PROMPT Operations 

Depending on the way you are working with your ontologies, you can copy, merge, or move frames from your source ontologie(s) into your working project. Except for the move operations, the source ontologie(s) remain unchanged. For the move operations, if you move a frame from the source ontology, it is removed from the source ontology and incorporated into the working project.

Notes

  1. PROMPT keeps track of the original subclass–superclass relations and reestablishes them. For example, suppose Dog was a subclass of Mammal in the animals project. Suppose you copy Dog first (PROMPT creates Dog--animals class), and then copy Mammal. PROMPT will move Dog--animals to become a subclass of Mammal-animals.
  2. You can perform multiple operations using the same source frame(s). For example, you can copy a frame more than once; in this case, Protégé will append a character to the name of the second copy to ensure that the frames in the working ontology all have unique names. Or you could incorporate a copy of a frame into the working ontology, and also merge that frame with another frame.
  3. For merge and copy class operations, PROMPT will automatically copy any slots directly attached to the source classes. By default, however, it will not copy inherited slots. To have PROMPT copy all slots, whether directly attached or inherited, select Consider inherited slots in the PROMPT Configuration Dialog Box.
  4. PROMPT keeps the log (along with some statistics) in the <project-name>.mlog file

The following PROMPT operations are available:

The operations available depend on your initial choice of how the mode for incorporating your source ontologies into the working project. The available operations for each type of PROMPT action are as follows:

Mode

Available Operations

merge mode merge classes, merge slots, merge instances
copy class, copy slot, copy instance
remove parent
extract mode copy class, copy instance, copy slot
moving frames mode move class, move all instances of class, move instance, move slot
compare mode view only; no operations available

For most operations, options allow you to choose whether you also want to operate on related frames. You can set or change options using the New Operations Tab, the Create Operation Dialog Box, or the Edit Operation Dialog Box. See Creating an Operation or Editing an Operation for more information.

Merge Operations

Merge operations take two frames of the same type from the ontologies specified on the ontology menus and create a single frame that combines them in the working ontology. Merge operations are only available for merge mode. They have two arguments, which must be frames of the same type (i.e., two classes, two slots, or two instances). 

Most often, you will merge frames from the two source ontologies. However, by changing the ontologies specified on the ontology menus, you can, for example, merge two frames that are in the working ontology. You might do this, for example, if you have already copied the frames from the source ontologies and want to merge them. If you started with a non-empty working ontology, you can also merge pre-existing frames within the working ontology.  

Merge operations are as follows:

When you perform a merge operation, the merged frame is added to the working ontology. It appears in the normal color of any frame and there is no indication as to its source. 

When you are merging two frames with different names, documentation strings, or roles (that is, different own slot values), PROMPT asks you to choose the value for the merged frame. You can also set one of the two source onotogies as "preferred"; this tells PROMPT to automatically choose the name, documentation, and role of the frame that comes from the preferred ontology. See Configuring Prompt for more information.

In the Source Knowledge Bases Window, the source frames to the merge are marked with a mapped icon to indicate that they have been mapped to the working ontology. 

Copy Operations

Copy operations copy a frame from the source ontology to the working ontology, leaving the source ontology unchanged. Copy operations have a single argument. They are available for merge and extract modes.

If you are in the Extract mode, you can specify what to extract (copy) in more detail. See specifying traversals for more information.

When you perform a copy operation, a copy of the selected frame is added to the working ontology. It appears in color and there is a suffix indicating its source. You can remove all the suffixes by selecting Remove Suffixes from the Prompt Menu..

In the Source Knowledge Bases Window, the source frame to the copy is marked with a mapped icon, to indicate that it has been mapped to the working ontology. 

Move Operations

Move operations remove a frame from an included ontology and move it to an including ontology, altering both ontologies. Move operations have a single argument. They are only available for moving frames mode.

In the Source Knowledge Bases Window, the source frame to the move is marked with a local icon, to indicate that it is now local to the including ontology. 

Remove Parent Operation

The remove parent operation allows you break cycles in the hierarchy created during a merge.


Next: Creating an Operation

Prompt Table of Contents