RDBToOnto: From Relational Databases to Ontologies
RDBToOnto: Download here, demos.
To know more on this topic, contact Farid Cerbah.
RDBToOnto is a tool that allows to automatically generate fine-tuned populated ontologies
from relational databases (in RDFS/OWL).
A major feature of this tool is the ability to produce highly structured ontologies by exploiting
both the database schema and structuring patterns hidden in the data (see publications for details on the RTAXON learning method, including its formal description).
Though automated to a large extent, the process can be constrained in many ways through a friendly user interface. It also provides a framework that eases the development and integration of new learning methods and database readers. A database optimization module allows to enhance the input database before ontology generation.
Demos
Commented survey on a typical example: demo 1
Another example including a database optimization step: demo 2
Documentation
User Guide: This document provides a systematic description of RDBToOnto use instructions.
Development Guide: This guide addresses the extension capabilities offered by RDBToOnto. A framework is provided to allow the implementation and integration of new readers and converters.
The description relies on a fully implemented sample that includes a reader and a converter.
Exploited libraries
RDBToOnto is implemented in java and takes advantage of a number of high-quality third-party libraries including Jena 2.5 framework, Apache Commons configuration and Apache POI.
Related Publications
Cerbah. F. "Mining the Content of Relational Databases to Learn Ontologies with Deeper Taxonomies", Proceeding of IEEE/WIC/ACM International Joint Conference on Web Intelligence (WI'08) and Intelligent Agent Technology (IAT'08), Sydney, Australia, 9-12 December, 2008. 
Cerbah, F. "Learning Highly Structured Semantic Repositories from
Relational Databases - RDBtoOnto Tool", Proceedings of the 5th European
Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2008), Tenerife, Spain, June, 2008.
Cerbah, F. and Vatant, B. “Building Highly Structured Semantic
Repositories through Reuse and Formalisation of Business Standards”, 1st
European Semantic Technology Conference, Vienna, May 31 – June 1
2007.
Related Deliverables
D7.1 - Case study 2: Requirements analysis and application of TAO methodology - Synthesis report
D7.2 - Case study 2: Domain ontology and semantic augmentation of legacy content
D7.4 - Experiments and evaluation of testbed 2 - synthesis
To know more on this topic, contact Farid Cerbah.
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