org.semanticweb.owl.model
Interface OWLOntologyFactory

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractInMemOWLOntologyFactory, EmptyInMemOWLOntologyFactory, ParsableOWLOntologyFactory

public interface OWLOntologyFactory

Author: Matthew Horridge
The University Of Manchester
Bio-Health Informatics Group Date: 25-Oct-2006 An ontology factory is responsible from creating new ontologies and creating ontologies from physical URIs.

Nested Class Summary

static interface

OWLOntologyFactory.OWLOntologyCreationHandler An OWLOntologyCreationHandler gets notified when the factory has created an empty ontology (during the loading process).

Method Summary

boolean	canCreateFromPhysicalURI(java.net.URI physicalURI) Determines if the factory can create an ontology for the specified physical URI.
boolean	canLoad(OWLOntologyInputSource inputSource) Determines if the factory can load an ontology for the specified physical URI.
OWLOntology	createOWLOntology(java.net.URI ontologyURI, java.net.URI physicalURI, OWLOntologyFactory.OWLOntologyCreationHandler handler) Creates an (empty) ontology.
OWLOntology	loadOWLOntology(OWLOntologyInputSource inputSource, OWLOntologyFactory.OWLOntologyCreationHandler handler) Creates and loads an OWLOntology.
void	setOWLOntologyManager(OWLOntologyManager owlOntologyManager)

Method Detail

setOWLOntologyManager

void setOWLOntologyManager(OWLOntologyManager owlOntologyManager)

createOWLOntology

OWLOntology createOWLOntology(java.net.URI ontologyURI,
                              java.net.URI physicalURI,
                              OWLOntologyFactory.OWLOntologyCreationHandler handler)
                              throws OWLOntologyCreationException

Creates an (empty) ontology.

Parameters:

ontologyURI - The URI of the ontology to create. This MUST NOT BE NULL.

physicalURI - The physical URI of the ontology. This MAY be null.

handler - The ontology creation handler that will be notified when the ontology has been created.

Returns:

The newly created ontology

Throws:

OWLOntologyCreationException - if the ontology could not be created.

loadOWLOntology

OWLOntology loadOWLOntology(OWLOntologyInputSource inputSource,
                            OWLOntologyFactory.OWLOntologyCreationHandler handler)
                            throws OWLOntologyCreationException

Creates and loads an OWLOntology. be loaded into the ontology.

Parameters:

handler - A pointer to an OWLOntologyCreationHandler which will be notified immediately after an emtpty ontology has been created, but before the source data is read and the ontology is loaded with axioms.

Returns:

The newly created and loaded ontology

Throws:

OWLOntologyCreationException - if the ontology could not be created.

canCreateFromPhysicalURI

boolean canCreateFromPhysicalURI(java.net.URI physicalURI)

Determines if the factory can create an ontology for the specified physical URI.

Parameters:

physicalURI - The physical URI of the ontology to be created. This may be null.

Returns:

true if the factory can create an ontology given a physical URI, or false if the factory cannot create an ontology.

canLoad

boolean canLoad(OWLOntologyInputSource inputSource)

Determines if the factory can load an ontology for the specified physical URI.

Returns:

true if the factory can load from the specified input source.