=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=None
|storemode=property
|title=A User Interface for Ontology Repositories
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-596/paper-04.pdf
|volume=Vol-596
}}
==A User Interface for Ontology Repositories==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-596/paper-04.pdf
Vol-596
urn:nbn:de:0074-596-3
C opyright © 2010 for the individual
papers by the papers' authors.
C opying permitted only for private and
academic purposes. This volume is
published and copyrighted by its
editors.
ORES-2010
Ontology Repositories and Editors for
the Semantic Web
Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Ontology Repositories and
Editors for the Semantic Web
Hersonissos, Crete, Greece, May 31st, 2010.
Edited by
Mathieu d'Aquin, The Open University, UK
Alexander García Castro, Universität Bremen, Germany
Christoph Lange, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany
Kim Viljanen, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
10-Jun-2010: submitted by C hristoph Lange
11-Jun-2010: published on C EUR-WS.org
A User Interface for Ontology Repositories
Jouni Tuominen, Mikko Salonoja, Kim Viljanen, and Eero Hyvönen
Semantic Computing Research Group (SeCo)
Aalto University, School of Science and Technology, and University of Helsinki
http://www.seco.tkk.fi/, firstname.lastname@tkk.fi
Abstract. Finding ontologies and concepts from a collection of ontolo-
gies is a recurring task in many use cases, such as content indexing,
searching, and ontology developing. To facilitate this, efficient search and
browsing methods are needed. This paper introduces ONKI2, an ontol-
ogy browser providing a user interface for a repository of ontologies.
The system provides a multi-facet search facility for finding an ontol-
ogy. Finding concepts is supported by autocompletion-based text search
that can be refined with additional restrictions. ONKI2 is in use in the
Finnish Ontology Library Service ONKI for a collection of 79 ontologies
and vocabularies.
1 Introduction
Tools for finding ontologies and concepts are needed in many use cases, such as
ontology development, ontology-based content indexing, and searching [1]. When
looking for a suitable ontology for a given task in an ontology repository [1–4],
methods for filtering the ontologies based on the needs of the user are needed.
This can be facilitated using the metadata of the ontologies (e.g. name, descrip-
tion, subject, type) and the contents of the ontologies (i.e. the concepts of the
ontology). Also, getting an overview presentation of an ontology is important
for understanding the domain, purpose, and structure of the ontology. When
browsing an ontology, the concepts should be presented in a clear, meaningful
way to the end-user.
This paper introduces ONKI21 , an ontology browser providing a user in-
terface for a repository of ontologies and vocabularies. The goal of ONKI2 is
to provide means for finding and utilizing ontologies for content indexers, in-
formation searchers, and ontology developers. The introduced system is in use
providing access to a collection of 79 ontologies of various domains. In the fol-
lowing, means for finding ontologies and concepts in ONKI2 are first presented.
After this, the system implementation is described. In conclusion, related work
is discussed and the contributions of the paper are summarized.
2 Finding Ontologies
Finding a suitable ontology in a repository of ontologies may be laborious with-
out efficient filtering methods. To facilitate the search process of an ontology,
1
http://www.yso.fi/onki2/?l=en
ONKI2 provides a multi-facet search interface integrated with text search. The
idea is illustrated in Fig. 1. The available facets are the subject, structure, and
publishing status of the ontology. The ontologies are assigned to the facets by
utilizing the ontology metadata provided by the ontology developers, allowing
filtering ontologies from different perspectives. The autocompletion text search
is matched to the names and descriptions of the ontologies. In Fig. 1 the user
is searching for a public (publishing status facet) advanced vocabulary (struc-
ture facet) in the domain of health or nature (subject facet) with a query string
“mes”.
Fig. 1. Multi-facet search view of ontologies.
Once an ontology is found, it can be further examined by accessing the direc-
tory view of the ontology. The purpose of the directory is to give an overview of
an ontology and act as a starting point for browsing it. Depending on the type
of the ontology, the directory is either based on the groups categorizing the con-
cepts, on the topmost concepts of the ontology (in SKOS vocabularies), or on the
alphabetical ordering of the concepts. ONKI2 also supports searching ontologies
based on their contents. An autocompletion text search is provided, matching to
the labels of the concepts in all the ontologies of the collection. Thus, the user
can find all the ontologies containing e.g. the concept “cat”. Concept searching
is discussed in more details in the following section.
3 Finding Concepts
For finding concepts in a collection of ontologies, ONKI2 provides a user inter-
face with searching and browsing functionalities, as depicted in Fig. 2. Concepts
can be searched by using autocompletion text search with a possibility to set
additional restrictions. All the ontologies in the collection can be searched si-
multaneously, or alternatively the search can be limited to a single ontology. In
both cases, the search is matched to the labels of the concepts. The search can
be restricted to the concept labels in a specific language, to a specific concept
type, to the group of concepts, or to the subconcepts of a specific concept.
