Jim,
I have been looking at your latest Javadoc http://forgeftp.novell.com/bandit/HigginsIDASJavadoc/
In your IProperty interface you have a getType() method. In
your doc you say:
“It is used to convey both the
name of this property and the runtime class type of the value (returned by getValue()).”
I agree with this for OWL DatatypeProperties, but for OWL
ObjectProperties this isn’t strictly true. Although it is true that
sometimes an OWL ObjectProperty is defined such that its range is only one
class, it is also true that sometimes an ObjectProperty whose range is defined
as being a set of possible
classes. Even if only one class is mentioned, the actual instance might be a subclass
of this class (and there might even be several kinds of subclasses). My point
is that a Property’s URI doesn’t always tell you the type of what,
in graph representation, it is pointing at.
You said in your Javadoc:
A consumer should also be able to
determine from this URI, the Type of object(s) returned from getValue() and
getValues().
And more to the point that:
These determinations may be made
either by examining parts of the URI itself, or dereferencing it (or parts) to
other sources of information.
But it seems to me that you really have to use reflection on
the Java object returned from getValue to know exactly the “type”
(class) of what you’ve got. You can’t determine this a priori.
(Note: I’ve been careful to talk here only about ObjectProperties, OWL
DatatypeProperties are not a problem on this point).
A possible solution: In addition making some edits to the
above javadoc text…Since getType() returns an IPropertyValue, could we
add a getType() to IPropertyValue? [In higgins.owl all ranges of the “attribute”
property are subclasses of the “Attribute” class, so this new
getType() would in effect tell you which subclass of Attribute you’ve got].
-Paul