The Empusa code generator: bridging the gap between the intended and the actual content of RDF resources

TL;DR

Empusa is a tool that helps ensure consistency between RDF data, ontologies, and schemas by generating APIs and documentation to facilitate data validation and integration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to validate and synchronize RDF resources with their underlying ontologies and schemas using automated code generation.

Findings

Empusa enables automatic creation of APIs for RDF validation.

It improves consistency between RDF data, ontologies, and schemas.

The tool generates documentation to support resource resolution.

Abstract

The RDF data model facilitates integration of diverse data available in structured and semi-structured formats. To obtain an RDF graph with a low amount of errors and internal redundancy, the chosen ontology must be consistently applied. However, with each addition of new diverse data the ontology must evolve thereby increasing its complexity, which could lead to accumulation of unintended erroneous composites. Thus, there is a need for a gatekeeping system that compares the intended content described in the ontology with the actual content of the resource. Here we present Empusa, a tool that has been developed to facilitate the creation of composite RDF resources from disparate sources. Empusa can be used to convert a schema into an associated application programming interface (API) that can be used to perform data consistency checks and generates Markdown documentation to make persistent URLs resolvable. In this way, the use of Empusa ensures consistency within and between the ontology (OWL), the Shape Expressions (ShEx) describing the graph structure, and the content of the resource.