Owlready 0.1

A module for ontology-oriented programming in Python: load OWL 2.0 ontologies as Python objects, modify them, save to OWL XML, and perform reasoning via HermiT. It can also generate dialog boxes for editing instances.

Owlready (previously named Ontopy) is a module for ontology-oriented programming in Python 3.

Owlready can:

• Import and export OWL 2.0 ontologies in the OWL/XML format (other file formats are not yet supported).

• Manipulates ontology classes, instances and properties transparently, as if they were normal Python objects.

• Add Python methods to ontology classes.

• Perform automatic classification of classes and instances, using the HermiT reasoner.

• Automatically generate dialog boxes for editing ontology instances, using Editobj3.

Owlready has been created by Jean-Baptiste Lamy at the LIMICS reseach lab. It is available under the GNU LGPL licence v3. In case of trouble, please contact Jean-Baptiste Lamy <jean-baptiste.lamy @ univ-paris13 . fr>

LIMICS
University Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité
Bureau 149
74 rue Marcel Cachin
93017 BOBIGNY
FRANCE

What can I do with Owlready?

Load an ontology from a local repository, or from Internet:

>>> from owlready import *
>>> onto_path.append("/path/to/your/local/ontology/repository")
>>> onto = get_ontology("http://www.lesfleursdunormal.fr/static/_downloads/pizza_onto.owl")
>>> onto.load()

Create new classes in the ontology, possibly mixing OWL restrictions and Python methods:

>>> class NonVegetarianPizza(onto.Pizza):
...   equivalent_to = [
...     onto.Pizza
...   & ( restriction("has_topping", SOME, onto.MeatTopping)
...     | restriction("has_topping", SOME, onto.FishTopping)
...     ) ]
...   def eat(self): print("Beurk! I'm vegetarian!")

Access ontology class, and create new instances / individuals:

>>> onto.Pizza
pizza_onto.Pizza
>>> test_pizza = onto.Pizza("test_pizza_owl_identifier")
>>> test_pizza.has_topping = [ onto.CheeseTopping(),
...                            onto.TomatoTopping(),
...                            onto.MeatTopping  () ]

Export to OWL/XML file:

>>> test_onto.save()

Perform reasoning, and classify instances and classes:

>>> test_pizza.__class__
onto.Pizza

>>> # Execute HermiT and reparent instances and classes
>>> onto.sync_reasoner()

>>> test_pizza.__class__
onto.NonVegetarianPizza
>>> test_pizza.eat()
Beurk! I'm vegetarian !

For more documentation, look at the doc/ and doc/examples/ directories in the source.

Links

Owlready on BitBucket (development repository): https://bitbucket.org/jibalamy/owlready

Owlready on PyPI (Python Package Index, stable release): https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Owlready

Documentation: http://pythonhosted.org/Owlready