Protégé 5 Documentation

Class Hierarchy

Window > Views > Class views > Class hierarchy

The class hierarchy view displays the asserted and inferred class hierarchies. The asserted class hierarchy is visible by default.

The asserted class hierarchy view is one of the primary navigation devices in Protégé. It is presented as a tree where nodes in the tree represent classes. A child-parent relationship in the tree represents a sub/super class relationship in the class hierarchy. (Note: Starting with Protégé version 5.5 the class hierarchy can show other relationships as well. For details please check out the Display relationships section.)

In the asserted class hierarchy, a class will be shown as a child of another class in the tree if it is asserted to be a SubClassOf that other class, or if it is asserted to be EquivalentTo a class expression that is an intersection containing that other class as an operand. For example, if the ontology contains A SubClassOf B, then A will appear under B in the tree. Similarly, if the ontology contains E EquivalentTo B and D (where D is any other class expression) then E will also be shown as a chid of B in the tree. Any classes that are not asserted to be a subclass of some other class will show up directly under owl:Thing (the root).

Note that names in the class hierarchy are quoted using single quotes if the name contains spaces. The quotes, however, are not part of the name.

Switching between Asserted and Inferred modes

The asserted class hierarchy is shown by default. To switch to the inferred hierarchy either select “Inferred” from the drop-down or press ‘i’ when the hierarchy has the focus. If the inferred hierarchy is shown, the asserted hierarchy can be displayed by selecting “Asserted” from the drop-down or press ‘a’ when the hierarchy has the focus.

Inserting New Classes

In order to insert new classes into the class hierarchy, the Asserted class hierarchy must be selected.

New classes can be inserted into the class hierarchy using the class creation buttons at the top of the hierarchy, by using the popup menu that is displayed by right clicking (CMD+Click on a Mac) on the class hierarchy, or by using keyboard shortcuts. These mechanisms are described in more detail below.

The class hierarchy toolbar. From left to right the buttons are: "Add SubClass", "Add sibling class", "Delete selected class"
The **Add SubClasses** Wizard. On this Wizard page a tab-indented hierarchy has been entered. Upon completion, this hierarchy will be created as a sub-hierarchy of the selected class.

Deleting classes

The class hierarchy can be used to delete classes (axioms that mention the classes will be removed from the ontology). Select the class (or classes) to be deleted and then activate delete:

After activating delete in one of the ways described above, the “Delete class” dialog will be displayed (shown below). Select the option to either delete the selected class, or delete the selected class and all of the descendants of the selected class in the asserted class hierarchy. Protégé will compute the classes to be deleted based on the selected option and will then remove all axioms that mention these classes from the set of active ontologies.

The delete class dialog. Here, the class Car is being deleted.

Icons

The class hierarchy contains two types of icons: Solid yellow icons and yellow icons with three white lines through the middle, representing the equivalence symbol.

The icons containing the equivalence symbol (three white lines) denote classes that are asserted to be equivalent to some other class expression. These are known as defined classes.

An example of a defined class

The solid yellow icons denote classes that are not defined classes (i.e. aren’t asserted to be equivalent to some other class expression). These classes are known as primitive classes.

An example of a primitive class

Bolding

The class hierarchy view may show some names in a bold font and others in a regular font. Roughly speaking, classes whose names are shown in a bold font are described using axioms in the active ontology. This means that the class appears on the left hand side of a SubClassOf axiom, in an EquivalentClasses axiom, in a DisjointUnion axiom or in a DisjointClasses axiom. Classes whose names are shown in a regular weight font are merely referenced in the imports closure of the active ontology.

An example the bolding used in the class hierarchy. Class B is shown in bold because the active ontology contains axioms that describe it. Class A is not shown in bold because it is merely referenced by the active ontology (in the description of class B).

Drag and Drop

It is possible to edit some of the SubClassOf axioms in the ontology by dragging and dropping tree nodes in the asserted class hierarchy. Drag and Drop only works for primitive classes - that is, classes that have a solid yellow icon. Dropping a class on top of an other class will make it a SubClassOf that other class.

Display relationships

As described in the introduction, by default, the class hierarchy tree is generated based on SubClassOf axioms. Starting with Protégé version 5.5, however, the class tree can also display other parent/child relationships besides SubClassOf. This feature can be activated and deactivated using the View -> Display relationship in class hierarchy menu. When display relationships is activated, the class hierarchy will show an additional arrow icon in the front of the solid yellow class icon. The arrow will be gray for the standard subclass-superclass relationship, and it will be blue for any other relationship that is based on an axiom involving an object property. An example is shown below.

The class hierarchy tree showing mixed relationships. Gray arrow in front of the class icon represents a SubClassOf axiom, while blue arrow represents an axiom involving an object property.

Hovering over a class that has a blue arrow displayed in front of it will generate a tooltip, which, besides the usual information (display name, IRI, and OBO id, if applicable), will also show the name of the object property through which the class is related to its parent class. For an easier interpretation, the tooltip will also display a verbalized version of the full relationship between child and parent. See an example below.

An example tooltip in the mixed class hierarchy, showing details about the relationships between the child class and its parent.

See also

Common View Look and Feel