SWOOP v2.3 beta 3
Release Date: January 4, 2006
Organization: MINDSWAP (http://www.mindswap.org), University of Maryland, College Park
Supervisor: Professor James Hendler (hendler@cs.umd.edu)
Project site: http://www.mindswap.org/2004/SWOOP
Mailing Lists: http://lists.mindswap.org/mailman/listinfo/swoop (users), http://lists.mindswap.org/mailman/listinfo/swoop-devel (developers)
Primary Developers (in alphabetical order):
Aditya Kalyanpur (aditya@cs.umd.edu)
Bijan Parsia (bparsia@isr.umd.edu)
Evren Sirin (evren@cs.umd.edu)
Other Contributors (in alphabetical order):
Bernardo Cuenca Grau (bernardo@mindlab.umd.edu)
Daniel Hewlett (dhewlett@umd.edu)
Michael Grove (mhgrove@hotmail.com)
Ron Alford (ronwalf@wam.umd.edu)
Taowei David Wang (tw7@cs.umd.edu)
Vladimir Kolovski (kolovski@cs.umd.edu)
Installation Instructions: After unzipping the downloaded file (SWOOP-xxxx.zip), execute runme.bat (/ runme.sh) present inside the "SWOOP-xxxx" directory to start the application on a Windows (/ Mac or Unix) machine. For loading large ontologies such as NCI, you need to allocate more memory for Swoop - use the runme-HIGH file in this case.
Important Notes:
Software Description:
SWOOP is an OWL Ontology browser/editor that takes the standard Web browser as the basic UI paradigm. Swoop includes many of the familiar features of a Web browser such as an address bar and history buttons, bookmarks, hypertextual navigation etc. and applies them to the problem of browsing and editing Web based ontologies. Features include:
- It is simple to load ontologies from the web and to navigate within and between them.
- Multiple ontologies may be loaded at the same time.
- Ontologies, classes, properties, and individuals are rendered in a high level, accessible manner.
- One can "view the source" of ontologies and their entities in a number of common syntaxes (e.g. RDF/XML, the OWL Abstract Syntax, Turtle).
- OWL reasoners can be integrated for subsumption, consistency checking etc. -- default reasoners include a RDFS-like simple reasoner and Pellet, a Description Logic Tableaux Reasoner.
- Ontology change management with extensive rollback and undo mechanisms
- Share Annotations on Ontologies using the Annotea Protocol. Also attach and distribute Ontology Change sets with Annotations
- Search across multiple ontologies and 'find all references' of an OWL named entity
- Compare entities using a Resource Holder
- Export Ontologies directly to a remote WebDav store
This version contains some advanced, experimental features such as:
- Debug Ontologies using Pellet (explanations for unsatisfiable classes & inconsistent ontologies)
- Run "sound and complete" conjunctive ABox queries (written in RDQL) on an ontology using Pellet
- Partition Ontologies automatically by transforming them into an E-connection
- Crop Circles visualization of class hierarchy
New Features in v2.3 beta 3:
- Ability to edit entities in Turtle Syntax, Abstract Syntax and RDF/XML with ontology changes logged as well
- Support explanation of inferences for complex ontologies such as Wine, Pizza, Galen etc.
- Ability to generate and export HTML for an Ontology, Class, Property or Individual based on current selection in display
- Plugin for "Natural Language" Rendering of OWL Entities included
- Ability to Auto-Save Workspace at regular intervals
- Numerous improvements to the CropCircles UI
Bugs fixed since previous version:
- ABox Query (missing jar) fixed
- Fixed problem due to removal of instances
- Fixed hasValue restriction on datatype properties
- Made component-names consistent across UI
- Fixed problem with cancellation of progress bar when reasoning with Pellet
New Features in v2.3 beta 2:
- Entities can be displayed using either their URIs or their rdfs:label or in a particular language when xml:lang is used in the rdfs:label (see option in File->Preferences)
- Ability to sort and remove Bookmarks
- Ability to set an HTTP proxy server host/port when using Swoop behind a firewall
- Progress bar displayed when shifting to Pellet reasoner
- Explanation of inference improved: strikes out irrevelant parts of axioms
- "Save Ontology" menu option label changes when associated with an ontology
Bugs fixed since previous version:
- Renaming OWL Entities works properly now
- Axiom tracing catches more axioms (new version of pellet-debug.jar included)
- Version Control update/commit to repository works properly now
- Overwrite prompt appears only when file exists and trying to save file
- Fixed some RDF/XML serialization bugs (e.g. xml:lang instead of rdf:language)
- Fixed errors in tree statistics in Swoop OntologyInfo pane
New Features in v2.3 beta 1:
- Latest version of Pellet 1.3 for reasoning..handles large, complex ontologies such as Wine, Galen, Pizza etc.
- Explanation support for inferences when Pellet is turned on (see "Why?" link next to italicized assertion)
- Version control using Annotea (see menu option: Advanced->Version Control)
- Support for adding arbitrary class expressions
- Support for viewing, creating and deleting GCIs in the ontology (see "Show GCIs" option for alphabetical list)
- Advanced Ontology Statistics pane
Bugs fixed since previous versions:
- Bookmarks now work properly for local files as well
- Anonymous individuals now appear in the alphabetical list ("Show Individuals")
- Warning message displayed when overwriting a saved ontology file
Key known issues in last stable release v2.2.1:
- The ontology (class/property) JTrees are cached after classification of the ontology using the reasoner. But the reasoner results themselves are not cached. This makes switching between ontologies when Pellet is ON considerably slow.
- No form-based UI to create/edit nested Class Expressions. The workaround for now is to edit these in the RDF/XML inline tab.
- If the size of the logged changes in SWOOP becomes large, rendering them takes time because of a bug in the implementation. A workaround for now is either: Save the ontology/workspace as a SWOOP file (.swo, .swp) which saves all the changes. Then remove portions of the change log (see "Remove" link in logpane) and resume editing; OR Disable change logging (File->Preferences) and/or turn off change rendering altogether ("Show Changes" checkbox).
- No RDF/XML rendering of datatype enumerations supported (e.g. NATO ontology in the default bookmarks cannot be serialized)
- "Show References" method does not consider imported ontology information.
For other, less critical issues see: http://www.mindswap.org/issues/