OWL Guidelines

The following guidelines include basic naming guidance unless there are known/expected names that practitioners in the domain would expect to see.

Ontologies

Namespaces

The following are the minimum set of namespaces required in the ontologies defined in this book.

Name	prefix	URL
RDF	`rdf`	`<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>`
RDF Schema	`rdfs`	`<http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>`
XML Schema.	`xsd`	`<http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>`
OWL	`owl`	`<http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#>`
SKOS	`skos`	`<http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#>`
Dublin Core	`dcterms`	`<http://purl.org/dc/terms/>`

Minimum Required Namespaces

Ontology Predicates

The following are the expected predicates expected on all owl:Ontology resources.

Name	Required	Value / Purpose
`rdf:type` / `a`	yes	At least `owl:Ontology` , maybe `skos:ConceptScheme`
`owl:versionIRI`	yes	A version-specific IRI representing the version-distinct resource.
`owl:versionInfo`	yes	Used to attach the version identifier to this version-distinct resource.
`owl:backwardCompatibleWith`	no	TBD
`owl:imports`	no	Should import SKOS.
`skos:prefLabel`	yes	Primary label/name for this class.
`skos:altLabel`	no	Alternate label/names for this class.
`dct:creator`	no	TBD (also, editor, contributor)
`dct:title`	no	TBD
`dct:description`	no	Informal description of this class.

Expected Ontology Predicates

Notes:

The version IRI path is constructed with the template v/{year}/{month}/{day}/{domain}/, where the date is the release date for the ontology.
The version info string is constructed with the template v{year}-{month}-{day}, which matches the date in the version IRI.
Validation must ensure that any concept referenced by skos:hasTopConcept is a member of this ontology (our own constraint) and has the predicate skos:inScheme referencing this ontology.

Ontology Naming

Class Names: UpperCamelCase
Labels: Upper Camel Case

ex:FoundationalThings a owl:Ontology ;
  skos:prefLabel "Foundational Things" .

Example Ontology

##### Dependency Namespace Mapping ........................................##### 
@prefix rdf:     <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix rdfs:    <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd:     <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix owl:     <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix skos:    <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .

##### Setup self, namespace and base .....................................##### 
@prefix :        <https://ceco.one/v/2026/06/01/foundation/> .
@base            <https://ceco.one/v/2026/06/01/foundation/> .

:
  ##### OWL Ontology Type and Version ....................................##### 
  a owl:Ontology ;
  owl:versionIRI <https://ceco.one/v/2026/06/01/foundation/> ;
  owl:versionInfo "v2026-06-01" ;
  
  ##### Labels ...........................................................#####
  skos:prefLabel  "CeCO Foundation" ;
  dcterms:creator "Simon Johnston <johnstonskj@gmail.com>" ;
  dcterms:title   "Common eCommerce Ontology (CeCO) Foundation Layer"@en ;
  rdfs:seeAlso    <https://simonkjohnston.life/CeCO/foundation/index.html> ;
 
  ##### Import any necessary Ontologies here .............................#####
  owl:imports     <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core> ;
  owl:imports     <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .

Classes

Class Predicates

The following are the expected predicates expected on all rdfs:Class resources.

Name	Required	Value / Purpose
`rdf:type` / `a`	yes	At least `owl:Class`.
`rdfs:subClassOf`	no	Required if this has one or more parent classes.
`owl:disjointWith`	no	Denotes one or more classes this class is disjoint with.
`skos:prefLabel`	yes	Primary label/name for this class.
`skos:altLabel`	no	Alternate label/names for this class.
`skos:definition`	yes	Definition of this class (precise/concise as possible).
`dcterms:description`	no	Informal description of this class.
`skos:example`	no	One or more illustrative examples.

Expected Class Predicates

Class Naming

Class Names: UpperCamelCase
Labels: Sentence cased

:FoundationalThing a owl:Class ;
  skos:prefLabel "Foundational thing" .

Example Class

:Reference
  ##### Class Definition .................................................#####
  a owl:Class ;
  rdfs:subClassOf fnd:Thing ;
  owl:disjointWith fnd:Referent ;
  
  ##### Labels and Definition ............................................#####
  skos:prefLabel "Reference"@en ;
  skos:definition 
    "A label used to *refer to a thing*, distinct from a *thing* itself."@en .

Properties

Property Predicates

The following are the expected predicates expected on all owl:ObjectProperty resources.

Name	Required	Value / Purpose
`rdf:type` / `a`	yes	At least `owl:ObjectProperty`.
`rdfs:subPropertyOf`	no	Required if this has one or more parent properties.
`owl:inverseOf`	no	Denotes another property this property is the inverse of.
`skos:prefLabel`	yes	Primary label/name for this property.
`skos:altLabel`	no	Alternate label/names for this property.
`skos:definition`	yes	Definition of this property (precise/concise as possible).
`dcterms:description`	no	Informal description of this property.
`skos:example`	no	One or more illustrative examples.

Expected Property Predicates

Property Naming

Property Names: lowerCamelCase
Labels: all lower case

:foundationalRelation a owl:ObjectProperty ;
  skos:prefLabel "foundational relation" .

Example Property

:aPartyTo 
  ##### Class Definition .................................................#####
  a owl:ObjectProperty ;
  owl:inverseOf :includesParty ;
  rdfs:domain fnd:Party ;
  rdfs:range fnd:Agreement ;
  
  ##### Labels and Definition ............................................#####
  skos:prefLabel "a party to"@en ;
  skos:definition 
    "Denotes that this party plays a *rôle* within the related agreement."@en .

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Common eCommerce Ontology