casa.ontology

Interface Relation

All Superinterfaces:

Comparable<OntologyEntity>, OntologyEntity

All Known Implementing Classes:

AsymmetricRelation, BasedRelation, ConcreteRelation, InverseRelation, MirrorRelation, PrimitiveRelation, ReflexiveRelation, SymmetricRelation, TransitiveRelation, UsesRelation

public interface Relation
extends OntologyEntity

Relations may be stacked, decorator pattern fashion, with a "primitive relation" (which is one that actually contains maplets) at the bottom of the stack. This strategy can "automatically" keep relationships between elements updated when information changes. There are constraints in doing so though:

 inverse must be based directly on a primitive relation (symmetric<:inverse) == (symmetric<:primitive(inverse)) primitive /     | /      | inverse    | \      | \--U--| symmetric 

Author:

Rob Kremer

Nested Class Summary

Nested Classes

Modifier and Type	Interface and Description
static class	Relation.Property

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
boolean	add(Type domain, Type range) Puts the domain/range pair into the relation.
boolean	hasProperty(Relation.Property property)
boolean	isAssignable() Some relations are based on other relations, and only base relations can have maplets declared as members.
boolean	isMark() Convenience method to check if a method is marked.
boolean	isVisible()
Set<Type>	relatedTo(Type domain) Returns all the types that this domain is related to.
boolean	relatedTo(Type domain, Type range) Determines if an element is related to another element.
boolean	remove(Type domain, Type range) Removes domain/range pair from the relation.
void	setMark(boolean mark) Convenience method to set or clear a mark in the relation when iterating relations.
boolean	setVisible(boolean set) Some relations are not declared, but are created in some implementations in the process of creating other relations.

Methods inherited from interface casa.ontology.OntologyEntity

getName, getOntology, toString

Methods inherited from interface java.lang.Comparable

compareTo

Method Detail

relatedTo

boolean relatedTo(Type domain,
                  Type range)

Determines if an element is related to another element. In terms of description logics, whether domain has a role of type range.

Parameters:

domain - the thing that is a the "source" of the relation

range - the thing that is the "destination" of the relation

Returns:

true iff domain is related to range

relatedTo

Set<Type> relatedTo(Type domain)

Returns all the types that this domain is related to. In terms of description logics, whether domain has a role of type range.

Parameters:

domain - the thing that is a the "source" of the relation

Returns:

The set of ranges that are related to this type, or an empty set if the domain has no such relationship.

add

boolean add(Type domain,
            Type range)
     throws IllegalOperationException

Puts the domain/range pair into the relation. In terms of description logics, whether domain has a role of type range.

Parameters:

domain - the thing that is a the "source" of the relation

range - the thing that is the "destination" of the relation

Returns:

true if the relation did not already contain the specified pair.

Throws:

IllegalOperationException

remove

boolean remove(Type domain,
               Type range)
        throws IllegalOperationException

Removes domain/range pair from the relation. In terms of description logics, whether domain has a role of type range.

Parameters:

domain - the thing that is a the "source" of the relation

range - the thing that is the "destination" of the relation

Returns:

true if the relation contained the specified pair.

Throws:

IllegalOperationException

isAssignable

boolean isAssignable()

Some relations are based on other relations, and only base relations can have maplets declared as members. For example, the relation ancestor is based on the relation parent (ancestor being the transitive form of parent); one can assign the maplet (parent james jill), but one cannot assign the maplet (ancestor james jill) because it's ambiguous whether james is a parent of jill or not.

Returns:

true iff it is possible to assignment maplets directly to the relation

isMark

boolean isMark()

Convenience method to check if a method is marked. See setMark(boolean) .

Returns:

true iff the relation has been marked.

setMark

void setMark(boolean mark)

Convenience method to set or clear a mark in the relation when iterating relations.

Parameters:

mark - value to set the mark to.

hasProperty

boolean hasProperty(Relation.Property property)

Parameters:

property -

Returns:

isVisible

boolean isVisible()

Returns:

true if the relations is visible, false if it's not.

See Also:

setVisible(boolean)

setVisible

boolean setVisible(boolean set)

Some relations are not declared, but are created in some implementations in the process of creating other relations. It is sometimes convenient to "hide" these relations from the user and not have these show up in the persistent form (see OntologyEntity.toString() ). Use setVisible() to set the visibility attribute as read by isVisible() .

Parameters:

set - set to true to make this relation visible, false to make it invisible.

Returns:

the previous value of visibility.