Rule Interchange on the Web

Rules play an increasingly important role in a variety of SemanticWeb applications as well as in traditional IT systems. As a universal medium for publishing information, the Web is envisioned to become the place for publishing, distributing, and exchanging rule-based knowledge. Realizing the importance and the promise of this vision, W3C has created the Rule Interchange Format Working Group (RIF WG) and chartered it to develop an interchange format for rules in alignment with the existing standards in the Semantic Web architecture stack. However, creating a generally accepted interchange format is by no means a trivial task. First, there are different understandings of what a "rule" is. Researchers and practitioners distinguish between deduction rules, normative rules, production rules, reactive rules, etc. Second, even within the same category of rules, systems use different (often incompatible) semantics and syntaxes. Third, existing Semantic Web standards, such as RDF and OWL, show incompatibilities with many kinds of rule languages at a conceptual level. This article discusses the role that different kinds of rule languages and systems play on the Web, illustrates the problems and opportunities in exchanging rules through a standardized format, and provides a snapshot of the current work of the W3C RIF WG.

[1]  François Fages,et al.  Principles and Practice of Semantic Web Reasoning, Third International Workshop, PPSWR 2005, Dagstuhl Castle, Germany, September 11-16, 2005, Proceedings , 2005, PPSWR.

[2]  Michael Kifer,et al.  HILOG: A Foundation for Higher-Order Logic Programming , 1993, J. Log. Program..

[3]  Hans Tompits,et al.  Reasoning with Rules and Ontologies , 2006, Reasoning Web.

[4]  Steffen Staab,et al.  Networked RDF graphs , 2007 .

[5]  Alexandra Poulovassilis,et al.  An event-condition-action language for XML , 2002, WWW '02.

[6]  Wolfgang Faber,et al.  The DLV system for knowledge representation and reasoning , 2002, TOCL.

[7]  L. Stein,et al.  OWL Web Ontology Language - Reference , 2004 .

[8]  Riccardo Rosati,et al.  Integrating Ontologies and Rules: Semantic and Computational Issues , 2006, Reasoning Web.

[9]  Michael Kifer,et al.  A Logic for Programming Database Transactions , 1998, Logics for Databases and Information Systems.

[10]  Michael Kifer,et al.  Logical foundations of object-oriented and frame-based languages , 1995, JACM.

[11]  Tim Furche,et al.  RDF Querying: Language Constructs and Evaluation Methods Compared , 2006, Reasoning Web.

[12]  Ian Horrocks,et al.  OWL Web Ontology Language Reference-W3C Recommen-dation , 2004 .

[13]  Chitta Baral,et al.  Knowledge Representation, Reasoning and Declarative Problem Solving , 2003 .

[14]  Jos de Bruijn,et al.  On Representational Issues About Combinations of Classical Theories with Nonmonotonic Rules , 2006, KSEM.

[15]  Frank Wolter,et al.  Monodic fragments of first-order temporal logics: 2000-2001 A.D , 2001, LPAR.

[16]  Peter Gyngell,et al.  Process Innovation: Reengineering Work through Information Technology , 1994 .

[17]  Massimo Marchiori,et al.  Ten Theses on Logic Languages for the Semantic Web , 2005, Rule Languages for Interoperability.

[18]  H. Lan,et al.  SWRL : A semantic Web rule language combining OWL and ruleML , 2004 .

[19]  Melvin Fitting,et al.  Fixpoint Semantics for Logic Programming a Survey , 2001, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[20]  Yoav Shoham,et al.  Nonmonotonic Logics: Meaning and Utility , 1987, IJCAI.

[21]  Jim Melton,et al.  Advanced SQL:1999: Understanding Object-Relational and Other Advanced Features , 2002 .

[22]  Wil M. P. van der Aalst,et al.  Workflow Patterns , 2004, Distributed and Parallel Databases.

[23]  Wolfgang May,et al.  Combining ECA Rules with Process Algebras for the Semantic Web , 2006, 2006 Second International Conference on Rules and Rule Markup Languages for the Semantic Web (RuleML'06).

