Overview
The IRI structure of the IOF references the OWL documents providing a versioned and not-versioned form. The latter form will always refer to the latest released version of the documents. For the IRI syntax, please refer to RFC 3987 from The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
This document provides the normative requirements for all IRIs created in the IOF for consistency and usability. An English language class and property naming scheme was selected after considering a numerical identity scheme to facilitate the use of the ontologies. The following sections define the rules for constructing the IRI and version IRI per OWL 2 specifications (reference below).
Protocol and Authority
All IOF IRIs must be resolvable and refer to a resource that can be retrieved from the internet. The form of the IRI must specify the protocol as HTTPS and the authority must be a domain administered and owned by the IOF or its parent organization. The IOF must choose a single authority for all ontologies released by the IOF. The authority must be www.industrialontologies.org
unless it is not possible due to technical reasons. Otherwise, the authority may begin with an alternative such as www.industrialontologies.org
or onto.industrialontologies.org
.
Path Root
The root of the path must be /ontology
. This provides the ability to have documentation and other supporting resources referenced in alternate root directories, such as /documentation
or /references
. The IOF must designate each root resource name for a specified use.
Topic Area
The topic areas form the second portion of the IRI. The topic areas are all lower case with no separation or punctuation between words. All acronyms must be spelled out, except for words defined in the dictionary like radar (RADAR) always given in lowercase. The following are examples of topic areas:
http://www.industrialontologies.org/ontology/supplychain
http://www.industrialontologies.org/ontology/foundation
http://www.industrialontologies.org/ontology/productionprocess
IRI and Version IRI
IOF ontologies must provide an IRI version and version IRI. The version IRI must use the release date of the version in YYYYMMDD
form, such as 20210601
for June 1, 2021. When a versioned IRI is formed, the date must appear after the topic. In the following examples, the sub-topic area is given to illustrate the placement of the version (see next fort sub-topic).
Versioned IRI:
http://www.industrialontologies.org/ontology/supplychain/20210621/meta
Non-Versioned IRI:
http://www.industrialontologies.org/ontology/supplychain/meta
The IRI specification is given in OWL 2 Web Ontology Language, Section 3.1 standard as follows:
Each ontology may have an ontology IRI, which is used to identify an ontology. If an ontology has an ontology IRI, the ontology may additionally have a version IRI, which is used to identify the version of the ontology. The version IRI may be, but need not be, equal to the ontology IRI. An ontology without an ontology IRI must not contain a version IRI.
Sub-Topic
When specified, a sub-topic must appear after the version date in a versioned IRI or after the topic in a non-versioned IRI. In this case, metadata associated with the supplychain
model is placed in the meta
location. The sub-topic must be lowercase with no separation or punctuation between words.
The meta
sub-topic area must be used for annotations. For example:
http://www.industrialontologies.org/ontology/foundation/meta/AnnotationVocabulary
Ontology File Name
Following the topic and sub-topic resource locations, the ontology file name is given without extension as follows:
http://www.industrialontologies.org/ontology/foundation/meta/AnnotationVocabulary
The name must be in Upper Camel Case, each word capitalized with no separation between words. All acronyms must be spelled out except when in the dictionary, like RADAR.
The following parts of the IRI, class and property names, are separated from the file name by a forward slash /
.
Class Names
Class names must be given in Upper Camel Case, each word capitalized, and no separation or punctuation between words. As with the file names, no acronyms are permitted except those in the dictionary, such as RADAR.
/ontology/supplychain/SupplyChainReferenceOntology/SupplyChainShippingProcess
The versioned forms are as follows:
/ontology/supplychain/20210621/SupplyChainReferenceOntology/SupplyChainShippingProcess
Property Names
All property names must be in lower Camel Case, the first word lower case and each subsequent word capitalized with no separation or punctuation between words.
/ontology/foundation/meta/AnnotationVocabulary/usageNote
The versioned forms are as follows:
/ontology/foundation/20210611/meta/AnnotationVocabulary/usageNote
Object Properties
All object property names must be verbs or a verb phrase. For example:
hasParticipant
participatesIn
Data Properties
A data property must be a verb phrase starting with has
. Examples:
hasTag
hasDateValue
Annotation properties
Must follow property capitalization rules and must be placed in the meta
sub-topic area, as follows.
.../ontology/foundation/20210611/meta/AnnotationVocabulary/usageNote
.../ontology/foundation/20210611/meta/AnnotationVocabulary/adaptedFrom
Old notes for reference…
IRI Structural Rules in the following order
Authority:
www.industrialontologies.org
Top:
/ontology
Topic areas are lowercase with no punctuation or separation:
/supplychain
/foundation
Versioned IRI:
Release date after highest level topic area
Date format:
YYYYMMDD
/supplychain/20210601
/foundation/20210601/meta
File-name Upper Camel Case with no punctuation:
AnnotationVocabulary
Uppercase first letter of each word, no separation
All acronyms are spelled out
Exceptions like
RADAR
, words appearing in the dictionary
Class and properties separated from path with a
/
/ontology/foundation/meta/AnnotationVocabulary/usageNote
Class name Upper Camel Case:
Uppercase first letter of each word, no separation
All acronyms are spelled out
Exceptions like
RADAR
, words appearing in the dictionary
Object property Lower Camel Case:
Lowercase first letter, uppercase each following word
All property names must be verb or verb phrase
hasParticipant
Data properties and annotation names Lower Camel Case
Lowercase first letter, uppercase each following word
Verb phrase starting with
has
hasTag
hasDateValue
Annotation properties
Lowercase first letter, uppercase each following word
usageNote
adaptedFrom
Versioned and unversioned forms must be provided.
Examples
Unversioned:
/ontology/foundation/meta/AnnotationVocabulary/usageNote
Versioned:
/ontology/foundation/20210601/meta/AnnotationVocabulary/usageNote
/ontology/supplychain/