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Concepts: OWL, SHACL, Context

This project separates semantic modeling from validation and serialization.

Ontologies (OWL)

OWL files describe classes, properties, and relationships. They define the vocabulary and reasoning model for each domain.

Shapes (SHACL)

SHACL files describe validation constraints. They test data quality and enforce rules such as cardinality, datatype, and allowed values.

JSON-LD Contexts

Contexts map compact JSON keys to full IRIs. They are used for authoring and parsing JSON-LD instances.

How They Work Together

  • Data instances declare @context and @type using W3ID IRIs.
  • The validator discovers the relevant OWL and SHACL files via catalogs.
  • Inference expands the data graph before SHACL validation.

Interactive Class Diagrams

Class pages embed WebVOWL for interactive ontology visualization. The viewer loads the OWL file via the published raw GitHub URL and renders an interactive graph directly in the docs.