Semantic Web and Model-Driven Engineering

Based on the author's own course materials, this book takes enterprise computing to the next level by offering readers a tested and proven method for applying semantic web tools to model-driven software engineering. It integrates and takes advantage of the latest advances from such disciplines as ontologies, description logics, domain-specific modeling, model transformation, and ontology engineering.

Before advancing to practical applications, Semantic Web and Model-Driven Engineering lays a foundation of fundamental concepts:

• Part I, Fundamentals, explains the concepts and technologies underlying model-driven engineering and ontologies, explaining the common bonds and the differences between these two paradigms.

• Part II, The TwoUse Approach, describes the TwoUse Toolkit, which is used to implement a software development approach that integrates model-driven software engineering and ontology technologies.

• Part III, Applications in Model-Driven Engineering, features case studies that apply the TwoUse Toolkit to support software design patterns, ontology-based information systems, and the integration of software languages.

• Part IV, Applications in the Semantic Web, demonstrates and analyzes the author's integrated approach to ontology engineering.

Throughout the text, tables summarize important data. In addition, detailed figures simplify complex programming and software engineering concepts and processes.

Semantic Web and Model-Driven Engineering is ideal for all software engineers and students, giving them a new set of tools to dramatically enhance enterprise computing by lowering costs, raising productivity, and improving the quality of knowledge management, systems interoperability, and applications integration.

Among many areas of application, we highlight the area of configuration management. Consider the example of a telecommunication company, where managing the multiple configurations of network devices (routers, hubs, modems, etc.) is crucial. Enterprise systems identify and document the functional and physical characteristics of network devices, and control changes to those characteristics. Applying the integration of semantic web and model-driven software development allows for

(1) explicitly specifying configurations of network devices with tailor-made languages,

(2) for checking the consistency of these specifications

(3) for defining a vocabulary to share device specifications across enterprise systems. By managing configurations with consistent and explicit concepts, we reduce cost and risk, and enhance agility in response to new requirements in the telecommunication area.

This book examines the synergy between semantic web and model-driven software development. It brings together advances from disciplines like ontologies, description logics, domain-specific modeling, model transformation and ontology engineering to take enterprise computing to the next level.

1 INTRODUCTION 3

2 MODEL-DRIVEN ENGINEERING FOUNDATIONS 9

3 ONTOLOGY FOUNDATIONS 21

4 MARRYING ONTOLOGY AND MODEL-DRIVEN ENGINEERING 44

CONCLUSION OF PART I

PART II THE TWOUSE APPROACH

5 THE TWOUSE CONCEPTUAL ARCHITECTURE 65

6 QUERY LANGUAGES FOR INTEGRATED MODELS 78

7 THE TWOUSE TOOLKIT 86

CONCLUSION OF PART II

PART III APPLICATIONS IN MODEL-DRIVEN ENGINEERING

8 IMPROVING SOFTWARE DESIGN PATTERNS WITH OWL 99

9 MODELING ONTOLOGY-BASED INFORMATION SYSTEMS 112

10 ENABLING LINKED DATA CAPABILITIES TO MOF COMPLIANT MODELS 124

CONCLUSION OF PART III

PART IV APPLICATIONS IN THE SEMANTIC WEB

11 MODEL-DRIVEN SPECIFICATION OF ONTOLOGY TRANSLATIONS 141

12 AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF ONTOLOGY APIs 156

13 USING TEMPLATES IN OWL ONTOLOGIES 171

CONCLUSION OF PART IV

14 CONCLUSION 187