Unlike TBC, TopBraid EDG is a multi-user collaborative system. It doesn’t support editing of files because for multi-user editing with audit trail, access control, etc., data must be in databases. If you looked at EDG documentation and this fact was not clear, we would appreciate your feedback (e.g., what documentation did you use and where would you have expected to see this info).
Your first step is to create an ontology or ontologies using TopBraid EDG (presuming you are working with ontologies, TopBraid EDG supports other types of graphs such as reference data, business glossaries, etc.). This will create a named graph in your EDG repository and will put the graph under EDG’s control - in terms of permissions, notifications, audit trail, workflows, etc.
You then need to “populate” the new ontology(s). Depending on what you are trying to do, there are options:
1. You can use “Include” on the General tab to create owl:import statement for your file-based models. With such set up your files will not be modified, but your users will be able to add new statements. To be seen by “Include” dialog, files must be on the server.
2. You can load your files into the new ontology(s) by using “Import RDF” on the Imports tab. Now uploaded RDF will live in the new ontology and you can modify all of it. To load/import files, you do not have to move the project containing them to the server. The browse dialog will let you pick a file from any directory accessible by you. It may make sense to create 20 ontologies in TopBraid EDG and load RDF of each file into its corresponding ontology. If you ever need to have files - e.g., want to export data as files after edits, use “export RDF” option under Export tab.
3. You can use some combination of 1 and 2. For example, if you have models that are all set and should not be changed/edited, keep them as files. For those that you are planning to evolve, create ontologies in the EDG repository.
Are you working with any TQ pre-sales engineer in your evaluation? I would recommend it, as they could help you with the set up questions.