Ontology workflow

Using Version Control

SmartSVN is the SVN client we use for keeping local copies of ontologies on your computer synchronized with those in the SVN (SubVersion server) To get SmartSVN, go to their site [1]].

Do an SVN checkout of [2] Contact Hilmar or Jim if you need help with passwords.

General workflow; begin each day by: Starting up SmartSVN and update the edit (phenoscape-ext) directory.

Read Me File

NOTE that there is a "Read Me" file in the phenoscape-ext directory here: [3]

The content here is to get you started, but you should always be working in such a way as to be consistent with the Read Me file. Look for updates to this file when you update your SVN.

Setting up your ID range

Ensure that you have Protege configured to generate new IRIs in your own range. The ranges are indicated in this file: [4]

Note that if you edit multiple files, you need to check this every time to ensure that the proper settings are in place.

Making ontology edits using Protege 4

1. Start P4. Go to File>Load ontologies. Navigate to Phenoscape-ext on your versioned directory on your hardrive.

2. Switch on the Elk reasoner. If you are making changes, be sure to synchronize the reasoner. If you do not have the ELK reasoner, you can get it here: [5]

You have access rights to any classes that are highlighted in bold font. Do not make changes to classes that are NOT in bold - changes here go through the uberon tracker, or be brought up on the mailing list. Note that it is fine for any request to go on the uberon tracker. The tracker is here: [6]

3. Saving to same file location regularly.

4. Commit regularly. Always describe the changes you have made at a high level in the svn commit messages. These are searchable in the logs and very helpful for troubleshooting. It is ok to be verbose, it is not ok to be too terse. Always do a "svn diff" before committing to look at your changes. It is easier to look at a few changes, as there are often serialization changes from Protege, usually you can see that things have moved around but not really changed. You should be able to identify the intended changes.

8. Commit to SVN repository