[24]  Georg Gottlob,et al.  The Elog Web Extraction Language , 2001, LPAR.

[25]  Jennifer Widom,et al.  The Starburst Active Database Rule System , 1996, IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng..

[26]  Adrian Giurca,et al.  A Usable Interchange Format for Rich Syntax Rules Integrating OCL, RuleML and SWRL , 2006 .

[27]  Alexandra Poulovassilis,et al.  Event-Condition-Action Rule Languages for the Semantic Web , 2006, EDBT Workshops.

[28]  Herman J. ter Horst,et al.  Completeness, decidability and complexity of entailment for RDF Schema and a semantic extension involving the OWL vocabulary , 2005, J. Web Semant..

[29]  Sebastian Schaffert,et al.  Xcerpt: a rule-based query and transformation language for the web , 2004 .

[30]  Georg Gottlob,et al.  Disjunctive datalog , 1997, TODS.

[31]  Krzysztof R. Apt,et al.  Logic Programming , 1990, Handbook of Theoretical Computer Science, Volume B: Formal Models and Sematics.

[32]  Kenneth A. Ross,et al.  Unfounded sets and well-founded semantics for general logic programs , 1988, PODS.

[33]  Michael Eckert,et al.  Reactive Rules on the Web , 2007, Reasoning Web.

[34]  Arvind Malhotra,et al.  XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes Second Edition , 2004 .

[35]  Manuel V. Hermenegildo,et al.  Distributed WWW Programming using (Ciao-)Prolog and the PiLLoW library , 2001, Theory Pract. Log. Program..

[36]  Michael Eckert,et al.  Reactivity on the web: paradigms and applications of the language XChange , 2005, SAC '05.

[37]  Sushil Jajodia,et al.  Conceptual Modeling — ER 2001 , 2001, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[38]  Paula-Lavinia Patrânjan,et al.  The language Xchange: a declarative approach to reactivity on the web , 2005 .

[39]  Gunter Saake,et al.  Logics for databases and information systems , 1998 .

[40]  Gerd Wagner,et al.  Agent-Oriented Enterprise Modeling Based on Business Rules , 2001, ER.

[41]  Charles L. Forgy,et al.  Rete: a fast algorithm for the many pattern/many object pattern match problem , 1991 .

[42]  Michael Eckert,et al.  Realizing Business Processes with ECA Rules: Benefits, Challenges, Limits , 2006, PPSWR.

[43]  Piero A. Bonatti,et al.  Driving and monitoring provisional trust negotiation with metapolicies , 2005, Sixth IEEE International Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks (POLICY'05).

[44]  Pascal Hitzler,et al.  RoW2006 Reasoning on the Web Workshop at WWW2006 , 2006 .

[45]  Stéphane Bressan,et al.  Efficiency and Effectiveness of XML Tools and Techniques and Data Integration over the Web , 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[46]  Arvind Malhotra,et al.  Xml schema part 2: datatypes , 1999 .

[47]  Axel Polleres,et al.  From SPARQL to rules (and back) , 2007, WWW '07.

[48]  Jennifer Widom,et al.  Active Database Systems: Triggers and Rules For Advanced Database Processing , 1994 .

[49]  James Bailey,et al.  Flavours of XChange, a Rule-Based Reactive Language for the (Semantic) Web , 2005, RuleML.

[50]  Dan Suciu,et al.  Verifying Integrity Constraints on Web Sites , 1999, IJCAI.

[51]  Piero A. Bonatti.  Rule Languages for Security and Privacy in Cooperative Systems , 2005, COMPSAC.

[52]  Wolfgang May,et al.  Extending an OWL Web Node with Reactive Behavior , 2006, PPSWR.

[53]  Stefano Paraboschi,et al.  Active XQuery , 2002, Proceedings 18th International Conference on Data Engineering.

[54]  Zhisheng Huang,et al.  SWI-Prolog and the web , 2007, Theory and Practice of Logic Programming.