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IOU Architecture Documentation

FLINT Ontology

FLINT Ontology Reference¶

The Norm Editor stores interpretations as RDF built on the TNO Norm Engineering ontologies. This page lists the namespaces, classes, and predicates the editor produces, with worked examples drawn from the conversion test fixtures.

Namespaces¶

Prefix	IRI
`flint`	`http://ontology.tno.nl/normengineering/flint#`
`src`	`http://ontology.tno.nl/normengineering/source#`
`editor`	`http://ontology.tno.nl/normengineering/editor#`
`calc`	`http://ontology.tno.nl/normengineering/calculemus#`
`choppr`	`http://ontology.tno.nl/normengineering/choppr#`
`co`	`http://purl.org/co/`
`oa`	`http://www.w3.org/ns/oa#`
`prov`	`http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#`
`owl`	`http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#`
`rdf`	`http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#`
`rdfs`	`http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#`
`xsd`	`http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#`

FLINT classes¶

Class	Meaning
`flint:Act`	An act relation
`flint:Fact`	A fact
`flint:Agent`, `flint:Action`, `flint:Object`, `flint:Duty`	Fact subtypes (a node is typed with `Fact` plus its subtype)
`flint:Duty` (as a relation)	A claim-duty relation (has `hasClaimant`/`hasHolder`)
`flint:ComplexFact`	A composite boolean construct node
`flint:BooleanFact`, `flint:SimpleFact`, `flint:ContextualizedFact`	Further fact forms recognised on import

Predicates by frame type¶

Act¶

Predicate	Object
`flint:hasAction`	the action fact
`flint:hasActor`	the actor fact
`flint:hasObject`	the object fact
`flint:hasRecipient`	the recipient fact
`flint:hasPrecondition`	a `ComplexFact` (boolean construct)
`flint:creates`	created facts (repeatable)
`flint:terminates`	terminated facts (repeatable)

Claim-duty¶

Predicate	Object
`flint:hasClaimant`	the claimant fact
`flint:hasHolder`	the holder fact
`owl:sameAs`	links the duty's fact node

Boolean construct (`ComplexFact`)¶

Predicate	Object
`flint:hasFunction`	`flint:and` or `flint:or`
`flint:hasOperands`	an ordered RDF list of operand nodes

Common to all frames¶

Predicate	Object
`rdfs:label`	the frame's short label
`rdfs:comment`	the frame's description / comments
`editor:hasPositionOnScreen`	`"[x, y]"` — the node's position in the network view
`flint:hasTextFragment`	a `src:TextFragment` anchoring the frame to source text

Source anchoring¶

Term	Meaning
`src:Source`	A source document
`src:TextFragment`	A fragment of source text linked to a frame
`src:hasCharacterRange` → `src:CharacterRange`	The character span within the sentence
`src:startsAtIndex`, `src:endsAtIndex`	`xsd:nonNegativeInteger` offsets
`src:hasContent`	the fragment text

Tasks¶

Term	Meaning
`calc:Task`	A task
`calc:involves`	Links a task to the interpretation and source graphs it uses
`calc:hasEditor`, `calc:hasEditedDate`	Task metadata used by the listing queries

Worked example — claim-duty¶

A duty with a claimant and a holder, anchored to a text fragment (abridged):

editor:b1a4e817-...
    a flint:Duty ;
    rdfs:label "claim13"^^xsd:string ;
    editor:hasPositionOnScreen "[436, 505]"^^xsd:string ;
    flint:hasClaimant editor:05d840e4-... ;
    flint:hasHolder   editor:7dc0cc08-... ;
    flint:hasTextFragment [
        a src:TextFragment ;
        src:hasCharacterRange [
            a src:CharacterRange ;
            src:startsAtIndex "0"^^xsd:nonNegativeInteger ;
            src:endsAtIndex   "192"^^xsd:nonNegativeInteger ;
        ] ;
        src:hasContent "...General Data Protection Regulation)"^^xsd:string ;
    ] ;
    owl:sameAs editor:6319ed82-... ;
.

Worked example — precondition `(A or B) and (C and D)`¶

An act precondition expressed as nested ComplexFact nodes (abridged):

flint:hasPrecondition [
    a flint:ComplexFact ;
    flint:hasFunction flint:and ;
    flint:hasOperands (
        [ a flint:ComplexFact ;
          flint:hasFunction flint:or ;
          flint:hasOperands ( editor:d08ea58a-... editor:3e880258-... ) ]
        [ a flint:ComplexFact ;
          flint:hasFunction flint:and ;
          flint:hasOperands ( editor:25510acf-... editor:3f8aabec-... ) ]
    ) ;
] ;

Where the mapping lives¶

The JSON ↔ RDF mapping is implemented in the wrap-up-api (JSON → RDF) and unwrap-api (RDF → JSON) services, and verified by their fixture suites using RDFLib graph isomorphism. See Backend & API services and the Interpretation JSON Format.