Ontology Pre-Processor Language

OPPL is a pre-processor language for manipulating OWL ontologies. OPPL is based in Manchester OWL syntax, providing an intuitive syntax for defining macros to be applied in an OWL ontology. The OPPL macros are written in a flat file by the user, and the flat file is processed by the OPPL program, executing the instructions and creating a new ontology. The OPPL macros can be of two kinds: adding/removing entities (classes or properties) or adding/removing axioms (semantic axioms such as restrictions or annotation axioms) to/from entities that have been selected or added. In the case of selecting entities, the selection is made according to a user defined condition. The condition can be an annotation value or an arbitrary semantic expression (e.g. subClassOf part_of some all (participates_in only (process and interaction))).

A typical OPPL macro, for example, reads as follows:

SELECT subClassOf participates_in some sport;ADD subClassOf participates_in some (event or (part_of 
some event));REMOVE label "sports man";

Which means:

Select any class that has the restriction participates_in some sport as a necessary condition.
Add to any selected class the restriction participates_in some (event or (part_of some event)) as a necessary condition.
Remove from any selected class the annotation sports man in the rdfs:label annotation property.

Comments (#) are ignored by the OPPL program. The reasoner used by OPPL is chosen by the user (Pellet, FaCT++ or any DIG compliant reasoner such as RacerPro).