EZPal is a tab widget plug-in for Protégé that was designed to facilitate acquisition of Protégé Axiom Language (PAL) based constraints without having to understand the language itself. Using a library of templates based on reusable
patterns of previously encoded axioms, the interface allows users to compose constraints using a "fill-in-the-blanks"
approach that parallels the object-attribute-value representation metaphor of Protégé.
Organizational Overview
The tab makes use of a Protégé ontology to store three major categories of information EZPal presents in the interface:
- Pattern: A pattern is defined as a logical sentence derived from a group of axioms that are structurally
identical except for specific references. Individual patterns are not stored explicitly in the library but
further generalized into templates. The form at the bottom right corner which allows value inputs for
axiom-instantiation is a particular pattern representation of a template.
- Template: each template describes a set of frequently used axiom design patterns based on their semantic and
structural similarities, or possibly one pattern only if it is unique. It stores the relevant 'variation' information
to allow retrieval of a specific pattern to allow value entries for axiom generations.
- Property: A property is an abstract description for the common features of a group of templates. Properties are not
mutually exclusive: each template may satisfy more than one property.
Currently, the library has 20 templates and 4 properties.
The EZPal tab is bundled with the
"full" installation
of Protégé.
The source code for EZPal is available in the
Protege Subversion repository.
System requirements:
PAL Constraints Tab and inclusion of the "template" project (comes with the binary distribution) before enabling
the EZPal Tab in "Configure."
Last updated: July 7, 2005
Screenshots