More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/

review-article

Combining UML and ontology: : An exploratory survey

Authors:

Meriem Mejhed Mkhinini,

Ouassila Labbani-Narsis,

Christophe NicolleAuthors Info & Claims

Volume 35, Issue C

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosrev.2019.100223

Published: 01 February 2020 Publication History

Abstract

UML models and ontologies are two knowledge representations with different strengths and weaknesses. Until recently, they were considered unrelated research domains. However, studies investigating their underlying paradigms and the approaches combining these two are increasingly emerging. Nevertheless, the state of the art research covering the relationship between the two is still under exploration. In this paper, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of both domains by conducting a literature review of the relevant research work. In this survey, the relationship between UML and ontology is investigated from both the theoretical and practical perspectives. We present a detailed classification of the existing work based on the considered issues and their practical use cases. Finally, we provide an evaluation of the existing work according to the criteria we identified.

References

[1]

OMG, Unified Modeling Language version 2.5.1, OMG Document Number: formal/17-12-05, 2017, https://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.5.1/.

[2]

McCarthy J., Circumscription—A form of non-monotonic reasoning, Non-Monotonic Logic, Artificial Intelligence 13 (1) (1980) 27–39. (Special Issue).

[3]

S. Cranefield, M. Purvis, UML as an ontology modeling language, in: Proceedings of the Workshop on Intelligent Information Integration, Stockholm, Sweden, 1999.

[4]

Booch G., Object-oriented Analysis and Design with Applications, second ed., Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Co., Inc., Redwood City, CA, USA, 1994.

[5]

Rumbaugh J., Blaha M., Premerlani W., Eddy F., Lorensen W., Object-oriented Modeling and Design, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA, 1991.

[6]

Jacobson I., Object-Oriented Software Engineering: A Use Case Driven Approach, Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Redwood City, CA, USA, 2004.

Digital Library

[7]

Gruber T., A translation approach to portable ontology specifications, Knowl. Acquis. 5 (2) (1993) 199–220.

Digital Library

[8]

Baader F., Horrocks I., Lutz C., Sattler U., An Introduction to Description Logic, Cambridge University Press, 2017.

[9]

Semantic Web W3C, The Semantic Web, 2001. https://www.w3.org/2001/sw/. (Accessed 01 August 2018).

[10]

Semantic Web Activity W3C, What is a Vocabulary?, 2015. https://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/ontology. (Accessed 01 August 2018).

[11]

Pătraşcu A., Comparative analysis between OWL modelling and UML modelling, Econ. Insights — Trends Challenges 4 (2) (2015) 87–94.

[12]

Kiko K., Atkinson C., A Detailed Comparison of UML and OWL, Department for Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Mannheim, 2005, URL https://madoc.bib.uni-mannheim.de/1898/.

[13]

OMG, Object Constraint Language (OCL) version 2.4, OMG Document Number: formal/14-02-03, 2014, https://www.omg.org/spec/OCL/2.4/.

[14]

Kitchenham B., Charters S., Guidelines for performing Systematic Literature Reviews in Software Engineering, Keele University and Durham University Joint Report, 2007, URL http://www.dur.ac.uk/ebse/resources/Systematic-reviews-5-8.pdf.

Digital Library

[15]

Calvaresi D., Cesarini D., Sernani P., Marinoni M., Dragoni A.F., Sturm A., Exploring the ambient assisted living domain: A systematic review, Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing 8 (2) (2016) 239–257.

[16]

X. Zhou, Y. Jin, H. Zhang, S. Li, X. Huang, A map of threats to validity of systematic literature reviews in software engineering, in: Proceedings of the 23rd Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), 2016, pp. 153–160.

[17]

Bedini I., Nguyen B., Automatic Ontology Generation : State of the Art, University of Versailles, 2007, pp. 1–15.

[18]

Parreiras F., Marrying model-driven engineering and ontology technologies: The twouse approach, (Ph.D. thesis) University of Koblenz-Landau, 2011.

[19]

Sadowska M., Huzar Z., Representation of UML class diagrams in OWL 2 on the background of domain ontologies, E-Inf. Softw. Eng. J. 13 (1) (2019) 63–103.

[20]

A. Mehmood, A. Mehmood, B. Akhtar, Enrich existing ontologies with new knowledge from existing artifacts, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Technologies and Applications, 2018, pp. 630–641.

