ISSUE-161: [EDITORIAL] terminology fixups

terminology

[EDITORIAL] terminology fixups

State:

CLOSED

Product:

SHACL Spec

Raised by:

Peter Patel-Schneider

Opened on:

2016-05-14

Description:

I took a pass over the terminology section. Initially I made in-line edits
but there were so many that I gave up and just produced a new terminology
section. This new section is more rigourous, has fewer errors, is less
defensive, does not depend on anything outside of the core of SHACL, and
does not introduce any terminology excess to that needed to uunderstand the
core of SHACL.

There is still the open question here as to what makes a node in a shapes
graph be a shape - is it that the node is a SHACL instance of sh:Shape in
the graph or is it that the node has scopes, filters, or constraints?




Throughout this document, the following terminology is used.

Basic RDF Terminology
This document uses the terms RDF graph, RDF triple, IRI, literal, blank
node, node of an RDF graph, RDF term, and subject, predicate, and object of
RDF triples as defined in RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax
[rdf11-concepts]. SHACL can be used with RDF graphs that are obtained by any
means, e.g. from the file system, HTTP requests, or RDF datasets. SHACL
makes no assumptions about whether a graph contains the triples that are
entailed from the graph under any RDF entailment regime.

Property Values
The values of (or for) a property p for a node n in an RDF graph are the
objects of the triples in the graph that have n as subject and p as
predicate. The inverse values of (or for) a property p for a node n in an
RDF graph are the subjects of the triples in the graph that have n as object
and p as predicate.

SHACL Subclass, SHACL Superclass
A node Sub in an RDF graph is a SHACL subclass of another node Super in the
graph if there is a sequence of triples in the graph each with predicate
rdfs:subClassOf such that the subject of the first triple is Sub, the object
of the last triple is Super, and the object of each triple except the last
is the subject of the next. If Sub is a SHACL subclass of Super in an RDF
graph then Super is a SHACL superclass of Sub in the graph.

SHACL Type
The SHACL types of a node in an RDF graph are its values for rdf:type in the
graph as well as the SHACL superclasses of these values in the graph.

SHACL Class
Nodes in an RDF graph that might be subclasses, superclasses, or types of
nodes in the graph are often referred to as SHACL classes. SHACL makes no
assumption whether a SHACL class has any particular value for rdf:type in
the graph.

SHACL Instance
A node in an RDF graph is a SHACL instance of a SHACL class in the graph if
one of its SHACL types in the graph is the given class.

Validation, Data graph, Shapes graph
SHACL defines what it means for an RDF graph, referred to as the data graph,
to validate against an RDF graph containing shapes, referred to as the
shapes graph. The result of validation is a validation report including
validation results such as informational results, warnings and violations.
Validation may also result in a failure. Validation of a shapes graph
against a data graph involves validating each shape in the shapes graph
against the data graph.

Shape
A shape is a node in a shapes graph that [A shape is a node in a shapes
graph that is a SHACL instance of sh:Shape?. A shape] provides a collection
of scopes, filters, and constraints that specify how a data graph is
validated against the shape. Shapes can also provide non-validating
information, such as labels and names.

Validation of a node against a shape
A node in a data graph is said to validate against a shape if validation of
that node against the shape neither produces any validation results that are
violations nor results in a failure.

Scope
A scope is a triple or node in a shapes graph that specfies which nodes in a
data graph are considered in-scope for a shape. Valdating a shape in a
shapes graph involves validating the in-scope nodes for all scopes of the
shape. SHACL provides several different kinds of scopes, most notably all
SHACL instances in the data graph of a node in the data graph or a given
node in the data graph.

Focus Node
A node in a data graph that is validated against a shape is called a focus
node.

Filter
A filter is a shape in a shapes graph that limits the nodes that are
validated against the constraints of another shape. Only those nodes that
validate against all the filters of a shape are validated against its
constraints.

Constraint
A constraint is a node in a shapes graph that determines how to validate
focus nodes based on the values of properties of the node. Constraints can,
for example, require that a focus node be an IRI or that a focus node has a
particular value for a property and also a minumum number of values for the
property. Constraints that are about a particular property and its values
for the focus node are called property constraints. Constraints that are
about a particular property and its inverse values for the focus node are
called inverse property constraints. Constraints can also have
non-validating properties (such as names and default values) that do not
lead to validation results.

Constraint Component, Parameter
A constraint component represents a part of a constraint that is determined
by the values one or more properties. These properties are called
parameters. For example, sh:minCount is a parameter for the component that
checks whether the focus node has at least a minimun number of values for a
particular property. Validating a node against a constraint involves
validating the node against each of its components.

Related Actions Items:

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Related emails:

1. Re: [EDITORIAL] Scope examples (from holger@topquadrant.com on 2016-05-16)
2. Re: shapes-ISSUE-161 (terminology): [EDITORIAL] terminology fixups [SHACL Spec] (from holger@topquadrant.com on 2016-05-16)
3. [EDITORIAL] Scope examples (from irene@topquadrant.com on 2016-05-15)
4. Re: shapes-ISSUE-161 (terminology): [EDITORIAL] terminology fixups [SHACL Spec] (from kcoyle@kcoyle.net on 2016-05-15)
5. Re: shapes-ISSUE-161 (terminology): [EDITORIAL] terminology fixups [SHACL Spec] (from kontokostas@informatik.uni-leipzig.de on 2016-05-14)
6. shapes-ISSUE-161 (terminology): [EDITORIAL] terminology fixups [SHACL Spec] (from sysbot+tracker@w3.org on 2016-05-14)

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