Archive 1.x:StructOntology: Overview

structOntology is the OSF-Drupal tool for editing and managing ontologies. It has the advantages of being available close at hand to the applications that are based on these ontologies and of having superior search and other functionality. See also the document structOntology v Protégé?

Overview
Ontologies are the central governing structure or "brains" of a semantic installation. As provided by the OSF framework, ontologies are also the basis for instructing user interface labels and how the interface behaves.

structOntology is a backoffice ontology editing and management tool. Unlike similar tools of the past, structOntology exists on the same installation as the ontology that drives it. There is no need to go off to a separate application, make changes, re-import, and then test. structOntology allows all of that to occur locally with the instance in which it resides.

Also, there is some important functionality differences -- especially finding and selecting stuff and search -- that sets structOntology apart from existing, conventional tools.

Yet, that being said, structOntology is also not the complete Swiss Army knife for ontology management. It is designed for local and immediate use. Its spectrum of functionality is not as complete as other ontology frameworks (for example, supporting reasoners, consistency testers or plug-ins). So, for immmediate and locally relevant use, structOntology appears to be the appropriate tool. For more detailed ontology work or testing, other frameworks are perhaps more useful. And, in recognition of these roles, structOntology also has robust import and export capabilities that enable this dual local-detailed use scenarios.

Using structOntology
Screen-by-screen instructions on how to use structOntology are provided in the individual structOntology tool instructions.

Relation to Protégé
structOntology offers most of the real actions necessary for ontology management, and in a straightforward interface with much functionality. However, should you need to go beyond these basic features, you can of course always use a tool such as the open source Protégé or a commercial product like TopBraid Composer.

Protégé 4, in particular, is also based on the OWLAPI and is therefore completely compatible with structOntology.

Possible Future Enhancements

 * For the Generate All option, it would be desirable to have:
 * 1) A popup with a message that the option may take considerable time to complete, as well as Continue or Exit buttons
 * 2) The browser refresh automatically, and with an indication of the status of the process and what it is processing (instead of having a browser waiting
 * 3) An icon or flag of some sort on the main entry screen indicating whether it is warranted to Generate All or not; when it is off, we know it has completed successfully.


 * For the Reload All option, it would be desirable to have:
 * 1) A popup with a message that the option may take considerable time to complete, as well as Continue or Exit buttons.


 * The default behavior of using the fragment for prefLabel when one is not specified should be changed. Only explicitly defined prefLabels should be shown in structOntology.


 * A Local Ontology should be the default selection on main screen
 * A visual cue (spinning icon?) should be assigned to structOntology fields that require a URI entry and are aided by auto-completion

Additional Information
Additional information on structOntology may be found in an online video:


 * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuM9wIO4Qpc.