[21]

Xu Z., Ni Y., He W., Lin L., Yan Q., Automatic extraction of OWL ontologies from UML class diagrams: A semantics-preserving approach, World Wide Web 15 (5–6) (2012) 517–545.

[22]

Gherabi N., Bahaj M., A new method for mapping UML class into OWL ontology, Software Engineering, Databases and Expert Systems, SEDEX, Int. J. Comput. Appl. (1) (2012) 5–9. (Special Issue).

[23]

D. De Paepe, G. Thijs, R. Buyle, R. Verborgh, E. Mannens, Automated UML-Based Ontology Generation in OSLO2, in: Proceedings of the European Semantic Web Conference, 2017, pp. 93–97.

[24]

Hajjamy O.E., Alaoui K., Alaoui L., Bahaj M., Mapping UML to OWL2 ontology, J. Theor. Appl. Inf. Technol. 90 (1) (2016) 126–143.

[25]

Nekvasil M., Svátek V., Labský M., Transforming existing knowledge models to information extraction ontologies, Lect. Notes Bus. Inf. Process. 7 (2008) 106–117.

[26]

Strzelecki M., Iwaniak A., Łukowicz J., Kaczmarek I., Supporting spatial data harmonization process with the use of ontologies and Semantic Web technologies, Int. Arch. Photogrammetry Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. Arch. 7 (2013) 231–236.

[27]

Elasri H., El Abbassi E.M., Sekkaki A., Fahad M., Semantic integration of UML class diagram with semantic validation on segments of mappings, 2018, CoRR, abs/1801.04482.

[28]

R. Palma, T. Reznik, M. Esbrí, K. Charvat, C. Mazurek, An INSPIRE-based vocabulary for the publication of agricultural linked data, in: Proceedings of the International Experiences and Directions Workshop on OWL, 2016, pp. 124–133.

[29]

Elasri H., Sekkaki A., Semantic integration process of business components to support information system designers, Int. J. Web Sem. Technol. 4 (2013) 51–65.

[30]

Robles K., Fraga A., Morato J., Llorens J., Towards an ontology-based retrieval of UML class diagrams, Inf. Softw. Technol. 54 (1) (2012) 72–86.

[31]

Keet C., Fillottrani P., An ontology-driven unifying metamodel of UML class diagrams, EER, and ORM2, Data Knowl. Eng. 98 (2015) 30–53.

[32]

Quer C., Franch X., Palomares C., Falkner A., Felfernig A., Fucci D., Maalej W., Nerlich J., Raatikainen M., Schenner G., Stettinger M., Tiihonen J., Reconciling practice and rigour in ontology-based heterogeneous information systems construction, in: Buchmann R.A., Karagiannis D., Kirikova M. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Practice of Enterprise Modeling, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2018, pp. 205–220.

[33]

Zedlitz J., Jörke J., Luttenberger N., From UML to OWL 2, Commun. Comput. Inf. Sci. 295 (2012) 154–163.

[34]

Cranefield S., Networked knowledge representation and exchange using UML and RDF, J. Digital Inf. 1 (8) (2001).

[35]

Benslimane S., Malki M., Rahmouni M., Rahmoun A., Towards ontology extraction from data-intensive web sites: An html forms-based reverse engineering approach, Int. Arab J. Inf. Technol. 5 (1) (2008) 34–44.

[36]

Loaiza F., Wartik S., Thompson J., Visser D., Kenschaft E., The Best of All Possible Worlds: Applying the Model Driven Architecture Approach to a JC3IEDM OWL Ontology Modeled in UML, Institue For Defense Analyses Alexandria VA, 2014.

[37]

Bahaj M., Bakkas J., Automatic conversion method of class diagrams to ontologies maintaining their semantic features, Int. J. Soft Comput. Eng. 2 (2014).

[38]

Falkovych K., Sabou M., Stuckenschmidt H., UML for the semantic web: Transformation-based approaches, Knowl. Transform. Sem. Web 95 (2003) 92–106.

[39]

Fillottrani P., Franconi E., Tessaris S., The ICOM 3.0 intelligent conceptual modelling tool and methodology, Semantic Web 3 (3) (2012) 293–306.

[40]

R. Liepins, M. Grasmanis, U. Bojars, OWLGrEd ontology visualizer, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Developers, vol. 1268, 2014, pp. 37–42.

[41]

J. Guerson, T. Sales, G. Guizzardi, J. Almeida, OntoUML lightweight editor: A model-based environment to build, evaluate and implement reference ontologies, in: Proceedings of the 19th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference Workshops and Demonstrations, 2015, pp. 144–147.

