Category Archives: semantic-web

Owl2Java Status Update

Yes, Owl2Java, my java-based code generator for the comfortable access to OWL ontologies from java is no longer maintained by me. As I am now working in a totally different field of application and due to some very limited spare time, I am just and simply not able to do any maintenance.

Nevertheless, from time to time it is quite interesting to see, what other are doing wiht this public piece of code, see e.g. my previous post.

And today?

Well, things are calming down which is not surprising for a software that is unmaintained for so long. Yet, there are some activities up to 2012 in the repositories here and there and I even got some references in the odd paper like e.g.

And yes, my work even got referenced in a book, namely the proceddings from Semantic Web Rules.

But I guess thats about it. Dead is dead. Farewell.

Owl2Java is alive and kicking. But not here :-)

Owl2Java, a code generator which produces Java code for the programmatic and transparent access to OWL ontologies, has been dormant for quite a while.

Dormant? How come?

Having handed in my PhD thesis my foray into the world of semantic web and programming per se has ended. Since autumn last year I am back in the field of real i.e. applied naval architecture and working in the industry time for further software development has been more than scarce.

So???

Well, over the last two or three years since the initial publication of Owl2Java and with no active development recently a sparse yet steady stream of mails regarding implementation details or limitations of the generator could be found in my inbox. Taking a request by some bloke named birchsport as incentive I started some quick research into the use this generator has seen. Well, I was surprised if not to say nonplussed 🙂

Owl2java has been mentioned in a bunch of papers as one possible means to interface to OWL ontologies from java code. ALso, it has been used

Forks? Forks? Forks Anyone?

More surprisingly there are two maintained forks of my Owl2Java project where

1) the owl2java project on gitorious adds support for reification

2) while the other fork on github adds some tools to enrich an ontology’s structure by examining individuals

So check them out. Personally I doubt that my version will be see any further development in the near future.

XsdImport and Owl2Java Plugins for Topbraid Composer

Topbraid Composer is a versatile, eclipse based tool to develop OWL ontologies. With the initial public relase of XsdImport and Owl2Java two additional plugins for Topbraid Composer are available for download.

From XSD to OWL…

XsdImport is a plugin for TopbraidComposer to convert XSD Schemas to OWL. Classes and Properties are created based on the XSD construct found in an XSD schema. Support for Semantic XML, custom namespaces and namespace prefix mapping as well as a flexible system for handling imports are implemented.

… and on to java or db4o

Owl2Java is a code generator to work with OWL ontologies from java. Ontologies are accessed natively via java classes, methods and attributes. A native interface for the object orierented database db4o with support for transparent persistence can be generated from the internal meta model. Where possible, the implementation adheres to the OWL DL standard and also offers some support for constructs that normally require a reasoner. F

Announcing Owl2Java – A Java Code Generator for OWL ontologies

The elevator speech: Owl2Java is a code generator to work with OWL ontologies from java. Ontologies are accessed natively via java classes, methods and attributes. A native interface for the object orierented database db4o with support for transparent persistence can be generated from the internal meta model.

With version 0.5, I am happy to announce the first public release. This release contains

  • a fully working generator for the generation of a java API and hence allows transparent access to the data model stored in an OWL ontology
  • a working prototype to generate db4o compliant java classes with support for transparent persistence. A mapping script to copy OWL instances to the object database from db4o is generated automatically.

For more information see the project site.