Conversion path from EAP to OWL?

[Brad Cox]

Does anyone here know of a conversion path from EAP (Enterprise Architect) to OWL or RDF? I've tried EAP to XMI to OWL but haven't got that to work yet.

[Holger Knublauch]

Hi Brad,

we are working on exactly this as we speak. We have added a new SPARQLMotion module that makes it possible to load arbitrary XMI/EMF file and then run SPIN mapping rules over them. This will be available for TBC 3.3 in a month. The missing piece is the set of SPIN rules, but we may have finished that for 3.3 as well (or deliver it shortly afterwards).

Regards,
Holger

On Feb 28, 2010, at 4:08 AM, Brad Cox wrote:

> Does anyone here know of a conversion path from EAP (Enterprise Architect) to OWL or RDF? I've tried EAP to XMI to OWL but haven't got that to work yet.
>

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[Brad Cox]

Thanks, Holger. But I'm not clear why the (missing) SPIN mapping stage is essential, esp when that step is still missing. My problem is just loading XMI files, not mapping them to something else. Assuming loading them gives usable OWL/RDF. All I really need at this stage is the class hierarchy.

[Holger Knublauch]

Brad,

I probably was not detailed enough. What we have now is a mechanism that can load XMI files into Java objects, and then another SM module that can convert the Java objects into RDF triples. These triples mirror the MOF model (Java API using getter methods), so they are not directly the target ontology instances. But, they allow you (or us and anyone else) to write SPIN rules that create an owl:Class for each uml:Classifier etc.

Holger

[Irene Polikoff]

Brad,

 

XMI files produced by different tools vary greatly. For this reason, very few UML tools can open XMI file produced by another tool. In fact, many tools cannot open their own XMI file.

 

We have a built-in converter for .uml files, so if you can somehow open your EA file in Eclipse UML tool and save it as .uml file, you should be able to use this importer.

 

Holger is talking about a capability that is more flexible and can convert to RDF in a custom way (not just UML, but also XSD), not the way the default importer is set up.

 

Irene

[Scott Henninger]

Specifically, you can try Import... > OWL files from UML files in TBC-
ME 3.2.2 (see Help > Import and Export > Import external information >
Import UML).

As Irene says the actual supported format is the Eclipse UML2 Plugin,
but the imprter works pretty well with XMI produced with Enterprise
Architect. We are working to make UMI imports more robust and allow
customizations for the many XMI variants produced by UML tools.

-- Scott

[Brad Cox]

Thanks everyone. Turns out EA has a half dozen or so exports to various versions of XSD, XML and XMI, even an "Eclipse Integration" option. Only problem is, not ONE of them does anything remotely useful, far as I can tell so far, apart from minutely varied XML files.

XMI: Twisty passages, all different. 

Sigh. I'll keep at it.