Re: AW: Thoughts on validation requirements

* Peter F. Patel-Schneider <pfpschneider@gmail.com> [2014-07-29 08:01-0700]
> On 07/29/2014 03:43 AM, Eric Prud'hommeaux wrote:
> >* Peter F. Patel-Schneider <pfpschneider@gmail.com> [2014-07-28 07:54-0700]
> >>On 07/28/2014 02:20 AM, Eric Prud'hommeaux wrote:
> >>>On Jul 28, 2014 12:08 AM, "Peter F. Patel-Schneider" <pfpschneider@gmail.com>
> >>>wrote:
> 
> [...]
> 
> >>An RDF document, on the other hand, almost invariably contains
> >>multiple somethings, very often not arranged in a tree, and
> >>sometimes even without any connection between them.  In RDF it is
> >>generally permissable to have any sort of information, whereas XML
> >>information is generally required to fit into what is expected.
> >
> >I agree, but fear this is a sort of selection bias.
> 
> Well obviously there is a bias towards using RDF for multiple
> somethings, because RDF is good at that and other formats are not.
> Because of this virtuous bias, there is the concomitant bias that
> there is relatively less RDF that is used for single somethings.
> There is, of course, nothing wrong with this so far.
> 
> It may be that because RDF is good for multiple somethings, some
> people think that it is not good for single somethings.  If so, this
> would be somewhat unfortunate.

Agreed, and that's probably a point that will require constant
reminders, though the cases I'm referring to use multiple somethings,
see "Linked Data Basic Profile 1.0 - Use Cases and Requirements".
<http://www.w3.org/Submission/2012/SUBM-ldbpucr-20120326/#usecases>
Below, Consider a HospitalTransferRecord from Clinic A to Clinic B.
This would incorporate a bunch of somethings like a target problem,
vitals, prescriptions, and a patient (well, more rigorously just a
person temporarily acting in the role of patient).


> However, this certainly doesn't mean that RDF validation should
> ignore the common situation of multiple somethings, most or all with
> explicit types.  Nor does it mean that RDF validation should be
> targeted towards single untyped somethings.  To do either of these
> is to ignore RDF's strengths.

I see the multiple somethings as a strong case for detaching the shape
(the way that a particular app is using these types) from the types
themselves. Even if Clinic A and Clinic B are in the same clincal
network, they'll capture different information about e.g. the
admitting physician's credentials. In OWL, one would probably capture
these as anonymous restrictions, e.g. ClinicB:AdminissionRecord:

  Class: ClinicB:AdmissionRecord
    SubClassOf: 
      clin:AdmissionRecord,
      clin:admitter only 
        ((clin:credential some (clin:authority only ({"AMA" , "GMC"})))
         and (clin:credential min 1 owl:Thing))


> So I remain very skeptical that ShEx is a viable start towards RDF
> validation, as it appears to me to be targeted towards an uncommon
> use of RDF and not easily extended to nicely cover the bulk of
> extant and proposed RDF.
> 
> >Perhaps the
> >majority of LDP uses include a backend which is not a triple store
> >(possibly SQL, possibly state stored in the position of a lightswitch
> >on a wall). In these cases, the data one posts must be limited to the
> >exact arrangement of somethings that the server expects or data will
> >be (silently) dropped. I suspect that the majority of the business use
> >cases on the horizon for RDF involve services that are not willing to
> >store arbitrary triples.
> 
> Even if true this is at best an argument for validation that covers
> all (local) triples.  It still doesn't get one from multiple
> somethings to single somethings.  I'm also still skeptical that
> covering all (local) triples is a good idea even here, as it would
> prohibit, for example, extra information coming from a node
> belonging to an unexpected (or maybe even expected) subtype.
> 
> >>Validation then should work differently in RDF than in XML.  My view
> >>of RDF validation is determining whether the instances of a type
> >>(not necessarily explicitly signalled by an rdf:type link) meet some
> >>constraint, and that RDF validation generally involves multiple
> >>types, often unrelated types.  I don't see how ShEx can do this, and
> >>thus my questions as to how ShEx can do RDF validation.
> >
> >What if shapes were types? I think that would meet your definition.
> 
> Well, that's the method used in Stardog ICV, and in lots of work on
> constraints over logical formalisms (including description logics).


I don't see ShEx has having a problem with multiple somethings. The
ShExC for the above ClinicB:AdmissionRecord could set licensing
requirements on the admitting physician and coding requirements on the
principle complaint:

  ClinicB:AdmissionRecord {
    clin:admitter {
      clin:credential { clin:authority ("AMA" | "GMC") }+
    }
    clin:principleComplaint {
      hl7:coding { hl7:CD.CodingSystem ("SNOMED" | "LOINC") }
    }+
  }


> However, just making shapes be types doesn't immediately get one
> from ShEx to something that can nicely handle multiple somethings in
> RDF.  One also needs machinery to require that each instance of a
> particular type must match a particular constraint type.

Why do we neet to attach it to a type? Wouldn't that mean that every
reusable object would have to have a bunch of types attempting to
predict all of the ways that data might be used? For instance, would
the admitting physician need to have type arcs asserting that he/she
was a bethIsreal:SurgicalPhysician, bethIsreal:EDAdmittingPhysician,
BOSchildrens:Surgeon, mgh:ThoracicSurgeon, mgh:AdmittingPhysician?

I'd expect that the physician's record should only advertise the
type arcs that are part of some shared ontology:
  <Pat> a foaf:Person , clin:Physician .
If the type arcs are only notionally attached to the data for the
purposes of verification, then the argument that they need to be types
is circular; they're only there because some verification system thinks
in terms of types.


> >There's some language (ShEx, Resource Shapes, Description Set Profiles
> >or something else whose name I can't recall) to verify that a node in
> >an instance graph matches a declared structure in a schema. Some
> >mechanism like oslc:resourceShape associates a graph node with that
> >structure. Does that fit your view?
> 
> Maybe.  I'm not sure how Resource Shapes 2.0 works, as the
> description is very loose.  It does appear that typed shapes are
> what is intended to be used for what I think of as the usual case of
> RDF validation - requiring that instances of a class have a
> particular shape.  However, some aspects of Resource Shapes 2.0
> appear to be inimical to type hierarchies.

It seems like predicates like oslc:resourceShape give us the duck
typing that we need to get practical interoperability out of our
reusable somethings.


> peter

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-ericP

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Received on Wednesday, 30 July 2014 14:57:32 UTC