[42]

Đurić D., MDA-based ontology infrastructure, Comput. Sci. Inf. Syst. 1 (1) (2004) 91–116.

[43]

Hnatkowska B., Automatic SUMO to UML translation, e-Inf. Softw. Eng. J. 10 (1) (2016) 51–67.

[44]

Gasevic D., Djuric D., Devedzic V., MDA-based automatic OWL ontology development, Int. J. Softw. Tools Technol. Transf. 9 (2) (2007) 103–117.

[45]

D. Gašević, D. Djurić, V. Devedžić, Converting UML to OWL ontologies, in: Proceedings of the 13th International World Wide Web Conference on Alternate Track Papers & Posters, 2004, pp. 488–489.

[46]

Djurić D., Gašević D., Devedžić V., A UML profile for OWL ontologies, in: Aßmann U., Aksit M., Rensink A. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Model Driven Architecture, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2005, pp. 204–219.

[47]

S. Chung, W. Tai, D. Osullivan, A. Boran, A semantic mapping representation and generation tool using UML for system engineers, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Semantic Computing, ICSC, 2014, pp. 235–241.

[48]

J. Zedlitz, N. Luttenberger, Data types in UML and OWL-2, in: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Advances in Semantic Processing, 2013, pp. 32–35.

[49]

D. Almeida Ferreira, A. Silva, UML to OWL Mapping Overview An analysis of the translation process and supporting tools, in: 7th Conference of Portuguese Association of Information Systems, 2013.

[50]

A. Belghiat, M. Bourahla, Transformation of UML models towards OWL ontologies, in: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Sciences of Electronics, Technologies of Information and Telecommunications, 2012, pp. 840–846.

[51]

McCusker J., Phillips J., Beltran A., Finkelstein A., Krauthammer M., Semantic web data warehousing for caGrid, BMC Bioinformatics 10 (2009) S2.

[52]

R. Grønmo, M. Jaeger, H. Hoff, Transformations between UML and OWL-S, in: Model Driven Architecture–Foundations and Applications, vol. 3748, 2005, pp. 269–283. https://doi.org/10.1007/11581741%5F20.

[53]

K. Baclawski, M. Kokar, P. Kogut, L. Hart, J. Smith, J. Letkowski, M. Aronson, Extending UML to support ontology engineering for the semantic web, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on the Unified Modeling Language, vol. 2185, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2001, pp. 342–360.

[54]

Brockmans S., Volz R., Eberhart A., Löffler P., Visual modeling of OWL DL ontologies using UML, in: Proccedings of the International Semantic Web Conference, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2004, pp. 198–213.

[55]

Waldemarin R.C., de Farias C.R., OBO to UML: Support for the development of conceptual models in the biomedical domain, J. Biomed. Inf. 80 (2018) 14–25.

[56]

N. Laaz, S. Mbarki, An MDA approach based on UML and ODM standards to support big data analytics regarding ontology development, in: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Smart City Applications, 2018, pp. 211–225.

[57]

J. Yang, I. Chung, Automatic generation of service ontology from UML diagrams for semantic web services, in: Proceedings of the First Asian Conference on the Semantic Web, 2006, pp. 523–529.

[58]

Baset S., Stoffel K., OntoJIT: Parsing native OWL DL into executable ontologies in an object oriented paradigm, in: Proceedings of the 13th International Workshop, OWL: EXperiences and Directions–REasoner Evaluation, in: LNCS, vol. 10161, Springer, 2017, pp. 1–14,.

[59]

Cranefield S., Purvis M., A UML profile and mapping for the generation of ontology-specific content languages, Knowl. Eng. Rev. 17 (1) (2002) 21–39.

[60]

Evermann J., Wand Y., Ontology based object-oriented domain modelling: fundamental concepts, Requir. Eng. 10 (2) (2005) 146–160.

Digital Library

[61]

R. Kadar, S.M. Syed-Mohamad, Semantic-based extraction approach for generating source code summary towards program comprehension, in: Proceedings of the 9th Malaysian Software Engineering Conference (MySEC), 2015, pp. 129–134.

[62]

Bouihi B., Bahaj M., Building an e-learning system’s OWL ontology by exploring the UML model, J. Theor. Appl. Inf. Technol. 87 (3) (2016) 380–387.

