OWLmt Architecture

OWLmt is an OWL based ontology mapping tool in order to handle ontology mediation by mapping the OWL ontologies in different structure and with an overlapping content one to another. It aims to define a document called mapping definition based on the source ontology and the target ontology. This document includes the units of the information called mapping patterns, which are the matchings between the source ontology entities and the target ontology entities. These entities are the classes and the properties in the ontology. The mapping definition is, then, used to transform the source ontology instances to the target ontology instances automatically.

OWLmt provides two key components which are the mapping GUI and the mapping engine. These components with their subcomponents are depicted in Figure 1. The figure also shows other components such as the ontology definitions and the mapping documents in order to represent the information flow in the mapping process.

The mapping GUI lets the user to define the mapping patterns. It consists of five subcomponents: Ontology Handler, Main Panel, Property Transformations Panel, Value Transformation Wizard and Object Property Definition Panel. The Ontology Handler component of the mapping GUI handles the parsing and serialization of the ontology documents such as the source ontology and target ontology. In the initialization step of the mapping GUI, it obtains the required information about the mapping patterns from the OWLmt mapping schema, which includes the definitions of the patterns as classes and properties in OWL in order to be used in the ontology mapping process. Ontology handler holds the OWLmt mapping schema, source ontology and target ontology as models in the memory in order to be used by the other subcomponents of the mapping GUI. The other components such as the main panel, property transformations panel, value transformation wizard and object property definition panel are used to create the mapping patterns based on the source and target ontology. The mapping patterns defined can also be configured to include additional information for the mapping process. The details of the mapping patterns are given in the next section. The mapping patterns defined by the mapping GUI is stored in the mapping definition document by the ontology handler.

The mapping engine component is responsible for the execution of the mapping definition on a source ontology instance to create the target ontology instance. It consists of four subcomponents: ontology handler, mapping engine, JavaScript engine, and query engine. Ontology handler subcomponent parses the inputs of the mapping engine which are the mapping schema and the source ontology instance and keeps them as a model in the memory. It is also responsible to serialize the target ontology instance after the execution of the mapping engine. The main subcomponent of the mapping engine –execution engine- coordinates the execution process according to the mapping patterns defined in the mapping process. During the execution phase, it simultaneously uses the JavaScript engine for value transformations and the query engine to obtain the required information from the source ontology instance by using the reasoning capabilities. Note that the JavaScript engine and the query engine are dependent on external Interpreter and the OWL-QL

The OWLmt system is depicted in the following figure. This figure shows the two main components of the OWLmt which are the mapping GUI and the mapping engine. The figure also shows the documents used by the mapping tool.



		OWLmt Architecture OWLmt is an OWL based ontology mapping tool in order to handle ontology mediation by mapping the OWL ontologies in different structure and with an overlapping content one to another. It aims to define a document called mapping definition based on the source ontology and the target ontology. This document includes the units of the information called mapping patterns, which are the matchings between the source ontology entities and the target ontology entities. These entities are the classes and the properties in the ontology. The mapping definition is, then, used to transform the source ontology instances to the target ontology instances automatically. OWLmt provides two key components which are the mapping GUI and the mapping engine. These components with their subcomponents are depicted in Figure 1. The figure also shows other components such as the ontology definitions and the mapping documents in order to represent the information flow in the mapping process. The mapping GUI lets the user to define the mapping patterns. It consists of five subcomponents: Ontology Handler, Main Panel, Property Transformations Panel, Value Transformation Wizard and Object Property Definition Panel. The Ontology Handler component of the mapping GUI handles the parsing and serialization of the ontology documents such as the source ontology and target ontology. In the initialization step of the mapping GUI, it obtains the required information about the mapping patterns from the OWLmt mapping schema, which includes the definitions of the patterns as classes and properties in OWL in order to be used in the ontology mapping process. Ontology handler holds the OWLmt mapping schema, source ontology and target ontology as models in the memory in order to be used by the other subcomponents of the mapping GUI. The other components such as the main panel, property transformations panel, value transformation wizard and object property definition panel are used to create the mapping patterns based on the source and target ontology. The mapping patterns defined can also be configured to include additional information for the mapping process. The details of the mapping patterns are given in the next section. The mapping patterns defined by the mapping GUI is stored in the mapping definition document by the ontology handler. The mapping engine component is responsible for the execution of the mapping definition on a source ontology instance to create the target ontology instance. It consists of four subcomponents: ontology handler, mapping engine, JavaScript engine, and query engine. Ontology handler subcomponent parses the inputs of the mapping engine which are the mapping schema and the source ontology instance and keeps them as a model in the memory. It is also responsible to serialize the target ontology instance after the execution of the mapping engine. The main subcomponent of the mapping engine –execution engine- coordinates the execution process according to the mapping patterns defined in the mapping process. During the execution phase, it simultaneously uses the JavaScript engine for value transformations and the query engine to obtain the required information from the source ontology instance by using the reasoning capabilities. Note that the JavaScript engine and the query engine are dependent on external Interpreter and the OWL-QL The OWLmt system is depicted in the following figure. This figure shows the two main components of the OWLmt which are the mapping GUI and the mapping engine. The figure also shows the documents used by the mapping tool.