata.dod.mil/mdr/ns/GSIP/2.0/nas#VehicleBarrierTransportationSystemCodeMeta.valuesOrReason"
  xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#">
  <description rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string"
    xmlns="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Enumerant Values or Reason: Either a sequence of coded
    domain values denoting the transportation system type(s) of a vehicle barrier or the reason that
    the sequence is absent.</description>
  <label xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#">Enumerant Values or
    Reason</label>
  <domain
    rdf:resource="http://metadata.dod.mil/mdr/ns/GSIP/2.0/nas#VehicleBarrierTransportationSystemCodeMeta"
    xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"/>
  <range
    rdf:resource="http://metadata.dod.mil/mdr/ns/GSIP/2.0/nas#SequenceVehicleBarrierTransportationSystemCodeReason"
    xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"/>
</DatatypeProperty>