[DL] OBDALib Framework version 1.6.1

[Mariano Rodriguez]

========================================================================
OBDALib Framework 1.6.1 
A Java Framework for Ontology Based Data Access(OBDA)
========================================================================

We are happy to announce the release of version 1.6.1 of the OBDALib framework
for Ontology Based Data Access (OBDA). Using the OBDALib you will be able to
connect your data to your ontologies in no time and with little effort, and,
more importantly, you will be able to reason efficiently even in the presence
of very large volumes of data and very large ontologies.  

You can download the framework from:
http://obda.inf.unibz.it/protege-plugin/index.html

In this, our first major public release, we would like to introduce you to two
components of the OBDALib, i.e., Quest and The OBDA Plugin for Protege.

====== Quest ====== 

Quest is a reasoner focused on fast and efficient OBDA. The core of the system
implements cutting-edge techniques for OBDA optimization. Quest's reasoning engine
is based on DL-Lite query-rewriting, however, highly optimized to avoid common
drawbacks of rewriting-based reasoning.

The main features of Quest are: 
 * Support for RDF(S)/OWL2QL ontologies
 * SPARQL query answering
 * Epistemic query answering
 * Direct SQL queries   
 * Support for very expressive Source-to-Ontology mappings
 * Support for any JDBC data source, including database federation system (a.k.a. 
   database virtualization) such as Teiid.
 * Capable of handling billions of Data Triples and performing
   inferences WITHOUT FORWARD CHAINING OR EXPONENTIAL REWRITINGS
 * Support for "virtual OBDA" where data always remains at the sources.
 * An OWLAPI interface

====== The OBDA Plugin for Protege ====== 

The OBDA Plugin is an add-on for the Protege ontology editor aimed at
transforming Protege into a fully fledged OBDA model editor. It provides data
source and mapping editors, as well as querying facilities that in
conjunction with an OBDA-enabled reasoner, allow you to design and test every
aspect of an OBDA system.

The main features of the OBDA Plugin include: 
 * Ability to associate Data Sources and Mappings to an ontology (to create an 
   OBDA model)
 * Support for a powerful mapping language
 * Facilities for managing and testing mappings
 * Extends Protege to support OBDA-enabled reasoners (see below)
 * Facilities to import the triples defined by OBDA models (in a similar way to 
   DataMaster, DataGenie, etc)
 * Includes the Quest reasoner plugin for Protege
 * SPARQL queries (implemented by the reasoner)

Using the OBDA Plugin you will be able to define an OBDA model for your
ontologies and a) either import the data into the current ontology and work
with classic reasoners or more interestingly, b) use an OBDA-reasoner directly
and avoid having to import/duplicate any data.

== Final note and invitation ==

We are also keen to note that one of the main purposes of the OBDALib
framework is technology dissemination.

We believe the technology implemented in the OBDALib framework can be relevant
for a wide semantic-web audience of system developers. That is why we will try
to provide you with all documentation necessary to get familiar with the
technology, and, if the documentation is not enough, we invite you to contact
us directly.

Last, the OBDALib framework is in constant development, so, stay tuned!


- The OBDALib Team in Bolzano
http://obda.inf.unibz.it/protege-plugin/index.html

 
Mariano Rodriguez Muro                
http://www.inf.unibz.it/~rodriguez/   
KRDB Research Center                  
Faculty of Computer Science           
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (FUB)
Piazza Domenicani 3,                  
I-39100 Bozen-Bolzano BZ, Italy