[63]

Wang X., Chan C.W., Ontology modeling using UML, in: Wang X., Johnston R., Patel S. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Object-Oriented Information Systems, Springer London, London, 2001, pp. 59–68.

[64]

R. Thiagarajan, M. Stumptner, A native ontology approach for semantic service descriptions, in: Proceedings of the Second Australasian Ontology Workshop on Advances in Ontologies, vol. 72, 2006, pp. 85–90.

[65]

Mtsweni J., Biermann E., Pretorius L., iSemServ: A model-driven approach to developing semantic web services, S. Afr. Comput. J. 52 (1) (2014) 55–70.

[66]

B. Bouihi, M. Bahaj, Moodle’s ontology development from UML for social learning network analysis, in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Learning and Optimization Algorithms: Theory and Applications, 2018, pp. 41:1–41:6.

[67]

G. Chiozzi, R. Karban, L. Andolfato, A. Tejeda, A UML profile for code generation of component based distributed systems, in: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems, 2011, pp. 867–870.

[68]

G. Landolfi, A. Bami, G. Izzo, E. Montini, A. Bettoni, M. Vujasinovic, A. Gugliotta, A.L. Soares, H.D. Silva, An ontology based semantic data model supporting a maas digital platform, in: Proceeding of the International Conference on Intelligent Systems (IS), 2018, pp. 896–904.

[69]

Mtsweni J., Biermann E., Pretorius L., iSemServ: Towards the engineering of intelligent semantic-based services, in: International Conference on Web Engineering, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010, pp. 550–559.

[70]

He H., Wang Z., Dong Q., Zhang W., Zhu W., Ontology-based semantic verification for UML behavioral models, Int. J. Softw. Eng. Knowl. Eng. 23 (02) (2013) 117–145.

[71]

Khan A.H., Musavi S.H.A., Rehman A.-U., Shaikh A., Ontology-based finite satisfiability of UML class model, IEEE Access 6 (2018) 3040–3050.

[72]

Khan A., Porres I., Consistency of UML class, object and statechart diagrams using ontology reasoners, J. Vis. Lang. Comput. 26 (2015) 42–65.

[73]

A. Khan, E. Suenson, I. Porres, Representation and conformance of UML models containing ordered properties using OWL 2, in: Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Ordering and Reasoning, vol. 2011, 2011, pp. 1–12.

[74]

Berardi D., Calvanese D., De Giacomo G., Reasoning on UML class diagrams, Artificial Intelligence 168 (1–2) (2005) 70–118.

[75]

Herchi H., Ben Abdessalem W., From user requirements to UML class diagram, 2012, CoRR abs/1211.0713.

[76]

N. Jali, D. Greer, P. Hanna, Behavioral model generation from use cases based on ontology mapping and GRASP patterns, in: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, 2014, pp. 324–329.

[77]

More P., Phalnikar R., Generating UML diagrams from natural language specifications, Int. J. Appl. Inf. Syst. 1 (8) (2012) 19–23.

[78]

P. Kroha, R. Janetzko, J. Labra, Ontologies in checking for inconsistency of requirements specification, in: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Advances in Semantic Processing, 2009, pp. 32–37.

[79]

Elsayed E.K., El-Sharawy E.E., Detecting design level anti-patterns; structure and semantics in UML class diagrams, J. Comput. Phys. 13 (6) (2018) 638–654.

[80]

M. Sadowska, Z. Huzar, Semantic validation of UML class diagrams with the use of domain ontologies expressed in OWL 2, in: Proceedings of the Software Engineering Conference: Challenges and Solutions, 2017, pp. 47–59.

[81]

Belghiat A., Bourahla M., UML class diagrams to OWL ontologies: A graph transformation based approach, Int. J. Comput. Appl. 41 (3) (2012) 41–46.

[82]

J. Zedlitz, N. Luttenberger, Transforming between UML conceptual models and OWL 2 ontologies, in: Proceedings of the Terra Cognita Workshop on Foundations, Technologies and Applications of the Geospatial Web, in Conjunction with the 11th International Semantic Web Conference, 2012, pp. 15–26.

[83]

J.T. Timm, G.C. Gannod, Specifying semantic web service compositions using UML and OCL, in: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS), 2007, pp. 521–528.

[84]

Godinez M., Hechler E., Koenig K., Lockwood S., Oberhofer M., Schroeck M., The Art of Enterprise Information Architecture: A Systems-Based Approach for Unlocking Business Insight, Pearson Education, 2010.

