Dear all:
I am considering to rename a few conceptual elements in the GoodRelations
ontology. However, they are already in use in data, queries, and applications.
Thus, I am thinking of the least intrusive way of implementing this. I think
this question is also relevant for many other OWL vocabularies on the Web.
Attached, please find my proposal. It critically depends on the ability of
typical triple-stores to compute basic(*) inferences for
- owl:equivalentProperty for owl:DatatypeProperty and owl:ObjectProperty
entities,
- owl:equivalentClass for pairs of owl:Class and
- owl:sameAs for pairs of "ontological" instances, e.g. value nodes defined in
the vocabulary.
With "basic", I mean that additional triples for the additional class
membership or property or instance must be materialized; this could be a subset
of the complete theoretical implications.
As far as I know, Virtuoso does support this to a sufficient degree, but I am
unsure about other parts of widely deployed infrastructure.
It would be no problem to express the necessary inferences by means of a SPARQL
CONSTRUCT rule or in SPIN.
Please share any suggestions and concerns with me.
Old, but in use:
---------------
foo:LongClassName a owl:Class ;
rdfs:label "LongClassName" .
foo:LongPropertyName1 a owl:DatatypeProperty ;
rdfs:domain foo:LongClassName ;
rdfs:label "LongPropertyName1" .
foo:LongPropertyName2 a owl:ObjectProperty ;
rdfs:domain foo:LongClassName ;
rdfs:range foo:SomeOtherClass1 ;
rdfs:label "LongPropertyName1" .
foo:LongNameIndividual a foo:SomeOtherClass2 ;
rdfs:label "LongNameIndividual" .
Now, we want to rename those elements as follows, without breaking old data nor
old queries / applications:
foo:LongClassName --> foo:NewClassName
foo:LongPropertyName1 --> foo:NewPropertyName1
foo:LongPropertyName2 --> foo:NewPropertyName2
foo:LongNameIndividual --> foo:NewNameIndividual
Proposal:
--------
a) Step 1: Define new classes, properties, individuals and link back to their
old variants
foo:NewClassName a owl:Class ;
owl:equivalentClass foo:LongClassName .
rdfs:label "NewClassName (Note: This was foo:LongClassName previously)"
.
foo:NewPropertyName1 a owl:DatatypeProperty ;
owl:equivalentProperty foo:LongPropertyName1 ;
rdfs:domain foo:NewClassName ;
rdfs:label "NewPropertyName1 (Note: This was foo:LongPropertyName1
previously)" .
foo:NewPropertyName2 a owl:ObjectProperty ;
owl:equivalentProperty foo:LongPropertyName2 ;
rdfs:domain foo:NewClassName ;
rdfs:range foo:SomeOtherClass1 ;
rdfs:label "NewPropertyName2 (Note: This was foo:LongPropertyName2
previously)" .
foo:NewNameIndividual a foo:SomeOtherClass2 ;
owl:sameAs foo:LongNameIndividual ;
rdfs:label "NewNameIndividual (Note: This was foo:LongNameIndividual
previously)" .
b) Step 2: Deprecate the old elements in OWL 2 style (using owl:deprecated)
foo:LongClassName a owl:Class;
owl:deprecated true;
rdfs:label "LongClassName - Deprecated, use foo:NewClassName instead" .
foo:LongPropertyName1 a owl:DatatypeProperty ;
owl:deprecated true;
rdfs:domain foo:LongClassName ;
rdfs:label "LongPropertyName1 - Deprecated, use foo:NewPropertyName1
instead" .
foo:LongPropertyName2 a owl:ObjectProperty ;
owl:deprecated true ;
rdfs:domain foo:LongClassName ;
rdfs:range foo:SomeOtherClass1 ;
rdfs:label "LongPropertyName1 - Deprecated, use foo:NewPropertyName2
instead" .
foo:LongNameIndividual a foo:SomeOtherClass2 ;
owl:deprecated true ;
rdfs:label "LongNameIndividual - Deprecated, use foo:NewNameIndividual
instead" .
c) Since the owl:deprecated property is not defined in OWL1, I would also add
the following axiom in order to remain within OWL 1 DL:
#OWL 1 DL compatibility of the OWL2 deprecated property
owl:deprecated a owl:AnnotationProperty.
Thanks in advance!
Best
Martin
--------------------------------------------------------
martin hepp
e-business & web science research group
universitaet der bundeswehr muenchen
e-mail: [email protected]
phone: +49-(0)89-6004-4217
fax: +49-(0)89-6004-4620
www: http://www.unibw.de/ebusiness/ (group)
http://www.heppnetz.de/ (personal)
skype: mfhepp
twitter: mfhepp
