Exploring Construction Concepts

Concepts can be found by means of the Browser or by means of the Taxonomy. In the Browser you have the choice of searching with a search term or by following the hierarchy of concepts, the Taxonomy is limited to using a hierarchy. The description of a concept is the same in Browser and Taxonomy, in the Browser, however, all references to other concepts are linked, which is not the case with the Taxonomy. The Browser on the other hand only shwos a limited hierarchy consisting of the direct supertypes and subtypes of the current concept, the Taxonomy shows the complete tree structure of the concept classes.

In the Browser several ways lead to the concepts. On opening under 'Hierarchy' an index of general concepts is shown, clicking on one of these concepts reveals the definition of the concept in the main panel, and the Index lists its supertypes and subtypes as well as a the term 'start' that brings back the opening screen. A second possibility is 'searching' by entering a search term, activating the search results in a list of concepts containing the search term. If there is no result this will be indicated in the search panel. Switching between English and Dutch is accomplished with the button in the upper right corner of the page.

The definition of a concept consists of:

• the name of the selected concept
• the identification of the concept (a URI)
• the type of concept (class, objectproperty or datatypeproperty)
• the allocated names in English and Dutch
• optional allocated comments in English and Dutch
• optional allocated references
• the immediate supertypes of the concept and their properties
• the properties of the concept

URI: The URI is the unique identification of the concept. It consists of a prefix indicating the namespace and a unique number within the namespace. The namespace itself is not provided, it points to the OWL file that defines the concept.

Type: The Index basically lists only concepts of the type 'class', other types appear inside the definition and can be selected there.

Names: A concept has at least an English an a Dutch name, more names may appear (synonyms) and a name may be used for several concepts (homonyms). Searching for a concept by search term may provide several concepts with the same name or concepts with several names.

Comments: A Comment generally contains a short description of the concept. Comments are in English and Dutch.

References refer to external documents discussing the concept, if it contains a web-address the link can be opened in a separate window.

Supertypes: Concepts may have several supertypes, the Properties of these supertypes will be inherited. Inherited properties are shown between brackets: [...]. A supertype itself can have several supertypes, the Properties inherited from those supertypes are also shown. Whereas Properties can be specialized, both the inherited abstract and the specialized Property will be presented. A supertype will be selected by clicking on it. Supertypes are also listed in the Index, the Index also shows the subtypes of the concept.

Properties are composed of a predicate, an object and optional a value. Predicates and objects are concepts in their own right and can be selected by clicking. There are two types of Properties: objectproperties en datatypeproperties. Objectproperties relate two concepts of the type class, the associated predicates indicate the type of relationship. Datatypeproperties are generally quantifiable properties that may have a value.

Usage indicates where the concept is used in the description of another concept.

2015-02-26