Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Automatic extraction of OWL ontologies from UML class diagrams: a semantics-preserving approach

  • Published:
World Wide Web Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Full implementation of the Semantic Web requires widespread availability of OWL ontologies. Manual ontology development using current OWL editors remains a tedious and cumbersome task that requires significant understanding of the new ontology language and can easily result in a knowledge acquisition bottleneck. On the other hand, abundant domain knowledge has been specified by existing database schemata such as UML class diagrams. Thus developing an automatic tool for extracting OWL ontologies from existing UML class diagrams is helpful to Web ontology development. In this paper we propose an automatic, semantics-preserving approach for extracting OWL ontologies from existing UML class diagrams. This approach establishes a precise conceptual correspondence between UML and OWL through a semantics-preserving schema translation algorithm. The experiments with our implemented prototype tool, UML2OWL, show that the proposed approach is effective and a fully automatic ontology extraction is achievable. The proposed approach and tool will facilitate the development of Web ontologies and the realization of semantic interoperations between existing Web database applications and the Semantic Web.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Baclawski, K., Kokar, M.K., Kogut, P.A., et al.: Extending UML to support ontology engineering for the Semantic Web. In: Proc. of the 4th International Conference on the Unified Modeling Language, Modeling Languages, Concepts, and Tools (UML 2001). LNCS, vol. 2185, pp. 342–360. Toronto, Canada (2001)

  2. Berardi, D., Calvanese, D., Giacomo, G.D.: Reasoning on UML class diagrams. Artificial Intelligence 168(1–2), 70–118 (2005)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, J., Lassila, O.: The semantic web. Scientific American 284(5), 34–43 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bizer, C., Heath, T., Berners-Lee, T.: Linked data - the story so far. International Journal on Semantic Web and Information Systems (IJSWIS) 5(3), 1–22 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Calvanese, D., Lenzerini, M., Nardi, D.: Unifying class-based representation formalisms. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 11, 199–240 (1999)

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Christine Golbreich, Evan K. Wallace (eds.): OWL 2 Web Ontology Language New Features and Rationale. W3C Recommendation 27 October 2009. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-new-features/ (2009). Accessed 30 January 2011

  7. Cranefield, S.: UML and the semantic web. In: Proc. of the first Semantic Web Working Symposium (SWWS’01), pp. 113–130. Stanford University, California, USA (2001)

  8. Dean, M., Schreiber, G. (eds.): OWL Web Ontology Language Reference. W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-ref/ (2004). Accessed 30 January 2011

  9. Djuric, D., Gasevic, D., Devedzic, V.: Ontology modeling and MDA. Journal of Object Technology 4(1), 109–128 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Falkovych, K., Sabou, M., Stuckenschmidt, H.: UML for the semantic web: transformation-based approaches. In: Omelayenko, B., Klein, M.C.A. (eds.) Knowledge transformation for the semantic web, frontiers in artificial intelligence and applications, vol. 95, pp. 92–106. Ios Press, Amsterdam (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gasevic, D., Djuric, D., Devedzic, V.: MDA-based automatic OWL ontology development. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer 9(2), 103–117 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Grau, B.C., Horrocks, I., Motik, B., et al.: OWL 2: The next step for OWL. Journal of Web Semantics 6(4), 309–322 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. He, B., Patel, M., Zhang, Z., Chang, K.C.-C.: Accessing the deep web. Communications of the ACM 50(5), 94–101 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Hermida, J.M., Romá-Ferri, M.T., Montoyo, A., et al.: Reusing UML Class Models to Generate OWL Ontologies: a Use Case in the Pharmacotherapeutic Domain. In: Proc. of International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development (KEOD 2009), pp. 281–286, Funchal, Portugal (2009)

  15. Hitzler, P., Krötzsch, M., Parsia, B., et al.: OWL 2 Web Ontology Language Primer. W3C Recommendation 27 October 2009. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-primer/ (2009). Accessed 30 January 2011