[85]

H. Knublauch, Ontology-driven software development in the context of the semantic web: An example scenario with Protege/OWL, in: Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on the Model-Driven Semantic Web, 2004, pp. 381–401.

[86]

Colomb R., Raymond K., Hart L., Emery P., Welty C., Xie G., Kendall E., The object management group ontology definition metamodel, Ontol. Softw. Eng. Softw. Technol. (2006) 217–247.

[87]

Richters M., A precise approach to validating UML models and OCL constraints, (Ph.D. thesis) University of Bremen, Germany, 2002.

Digital Library

[88]

Zedlitz J., Luttenberger N., Conceptual modelling in UML and OWL-2, Int. J. Adv. Softw. 7 (1) (2014) 182–196.

[89]

Vrandečić D., Ontology evaluation, in: Handbook on Ontologies, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009, pp. 293–313,.

[90]

Butt A.S., Haller A., Xie L., RecOn: Ontology recommendation for structureless queries, Appl. Ontol. 11 (4) (2016) 301–324.

Cited By

Sakhrawi ZLabidi T(2024)Test case selection and prioritization approach for automated regression testing using ontology and COSMIC measurementAutomated Software Engineering10.1007/s10515-024-00447-831:2Online publication date: 10-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10515-024-00447-8
Zhong SScarinci ACicirello A(2023)Natural Language Processing for systems engineeringKnowledge-Based Systems10.1016/j.knosys.2022.110071259:COnline publication date: 10-Jan-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.knosys.2022.110071
Liu KMoon J(2022)Requirements Formulation Neglect as a Major Cause of Poor Data Quality in Information SystemsInternational Journal of Organizational and Collective Intelligence10.4018/IJOCI.30488612:1(1-20)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/IJOCI.304886
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Combining UML and ontology: An exploratory survey

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

Recommendations

Just What Is an Ontology, Anyway?

This tutorial article describes some definitions of "ontology" as it relates to computer applications and gives an overview of some common ontology-based applications.
Dynamic OWL Ontology Design Using UML and BPMN
IC3K 2014: Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management - Volume 2

Ontology design is a crucial task for the Semantic Web. In the literature, methodologies have been proposed to develop ontologies, however the phase between knowledge gathering and knowledge coding remains challenging. In this paper, we propose a ...
Consistency of UML class, object and statechart diagrams using ontology reasoners

We propose an automatic approach to analyze the consistency and satisfiability of Unified Modeling Language UML models containing multiple class, object and statechart diagrams using logic reasoners for the Web Ontology Language OWL 2. We describe how ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Computer Science Review

Computer Science Review Volume 35, Issue C

Feb 2020

167 pages

ISSN:1574-0137

Issue’s Table of Contents

Elsevier Inc.

Publisher

Elsevier Science Publishers B. V.

Netherlands

Publication History

Published: 01 February 2020

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Review-article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

6
Total Citations
View Citations
0
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)0
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 01 Jan 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Sakhrawi ZLabidi T(2024)Test case selection and prioritization approach for automated regression testing using ontology and COSMIC measurementAutomated Software Engineering10.1007/s10515-024-00447-831:2Online publication date: 10-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10515-024-00447-8
Zhong SScarinci ACicirello A(2023)Natural Language Processing for systems engineeringKnowledge-Based Systems10.1016/j.knosys.2022.110071259:COnline publication date: 10-Jan-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.knosys.2022.110071
Liu KMoon J(2022)Requirements Formulation Neglect as a Major Cause of Poor Data Quality in Information SystemsInternational Journal of Organizational and Collective Intelligence10.4018/IJOCI.30488612:1(1-20)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/IJOCI.304886
Medinacelli LNoyrit FMraidha CKühn TSousa V(2022)Augmenting model-based systems engineering with knowledgeProceedings of the 25th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems: Companion Proceedings10.1145/3550356.3561548(351-358)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3550356.3561548
Flotyński J(2022)Visual aspect-oriented modeling of explorable extended reality environmentsVirtual Reality10.1007/s10055-021-00601-726:3(939-961)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10055-021-00601-7
Mansfield MTamma VGoddard PCoenen FGentile AGonçalves R(2021)Capturing Expert Knowledge for Building Enterprise SME Knowledge GraphsProceedings of the 11th Knowledge Capture Conference10.1145/3460210.3493569(129-136)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3460210.3493569

View Options

View options

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents