protege_pizza

🍕 Mastering Ontology Engineering with Protégé and Pizza.owl

Project Vision

This repository is the official engineering environment for the “Mastering Ontology Engineering” project, providing a professional roadmap from semantic foundations to Executable Knowledge Architecture (EKA). This project transforms the legendary Pizza OWL tutorial into a deep-dive professional experience, connecting ontology theory, Protégé operations, and real-world knowledge graph implementation.

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📚 Companion eBook — Now Available in Three Volumes!

The complete companion eBook is now available in three volumes, published on both Leanpub and Amazon Kindle (KDP). Volume 4 (the SKDL chapters) is in progress.

Volume 1: Chapter 00-08 – Ontology Foundation in Protégé

Start here. Install Protégé, build your first classes, run a reasoner, and meet the Executable Knowledge Architecture (EKA) framework that ties the whole series together.

• LeanPub: mastering-ontology-engineering-volume1
• Amazon Kindle: Volume 1: Chapter 00-08: From Semantic Foundations to Executable Knowledge Architecture (EKA)

Volume 2: Chapters 09-13 – Object Properties, Characteristics, Domain and Range

Turn a static class hierarchy into a real semantic graph: object properties, inverse properties, property characteristics, and domain/range.

• Leanpub: mastering-ontology-engineering-volume2
• Amazon Kindle: Volume 2: Chapters 09-13 – Object Properties, Characteristics, Domain and Range

Volume 3: Chapters 14-16 – Semantic Requirements and EKA Governance

The chapter that grew into its own book — existential and universal restrictions, the correct VegetarianPizza pattern, and how restrictions become EKA governance.

• Leanpub: mastering-ontology-engineering-volume3
• Amazon Kindle: VOLUME 3: Chapters 14-16 – Semantic Requirements and EKA Governance

Volume 4: Chapters 17-24 – Semantic Knowledge Development Lifecycle (SKDL)

You know how to build classes in Protégé. But do you know when to attach meaning — and when to wait? Volume 4 of “Mastering Ontology Engineering” introduces SKDL: the Semantic Knowledge Development Lifecycle. Seven stages. One discipline. Zero guesswork. From Aristotle to Description Logic. From taxonomy to executable knowledge. This is where pizza becomes philosophy — and philosophy become engineering.

• Leanpub

  mastering-ontology-engineering-volume4

• Amazon Kindle: VOLUME 4 – Chapters 17-24 – Semantic Knowledge Development Lifecycle

👉 Read the Source & Materials — All chapters are available for free in this repository under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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🌟 Why Learn Ontology & Protégé?

In the era of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), Ontologies provide the structured “world knowledge” that machines need to reason. By mastering this tutorial, you will learn how to:

• Define complex hierarchies and relationships.
• Use Reasoners to automatically classify data.
• Write SWRL rules to add intelligent logic.
• Build the backbone of Knowledge Graphs.

🎓 The Learning Path

This repository is a companion to my comprehensive video course. I recommend following the videos while using the snapshot models in this repo to check your work.

📺 Watch the Full Course:

• Protégé 5.x Pizza Tutorial Video Series (YouTube)
• 合集 Ontology Practice - Build pizza.owl in Protégé (BiliBili B站)
• 使用Protege建立Ontology (DouYin 抖音)

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🛠 Repository Structure

I have tracked my progress step-by-step. You can jump into any stage of the tutorial by using the files in:

• /snapshot_models: RDF/OWL files at various stages of the tutorial.
• /ontology_ref: Reference materials and SHACL shapes.
• Protege 5 New OWL Pizza Tutorial V3.2.pdf: The core manual based on Michael DeBellis’ guide.

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Acknowledgements & Intellectual Heritage

The evolution of knowledge representation is a collaborative journey. This work is a direct descendant of the Protégé 4 Tutorial (version 1.3) by Matthew Horridge, and we honor the foundational contributions of Holger Knublauch, Alan Rector, Robert Stevens, Chris Wroe, Simon Jupp, Georgina Moulton, Nick Drummond, and Sebastian Brandt.

We have incorporated revisions by Michael DeBellis (bridging Protégé 5.5 transitions and advanced SHACL/SPARQL practices) and acknowledge the critical insights from Lorenz Buehmann, André Wolski, Dick Ooms, Colin Pilkington, Livia Pinera, Jans Aasman, Yan Xu, and the team at Franz Inc.. We are honored to feature a foreword and ongoing review by Timothy W. Cook (Founder of SDC).

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Licensing & Compliance

To balance educational openness with software governance, this repository utilizes dual licensing:

• Documentation & eBook Content: Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). This ensures the “share-alike” requirement of the original Pizza Tutorial is strictly honored.
• Software, Code & Scripts: Licensed under GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0).

For full legal declarations and the detailed attribution chain, please refer to the LICENSE.md file in the root of this repository.

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Setup

• Download Protégé.
• Install a reasoner like HermiT or Pellet (included in most Protégé versions).

2. Modules & Curriculum

Phase	Topics Covered	Key Videos
Foundations	Classes, Subclasses, and Disjointness	01 - 09
Properties	Object Properties, Domains, and Ranges	10 - 13
Logic	Existential & Universal Restrictions	14 - 24
Advanced	SWRL Rules, SPARQL Queries, and SHACL	37 - 42
Cloud	WebProtégé & WebVOWL	43 - 45

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🧠 Key Concepts Covered

• Taxonomies vs. Ontologies: Moving beyond simple hierarchies to complex logic.
• Open World Assumption: Understanding how OWL reasoning differs from traditional databases.
• Description Logic (DL): Learning to query your knowledge base effectively.
• SWRL & SQWRL: Adding “If-Then” rules to your ontology.

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🔗 Resources & Credits

• Original Guide: Based on Michael DeBellis’ excellent Protégé OWL tutorial.
• Mind Map: Use the pizza.owl tutorial.mm (Open with FreePlane) for a visual overview.
• Visualization: View the model via WebVOWL.
• Official eBook: Available in the /ebook folder.
• YouTube Playlist: Protégé OWL Pizza Tutorial Hands-on Series.
• EKA Framework: Official insights at xiaoqi.com.

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🤝 Contributing & Support

If you find this tutorial helpful, please:

• ⭐ Star this repository to help others find it.
• 📺 Subscribe to the YouTube Channel for future updates and courses.
• 📘 Buy the Book: Support my work by picking up a copy of the eBook on Leanpub or Amazon Kindle
• 💬 Feel free to open an Issue if you have questions about the modeling steps.

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👥 Contributors

A heartfelt thank you to all the contributors who have helped improve this project through their issues, discussions, and feedback!

Issues & Discussion Participants

GitHub User	Contribution Type
@nikokaoja	Kudos! in Issue
@mlungsta89	Issue
Timothy W. Cook	Foreword for eBook, technical review
Michael DeBellis	Issues / Foreword for eBook
@LaraAcuna	Question in Discussion
Add your name here	Open an Issue or Discussion

How to Contribute

We welcome contributions of all kinds! Here’s how you can help:

1. Report Bugs or Ask Questions: Open a new Issue to report a problem or ask for clarification.
2. Start a Discussion: Join the conversation in Discussions to share your experiences, suggest improvements, or ask for help.
3. Suggest Changes: If you have a specific improvement in mind, feel free to open a Pull Request.

Happy Pizza Modeling! 🍕

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Last updated at 2026-08-21

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