Fig. 2. Concept searching and browsing in the UNSPSC vocabulary.
The search result is presented as a list of concept label links. If there are
several concepts with a same label, the concepts are grouped together assuming
that they might be equivalent. When the user selects a concept, the properties
of the concept are shown below the concept label, eliminating the need for un-
necessary navigation between different views of the concepts. The properties are
displayed in an ontology-specific meaningful order for the end-user in order to
support concept understanding. The order can be specified by the developers
of the ontology. Also, possible unnecessary properties can be filtered out from
the property view. Moreover, the user can choose how the property values are
displayed in the view. The values can either be presented compactly to minimize
the used screen space, or more loosely for improved clarity. In the loose pre-
sentation mode, the superconcepts of the concept are presented as an indented
hierarchy tree. In ontologies containing geographical information, a map user
interface component can be used for visualizing the concepts, e.g. by placing
geographical regions and points on the map.
All the property values of concepts that are resources (concepts, types, groups)
are displayed as links leading to a corresponding concept or concept set, enabling
the browsing of ontologies. This means that when selecting a concept from the
concept hierarchy or among the related concepts of a concept, the properties of
the selected concept are shown. If the selected resource is a concept group, the
concepts belonging to the group are displayed as a search result list. Similarly, if
a concept type is selected, concepts of that type are displayed. Mapping relations
between ontologies can be used for inter-ontology browsing.
In Fig. 2 the user is searching for concepts in the vocabulary United Na-
tions Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC)2 that are subconcepts
of the concept “Services”. The string “ap” was used for querying the concept
labels. From the search results, the user has selected the concept “Apiculture”
for further investigation.
4 System Implementation
ONKI2 is implemented as a PHP3 application by using the Zend Framework4
for providing the Model-View-Controller architecture. The ontology multi-facet
search view is generated with the SIMILE Exhibit Publishing Framework5 . For
processing the metadata of the ontologies, the ARC RDF library6 is used. The
map user interface component is provided by Google Maps7 .
The ontologies accessed with ONKI2 are represented by using RDFS, OWL,
and SKOS. The ontologies are published in ONKI SKOS ontology server [5] in-
stances. The ONKI SKOS servers are accessed by utilizing their HTTP API8 for
generating the ontology directory views, providing concept search and showing
the properties of the concepts.
5 Discussion
The previously developed Ontology Library Service ONKI [1] supports pub-
lishing a collection of ontologies in different ontology servers, such as ONKI
SKOS [5]. However, the ontologies are displayed only as a simple listing, and
searching for concepts from all the ontologies simultaneously is not supported.
Browsing between ontologies is possible if the ontologies contain mapping rela-
tions. BioPortal [2] is an ontology repository for accessing and sharing ontologies
in the biomedical domain. The system is also used in the Open Ontology Repos-
itory Initiative [4]. It supports searching for concepts from all the ontologies and
browsing between ontologies. Ontologies can be filtered based on their categories
and groups.
Another ontology repository supporting concept searching and browsing of a
collection of ontologies is Cupboard [3]. It provides an overview for an ontology
by generating a graph of the key concepts of the ontology. It also supports col-
laboration by introducing commenting and reviewing options and shared spaces
for publishing and grouping ontologies. Also semantic web search engines such
as Watson [6], Swoogle [7], and Sindice9 provide means for locating ontologies
2
http://www.unspsc.org
3
http://www.php.net
4
http://framework.zend.com
5
http://www.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/
6
http://arc.semsol.org
7
http://maps.google.com
8
http://www.yso.fi/onkirest/
9
http://sindice.com
and concepts on the web. However, as general RDF search engines, their support
for understanding and browsing ontologies is rather limited due to the lack of
visualization methods suited for ontologies.
ONKI2 is a general-purpose ontology browser for a collection of ontologies,
supporting finding ontologies and concepts from the collection. The ontologies
and their concepts are displayed in a meaningful, intuitive way for facilitating
their understanding and usage as ready to use ontology web services [1, 5]. Fur-
thermore, ONKI2 provides access to a network of distributed ontology reposito-
ries conforming to the Linked Open Ontology Services (LOOS) architecture [8].
Acknowledgements This work is part of the National Semantic Web Ontology
project in Finland10 (FinnONTO, 2003–2012), funded mainly by the National
Technology and Innovation Agency (Tekes) and a consortium of 38 organizations.
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10
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