Interface Ontology

Method Details

• getName

  String getName()

  Return the name of this ontology

  Returns:

  the name of the ontology

• setName

  void setName(String name)

  Set the name for this ontology

  Parameters:

  name - - the name

• getDescription

  String getDescription()

  Return a human-readable description of this ontology, or the empty string if none is available

  Returns:

  the description of the term

• setDescription

  void setDescription(String description)

  set the description of this ontology

  Parameters:

  description -

• getTerms

  Set<Term> getTerms()

  Return all the terms in this ontology

  Returns:

  a Set of all Terms of the ontology.

• getTerm

  Term getTerm(String name) throws NoSuchElementException

  Fetch the term with the specified name.

  Parameters:

  name - the name of the term

  Returns:

  The term named name

  Throws:

  NoSuchElementException - if no term exists with that name

• getTriples

  Set<Triple> getTriples(Term subject, Term object, Term predicate)

  Return all triples from this ontology which match the supplied pattern. If any of the parameters of this method are null, they are treated as wildcards.

  Parameters:

  subject - The subject to search for, or null

  object - The object to search for, or null

  predicate - The relationship to search for, or null.

  Returns:

  a Set of triples

• getOps

  OntologyOps getOps()

  Return the associated OntologyOps. This method should be implemented by ontology implementors to allow OntoTools to get optimized access to some usefull ontology operations. It is not intended that users will ever invoke this. A sensible dumb implementation of this would return a per-ontology instance of DefaultOps.

  Returns:

  the OntologyOps instance associated with this instance.

• createTerm

  Term createTerm(String name) throws AlreadyExistsException, IllegalArgumentException

  Create a new term in this ontology.

  Parameters:

  name - The name of the term (must be unique))

  Returns:

  The newly created term.

  Throws:

  IllegalArgumentException - if either name or description is null, or violates some other constraint of this implementation.

  AlreadyExistsException - if a term of this name already exists

  ChangeVetoException

• createTerm

  Term createTerm(String name, String description) throws AlreadyExistsException, IllegalArgumentException

  Create a new term in this ontology.

  Parameters:

  name - The name of the term (must be unique)

  description - A human-readable description (may be empty)

  Returns:

  The newly created term.

  Throws:

  IllegalArgumentException - if either name or description is null, or violates some other constraint of this implementation.

  AlreadyExistsException - if a term of this name already exists

  ChangeVetoException

• createTerm

  Term createTerm(String name, String description, Object[] synonyms) throws AlreadyExistsException, IllegalArgumentException

  Create a new term in this ontology.

  Parameters:

  name - The name of the term (must be unique)

  description - A human-readable description (may be empty)

  synonyms - Some synonyms for this term.

  Returns:

  The newly created term.

  Throws:

  IllegalArgumentException - if either name or description is null, or violates some other constraint of this implementation.

  AlreadyExistsException - if a term of this name already exists

  ChangeVetoException

• createVariable

  Variable createVariable(String name, String description) throws AlreadyExistsException, IllegalArgumentException

  Create a new term in this ontology that is used as a variable.

  Parameters:

  name - The name of the term (must be unique)

  description - A human-readable description (may be empty)

  Returns:

  The newly created term.

  Throws:

  IllegalArgumentException - if either name or description is null, or violates some other constraint of this implementation.

  AlreadyExistsException - if a term of this name already exists

  ChangeVetoException

• importTerm

  Term importTerm(Term t, String localName) throws IllegalArgumentException

  Create a view of a term from another ontology. If the requested term has already been imported under that name, this method returns the existing RemoteTerm object. If the term that is being imported is itself a RemoteTerm instance then first unwrap the term back to the orriginal term it represents and then produce a RemoteTerm from that. If the term being imported orriginated from this ontology, then return that term unaltered.

  Parameters:

  t - the Term to import

  localName - the local name to import it under, optionally null

  Returns:

  a Term

  Throws:

  ChangeVetoException

  IllegalArgumentException

• createTriple

  Triple createTriple(Term subject, Term object, Term predicate, String name, String description) throws AlreadyExistsException

  Creates a new Triple.

  Parameters:

  subject - the subject Term

  object - the object Term

  predicate - the predicate Term

  name - the name of the triple, or null

  description - the description of the triple, or null

  Returns:

  a new Triple over these three terms

  Throws:

  AlreadyExistsException - if a triple already exists with the same subject, object and predicate, regardless of the name and description

  ChangeVetoException

  NullPointerException - if subject, object or predicate are null

  IllegalArgumentException - if subject, object or predicate are not all from the same ontology

• containsTriple

  boolean containsTriple(Term subject, Term object, Term predicate)

  See if a triple exists in this ontology

  Parameters:

  subject -

  object -

  predicate -

  Returns:

  true if contained

• deleteTerm

  void deleteTerm(Term t)

  Remove a term from an ontology, together with all triples which refer to it.

  Parameters:

  t -

  Throws:

  ChangeVetoException

• containsTerm

  boolean containsTerm(String name)

  Determines if this ontology currently contains a term named name

  Parameters:

  name -

  Returns:

  true is contained