  16. Horrocks, I., Patel-Schneider, P.F., van Harmelen, F.: From SHIQ and RDF to OWL: the making of a web ontology language. Journal of Web Semantics 1(1), 7–26 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Jacob, E.K.: Ontologies and the semantic web. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 29(4), 19–22 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Maedche, A., Staab, S.: Ontology learning for the semantic web. IEEE Intelligent Systems 16(2), 72–79 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Motik, B., Patel-Schneider, P.F., Grau, B.C. (eds.): OWL 2 Web Ontology Language Direct Semantics. W3C Recommendation 27 October 2009. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-direct-semantics/ (2009). Accessed 30 January 2011

  20. Na, H.-S., Choi, O-H., Lim, J.-E.: A method for building domain ontologies based on the transformation of UML models. In: Proc. of 4th International Conference on Software Engineering Research, Management and Applications (SERA 2006), pp. 332–338, Seattle, WA, USA (2006)

  21. Object Management Group: Ontology Definition Metamodel (ODM) Version 1.0. OMG Specification, formal/2009-05-01. http://www.omg.org/spec/ODM/1.0/PDF/ (2009). Accessed 30 January 2011

  22. Object Management Group: Unified Modeling Language: Infrastructure, version 2.1.2. OMG Specification, formal/2007-11-04. http://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.1.2/Infrastructure/PDF/ (2007). Accessed 30 January 2011

  23. Object Management Group: Unified Modeling Language: Superstructure, version 2.1.2. OMG Specification, formal/2007–11–02. http://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.1.2/Superstructure/PDF/ (2007). Accessed 30 January 2011

  24. Patel-Schneider, P.F., Hayes, P., Horrocks, I. (eds.): OWL Web Ontology Language Semantics and Abstract Syntax. W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-absyn/ (2004). Accessed 30 January 2011

  25. Sahoo, S.S., Halb, W., Hellmann, S., et al.: A Survey of Current Approaches for Mapping of Relational Databases to RDF. W3C RDB2RDF Incubator Group report. http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/rdb2rdf/RDB2RDF_SurveyReport.pdf (2009). Accessed 30 January 2011

  26. Schneider, M. (eds.): OWL 2 Web Ontology Language RDF-Based Semantics. W3C Recommendation 27 October 2009. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-rdf-based-semantics/ (2009). Accessed 30 January 2011

  27. Stollberg, M., Lausen, H., Lara, R., et al.: Towards semantic web portals. In: Proc. of the WWW2004 Workshop on Application Design, Development and Implementation Issues in the Semantic Web, New York, NY, USA. CEUR Workshop Proceedings vol. 105. http://CEUR-WS.org/Vol-105/TowardsSWPortals.pdf (2004). Accessed 30 January 2011

  28. Tijerino, Y., Embley, D., Lonsdale, D., Ding, Y., Nagy, G.: Towards ontology generation from tables. World Wide Web 8(3), 261–285 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Volz, R., Handschuh, S., Staab, S., et al.: Unveiling the hidden bride: deep annotation for mapping and migrating legacy data to the Semantic Web. Journal of Web Semantics 1(2), 187–206 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Xu, Z., Ni, Y., Lin, L., Gu, H.: A semantics-preserving approach for extracting OWL ontologies from UML class diagrams. Database Theory and Application (DTA 2009), Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol. 64, pp. 122–136 (2009)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computer and Information, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Zhuoming Xu, Yuyan Ni, Wenjie He, Lili Lin & Qin Yan

Authors
  1. Zhuoming Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yuyan Ni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Wenjie He
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Lili Lin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Qin Yan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhuoming Xu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Xu, Z., Ni, Y., He, W. et al. Automatic extraction of OWL ontologies from UML class diagrams: a semantics-preserving approach. World Wide Web 15, 517–545 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11280-011-0147-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11280-011-0147-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation