Ontology for database design and application development

A method for generating a database and corresponding API from an ontology for a selected common domain for at least one target domain within the common domain, said method comprising the steps of:

• loading conjunctive normal form (CNF) data into a database generator;
• handling existential quantification on the CNF data;
• converting the CNF data to rules;
• reformulating the rules for performing equality reasoning;
• breaking negative cycles for deductive databases, and breaking all cycles for relational and object-oriented databases;
• generating a database specification for the database from the reformulated rules and integrity constraints;
• and
• generating an API corresponding to the generated database.

A computer implemented integrated ontology development environment (IODE) for generating database schemas, definitions, tables and corresponding rules sets and integrity constraints from an ontology for a selected common domain and for generating application program interface (API) specifications for at least one target domain within the common domain, comprising:

• an ontology management system (OMS) containing a formal representation of at least one ontology for a target subject domain and corresponding parent or ancestral domains, the parent domains being shared by one or more target subject domains, wherein the ontology is defined with a number of explicit integrity constraints;
• a database generator (DBG), the DBG enabling generation of output, the output customized to a type of database, wherein the database is defined by the target subject domain ontology;
• and
• a strongly typed API generator (STAG) generating an object-oriented API for use in prowramming an application using the target subject domain ontology and corresponding parent or ancestral ontologies to access and use data in a database generated by the DBG, wherein the API maintains integrity of the generated database using the explicit integrity constraints defined by the hierarchy of ontologies,
• wherein the automatic generation of a database by the DBG performs rule optimization, and the DBG has an alternate temporal transformation that allows for both stratified and non-stratified rules and the generated API does not allow dynamic class creation.

A computer implemented integrated ontology development environment (IODE), comprising:

• an ontology management system (OMS) containing a formal representation of at least one ontology defined with a number of explicit integrity constraints having a target subject domain and corresponding parent or ancestral domains;
• a database generator (DBG) enabling generation of output customized to a type of database defined by the target subject domain ontology;
• and
• a strongly typed API generator (STAG) generating an object-oriented API for use in programming an application using the target subject domain ontology and corresponding parent or ancestral ontologies to access and use data in a database generated by the DBG,
• wherein the API is configured to ensure that the explicit integrity constraints are checked when the database is modified.

A method for generating a database and corresponding API from an ontology for a selected common domain for at least one target domain within the common domain, said method comprising the steps of:

• loading ontology into a database generator, the ontology being defined by sentences provided in conjunctive normal form (CNF), the sentences being defined by at least one of a set of rules and explicit integrity constraints;
• converting the CNF sentences into at least one of an executable set of rules and explicit integrity constraints;
• reformulating the at least one of the executable set of rules and explicit integrity constraints in order to generate a database specification for the database;
• and
• generating an API corresponding to the generated database.