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https://github.com/belgif/vocab-belgif

SKOS publication tool for Vocab.belgif.be
https://github.com/belgif/vocab-belgif

Last synced: about 21 hours ago
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SKOS publication tool for Vocab.belgif.be

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README 

        
# Requirements for RDFS / OWL ontologies



In order to be published on vocab.belgif.be, the following requirements must be met



## File

 * the file must be a valid [OWL2](https://www.w3.org/2009/08/skos-reference/skos.html) file

 * UTF-8 encoding must be used

 * RDF Turtle serialization is recommended but not required (NTriples and JSON-LD are acceptable as well)

 

## owl:Ontology

 * URI must adhere to the template: http://vocab.belgif.be/ns/[short-ontology-name]#

    * where short-ontology-name is all-lowercase, only alphanumeric characters and hyphens are permitted

    * short-ontology-name can be based on English words (e.g. abbreviation), but should be relatively short

    * "translating" short-ontology-name is not permitted (translation must be done at the label level)

 * owl:Ontology should have a owl:versionInfo description

 * owl:Ontology must have a rdfs:label in Dutch, French, English and German (will be used in the HTML overview as title)

 * owl:Ontology must have a rdfs:comment in Dutch, French, English and German (will be used in the HTML overview as description)



## Classes

 * URI must adhere to the template: http://vocab.belgif.be/ns/[short-ontology-name]#[ClassName]

   * where ClassName written in "camel case", only alphanumeric characters are permitted

   * the first character of ClassName is always an uppercase letter

   * ClassNames must be based on English words, but should be relatively short

   * "translating" ClassNames is not permitted (translation must be done at the label level)

 * classes must have a rdfs:isDefinedBy

 * classes must have a rdfs:label in Dutch, French, English and German (will be used in the HTML overview) 

 * classes may have a rdfs:comment in Dutch, French, English and German (will be used in the HTML overview)

 * classes may be a rdfs:subClassOf of another class

 * classes must be of rdf:type rdfs:Class and owl:Class

 

## Properties

 * URI must adhere to the template: http://vocab.belgif.be/ns/[short-ontology-name]#[propertyName]

   * where propertyName is "camel case" (except for the first word), only alphanumeric characters are permitted

   * the first character of propertyName is always a lowercase letter

   * propertyNames must be based on English words, but should be relatively short

   * "translating" propertyNames is not permitted (translation must be done at the label level)

   * propertyNames must not be based on classes mentioned in the rdfs:Range or rdfs:Domain properties

 * properties must have a rdfs:isDefinedBy

 * properties must have a rdfs:label in Dutch, French, English and German (will be used in the HTML overview)

 * properties may have a rdfs:comment in Dutch, French, English and German (will be used in the HTML overview)

 * properties must be of rdf:type rdf:Property and (owl:ObjectProperty or owl:DataProperty)

 * properties may be a rdfs:subPropertyOf of another property

 * properties may have one or more rdfs:Domain

 * properties may have one or more rdfs:Range



## Other OWL capabilities (cardinality etc)

 * Ontologies may include other constraints and definitions (e.g. owl:disjointWith)

 * properties may use cardinality constraints

   * these constraints must be application-independent (use constraints in SHACL instead)

   * note that cardinality is OWL may not work as expected: it is used in reasoning, not in enforcing (use cardinality in SHACL instead).



## Reuse of ontologies, classes and properties

 * Reusing existing ontologies instead of creating a new one is highly encouraged, a list of existing ontologies can be found on [LOV](https://lov.okfn.org)

 * Reusing properties in different classes is encouraged (properties are not tied to a specific class)

 * Existing ontologies may be reused in part (only some classes, properties) or as a whole

 * It is not permitted to change/redefine existing properties (e.g. change rdfs:Domain or rdfs:Range), create a rdfs:subPropertyOf instead

 * It is not permitted to change/redefine existing classes, create a rdfs:subClassOf instead

 * Reused properties and classes that are not subclasses/subproperties should not be defined in the new ontology (must be part of SHACL validation instead)



## Example of reasoning vs enforcing cardinality



Although cardinality is often used in OWL to document constraints, it may have unexpected side-effects.

OWL was designed for reasoning (making assumptions about things that are not explicitly mentioned in the data)



E.g. 

  * if there is a constraint that an instance of type "Phone" can only have one "owner" of type "Person"

  * and the data mentions that persons "Mike" and "Anna" are both the owner of a specific phone 

  * and there is no additional info about "Mike" and "Anna"

  * a reasoner can conclude that "Mike" is the same person as "Anna"



## Example of properties not belonging to classes



In a similar way, properties don't belong to specific classes (unlike most OO-programming languages),

but a reasoner can use domains and ranges to make assumptions about the classes.



E.g. 

  * if there is a property "hasAuthor" with domain "Book" and range "Person"

  * and there "Hamlet" "hasAuthor" "Shakespeare"

  * and there is not additional info

  * a reasoner can conclude that "Hamlet" is a book and "Shakespeare" a Person