There's no specific API for testing hypothetical assertions against an
ontology.
So you would need to create a model which includes (possibly by import
rather than copying)
- the definitions of B (and anything those depend on)
- the definition of a123 and all that depends on
(which includes the definition of A)
- the statement that a123 rdf:type B
then you would use validate() to test if that model is consistent.
Reasoners like Pellet may have native APIs which streamline this sort of
checking.
Dave
On 22/02/13 17:11, David Jordan wrote:
My original question WAS about an individual a of class A, let me call it a123, so not to
confuse it with the word "a". I may have taken things to the class level in my
discussion, but the question is about an individual. So my original question was to see
whether you could take individual a123 and declare that it is a B, taking into account
any restrictions that may be defined for B. You say that a reasoner can determine that.
So my question was how, with using the Jena API, that I can determine whether a123 can be
made into a B (via :a123 a :B). What is the approach using Jena to check this?
-----Original Message-----
From: Joshua TAYLOR [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2013 11:41 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: testing whether an instance could be associated with a class
-----Original Message-----
From: Joshua TAYLOR [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2013 10:26 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: testing whether an instance could be associated with a
class
On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 9:38 AM, David Jordan <[email protected]> wrote:
I have a question about how to express something in Jena. Assume we have an
individual a that is of type A, where A would actually be a collection of
classes and subclasses. Also assume we have a class B that has been defined. B
may include some class restrictions that place constraints on which resources
can be instances of that class. As a simple case, B may be defined as disjoint
with A. What would be the means of asking whether individual a can be of class
B based on currently defined constraints?
Individual.addOntClass returns void and throws no exception, so that would not
seem to work.
Would another approach be to get the OntClasses associated with individual a
and then calling OntClass.isDisjointWith?
Even using OntClass#isDisjointWith is unlikely to work except in the case of
explicit disjointness declarations, unless you have a reasoner running. With a
reasoner running, you could ask whether B is disjoint from A. Even so, it
might not be consistent for *some particular* instance of B to be an instance
of A, even if A and B aren't, in general disjoint.
Once you've got a reasoner running:
* You could check whether A and B are disjoint.
* You could check whether a *some particular instance* of B is an instance of
*the complement of A* (i.e., not A). If the reasoner can guarantee that it is,
then (since it can't be an instance of A and of not A), then that instance
can't be an instance of A.
I know the Jena rule-based reasoners aren't complete for OWL, so I
don't know whether they'll cover these cases or not. Others (e.g.,
Pellet) are available that should cover these cases.
On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 11:04 AM, David Jordan <[email protected]> wrote:
Suppose class B includes a restriction that states that a property cannot
include a particular value x. An individual a may have that property with the
value x. I don't understand how your suggestions would cover that case. And
assume there is a reasoned involved.
Forgive me, but I don't understand how that case relates to the original
question, which I think had two possible interpretations:
* check whether "Some B's could be A's"
* check whether "some particular B, say, b34, could be an A"
Suppose "B includes a restriction that states that a property cannot include a
particular value x".
If some individual a23 has x as a value for that property, then a23 cannot be a
B. A reasoner could confirm that.
That doesn't say anything about whether "some B's could be A's".
It doesn't say anything about whether "some particular B, say, b34, could be an
A"
Do you have a particular example at hand that you can share?
//JT
--
Joshua Taylor, http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~tayloj/
