Convert industry-standard ontologies to DTDL for Azure Digital Twins

• 2/12/2021
• 2 minutes to read
• • b

Most ontologies are based on semantic web standards such as OWL, RDF, and RDFS.

To use a model with Azure Digital Twins, it must be in DTDL format. This articles describes general design guidance in the form of a conversion pattern for converting RDF-based models to DTDL so that they can be used with Azure Digital Twins.

The article also contains sample converter code for RDF and OWL converters, which can be extended for other schemas in the building industry.

Conversion pattern

There are several third-party libraries that can be used when converting RDF-based models to DTDL. Some of these libraries allow you to load your model file into a graph. You can loop through the graph looking for specific RDFS and OWL constructs, and convert these to DTDL.

The following table is an example of how RDFS and OWL constructs can be mapped to DTDL.

The following C# code snippet shows how an RDF model file is loaded into a graph and converted to DTDL, using the dotNetRDF library.

using VDS.RDF.Ontology;
using VDS.RDF.Parsing;
using Microsoft.Azure.DigitalTwins.Parser;

//...

Console.WriteLine("Reading file...");

FileLoader.Load(_ontologyGraph, rdfFile.FullName);

// Start looping through for each owl:Class
foreach (OntologyClass owlClass in _ontologyGraph.OwlClasses)
{

    // Generate a DTMI for the owl:Class
    string Id = GenerateDTMI(owlClass);

    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(Id))
    {

        Console.WriteLine($"{owlClass.ToString()} -> {Id}");

        // Create Interface
        var dtdlInterface = new DtdlInterface
        {
            Id = Id,
            Type = "Interface",
            DisplayName = GetInterfaceDisplayName(owlClass),
            Comment = GetInterfaceComment(owlClass),
            Contents = new List<DtdlContents>(),
        };

        // Use DTDL 'extends' for super classes 
        IEnumerable<OntologyClass> foundSuperClasses = owlClass.DirectSuperClasses;

        //...
    }

    // Add interface to the list of interfaces
    _interfaceList.Add(dtdlInterface);
}

// Serialize to JSON
var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(_interfaceList);

//...

Converter samples

RDF converter application

There is a sample application available that converts an RDF-based model file to DTDL (version 2) for use by the Azure Digital Twins service. It has been validated for the Brick schema, and can be extended for other schemas in the building industry (such as Building Topology Ontology (BOT), Semantic Sensor Network, or buildingSmart Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)).

The sample is a .NET Core command-line application called RdfToDtdlConverter.

You can get the sample here: RdfToDtdlConverter.

To download the code to your machine, hit the Download ZIP button underneath the title on the sample landing page. This will download a ZIP file under the name RdfToDtdlConverter_sample_application_to_convert_RDF_to_DTDL.zip, which you can then unzip and explore.

You can use this sample to see the conversion patterns in context, and to have as a building block for your own applications performing model conversions according to your own specific needs.

OWL2DTDL converter

The OWL2DTDL Converter is a sample that translates an OWL ontology into a set of DTDL interface declarations, which can be used with the Azure Digital Twins service. It also works for ontology networks, made of one root ontology reusing other ontologies through owl:imports declarations.

This converter was used to translate the Real Estate Core Ontology to DTDL and can be used for any OWL-based ontology.

Next steps

• Learn more about extending industry-standard ontologies to meet your specifications: Concepts: Extending industry ontologies.

• Or, continue on the path for developing models based on ontologies: Using ontology strategies in a model development path.