Owlready
========

**Owlready** (previously named Ontopy) is a module for ontology-oriented programming in Python 3.

Owlready can:

 - Import and export OWL 2.0 ontologies in the OWL/XML format
   (other file formats are not yet supported).

 - Manipulates ontology classes, instances and properties transparently,
   as if they were normal Python objects.

 - Add Python methods to ontology classes.

 - Perform automatic classification of classes and instances, using the HermiT reasoner.

 - Automatically generate dialog boxes for editing ontology instances,
   using `Editobj3 <http://www.lesfleursdunormal.fr/static/informatique/editobj/index_en.html>`_.

Owlready has been created by Jean-Baptiste Lamy at the LIMICS reseach lab.
It is available under the GNU LGPL licence v3.
In case of trouble, please contact Jean-Baptiste Lamy
<jean-baptiste.lamy *@* univ-paris13 *.* fr>

::

  LIMICS
  University Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité
  Bureau 149
  74 rue Marcel Cachin
  93017 BOBIGNY
  FRANCE

What can I do with Owlready?
--------------------------

Load an ontology from a local repository, or from Internet:

>>> from owlready import *
>>> onto_path.append("/path/to/your/local/ontology/repository")
>>> onto = get_ontology("http://www.lesfleursdunormal.fr/static/_downloads/pizza_onto.owl")
>>> onto.load()

Create new classes in the ontology, possibly mixing OWL restrictions and Python methods:

>>> class NonVegetarianPizza(onto.Pizza):
...   equivalent_to = [
...     onto.Pizza
...   & ( restriction("has_topping", SOME, onto.MeatTopping)
...     | restriction("has_topping", SOME, onto.FishTopping)
...     ) ]
...   def eat(self): print("Beurk! I'm vegetarian!")

Access ontology class, and create new instances / individuals:

>>> onto.Pizza
pizza_onto.Pizza
>>> test_pizza = onto.Pizza("test_pizza_owl_identifier")
>>> test_pizza.has_topping = [ onto.CheeseTopping(),
...                            onto.TomatoTopping(),
...                            onto.MeatTopping  () ]

Export to OWL/XML file:

>>> test_onto.save()

Perform reasoning, and classify instances and classes:

::

   >>> test_pizza.__class__
   onto.Pizza
   
   >>> # Execute HermiT and reparent instances and classes
   >>> onto.sync_reasoner()
   
   >>> test_pizza.__class__
   onto.NonVegetarianPizza
   >>> test_pizza.eat()
   Beurk! I'm vegetarian !

For more documentation, look at the doc/ and doc/examples/ directories in the source.


Links
-----

Owlready on BitBucket (development repository): https://bitbucket.org/jibalamy/owlready

Owlready on PyPI (Python Package Index, stable release): https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Owlready

Documentation: http://pythonhosted.org/Owlready
