OWL-S: Parameter modeling

Hi,

I have a question related to parameter modeling in OWL-S. Prior to version 1.0, parameter,input,output,precondition,effect where modeled as rdf:Property, then there have been changed to become owl:Class. I cannot find the rationale of the change in the documentation of the ontology and in the mailing list. I have found the former version more practical, because the range of the parameter (called parameterType in OWL-S 1.0,1.1) can naturally be expressed as the range of the property. 

A parameter description should have a number of properties: unique name,  description, type (datatype, or a owl:class), and optionally a set of constraints (enumeration of single values, interval with specific resolution, or a mix of both). You can think a parameter as an OLAP dimension, in dimension modeling.

To express the properties of image scale operator (process),you may describe the scaleX parameter the following way:

<owl:DatatypeProperty rdf:id="scaleX">
    <rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource="http://www.daml.org/services/owl-s/0.9/Process.owl#parameter"/>
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.foo.com#ScaleOperator"/>    
    <rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#float"/>
    <parameterName>scaleX</parameterName>
    <description>scale in X</description>
</owl:DatatypeProperty>


You can declare parameterName in the following way:

 <owl:DatatypeProperty rdf:ID="parameterName">
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="http://www.daml.org/services/owl-s/0.9/Process.owl#parameter"/>
    <rdfs:range rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string"/>
  </owl:DatatypeProperty>


When a operator is used, you can directly use the parameter property:

<ScaleOperator rdf:id="myScaleOp">
   <scaleX>1.43</scaleX>
   <scaleY>1.43</scaleY>
</ScaleOperator>


I have found this approach much more readable than the current approach used in OWL-S 1.0 and 1.1. Moreover it can bind nicely to Process Object.  

Is there any problem for OWL-S to use this approach. Are we in 2nd order predicate logic here ? Does the existing OWL inference engine work this way ? Are we still in OWL-DL ?

I would like you to discuss the pro and cons of each approach. Thanks in advance.


Best regards
 
Stephane Fellah
Web Chief Architect
 
PCI Geomatics
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Received on Friday, 2 July 2004 11:06:06 UTC