Ontoprise: Ontoprise: BB3 3 - - Semantic B2B BrokerSemantic B2B Broker

whitepaper review

Bernhard Schueler

CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

2Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

OverviewOverview

• Aim of OntopriseAim of Ontoprise• Problem: interoperabilityProblem: interoperability• Previous approachesPrevious approaches• Using ontologiesUsing ontologies• Using RDFUsing RDF• RemarksRemarks

3Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Aim of OntopriseAim of Ontoprise

The aim of Ontoprise is to provide ontology-based B2B-applications.

Those applications should make the semantics of business information machine-processable.

4Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Example: Product CataloguesExample: Product Catalogues

The seller’s product catalogue is transformed into an electronic data format.

Programmers write transformation programs to generate different formats and views required by buyers.

This process requires human resources and time.

5Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Example computer dealerExample computer dealer

Seller and buyer have catalogues, which are structured differently.

Seller’s catalogue: a printer has an attribute type with values laser, ink or matrix.

Buyer’s catalogue:there is a subclass laser printer.

6Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Problem: MappingProblem: Mapping

How can the data formats automatically be mapped between the catalogues?

Mapping is necessary to create and update the buyer’s catalogue.

It is expensive to program those mappings.

Solution:automate the creation of mappings, which can automate creation and update of the catalogue.

7Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Previous approaches - EDIFACTPrevious approaches - EDIFACT

EDIFACT• provides a standardized electronic format to

exchange data between sellers and buyers,• allows the specification of standards for application

areas.

The standards cover the semantics of different application areas.

8Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Previous approaches – XMLPrevious approaches – XML

XML-specifications provide a semi-structured description of products, orders, … .

DTDs or XML-schema specifications define the structure of the data.

9Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Advantages of XML over EDIFACTAdvantages of XML over EDIFACT

• Readable for non-experts,• Integrated with other document/data exchange

standards,• DTDs, XML-schema enable generation of tools like

form editors,• Designed for the web.

10Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

XML Description, Example:XML Description, Example:

<article><articleid>a_5634</articleid><category>printer</category><type>laser</type>

</article>

<article><articleid>a_5634</articleid><category>laserprinter</category>

</article>

11Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Deficiencies of XML – 1Deficiencies of XML – 1

Implicit agreement on meaning of tags is necessary.

Validation of XML using DTDs is only syntactic. The labeled tree structure is checked.

There can’t be semantic constraints, e.g. The price of a mouse may only be 1/100 of the price of a computer system.

There is no inheritance.

12Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Deficiencies of XML – 2Deficiencies of XML – 2

Transformations:They are purely syntactical, using XSLT and DTDs.Therefore they would have to bee hand-coded.

Queries:XQL and XML-QL allow to query the document structure.Give me all printers for which cartridges are available that last for more than 5000 pages.Can be done. But it’s very cumbersome and overloaded with syntactic aspects.

13Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

OntologiesOntologies

Ontologies define a domain and provide a shared vocabulary.

“leight-weight” ontologies model concepts with properties and relationships, which are embedded in an is-a-hierarchy.They are comparable to database schemata.

“heavy-weight ontologies also contain rules and constraints.

14Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Ontologies in BOntologies in B33

Ontology Ontology

OntoLift

DTD

XML documents

DTD

XML documents

OntoMap

DTD

DTD Maker

DTD Custom

15Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

Ontologies in BOntologies in B33 - with RDF - with RDF

Ontology Ontology

RDF documents

OntoMap

RDF documents

16Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

The BThe B33 B2B Broker – Basic tools B2B Broker – Basic tools

• OntoEdit,• OntoFact,

generates forms for attributes and relations of instances (of concepts of an ontology),

• OntoAnnotate,allows the user to add meta information to HTML, Word, PDF.

17Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

The BThe B33 B2B Broker – Advanced tools B2B Broker – Advanced tools

• OntoLift, provides means to identify concepts and relationships from an XML-DTD or XML-schema,

• DTDMaker,• OntoMap,

semi-automated creation of mapping rules,• OntoCompile,

creates a set of XSLT transformations.

18Bernhard Schueler - Ontoprise: B3 CSCI 8350, Spring 2002,UGA

RemarksRemarks

By the time the paper was published not all of the tools had been implemented.

By now, data would rather be stored using RDF than pure XML.

A means to create forms, views and web content form RDF might be more interesting.