Bio::Ontology::OntologyI - Interface for an ontology implementation
# see method documentation
This describes the minimal interface an ontology implementation must provide. In
essence, it represents a namespace with description on top of the query
interface OntologyEngineI.
This interface inherits from Bio::Ontology::OntologyEngineI.
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The rest of the documentation details each of the object methods. Internal
methods are usually preceded with a _
Title : name
Usage : $obj->name($newval)
Function: Get/set the name of this ontology.
Example :
Returns : value of name (a scalar)
Args :
Title : authority
Usage : $auth = $obj->authority()
Function: Get/set the authority for this ontology, for instance the
DNS base for the organization granting the name of the
ontology and identifiers for the terms.
This attribute is optional and should not generally
expected by applications to have been set. It is here to
follow the rules for namespaces, which ontologies serve as
for terms.
Example :
Returns : value of authority (a scalar)
Args :
Title : identifier
Usage : $id = $obj->identifier()
Function: Get an identifier for this ontology.
This is primarily intended for look-up purposes. Clients
should not expect the value to be modifiable, and it may
not be allowed to set its value from outside. Also, the
identifier's uniqueness may only hold within the scope of a
particular application's run time, i.e., it may be a memory
location.
Example :
Returns : value of identifier (a scalar)
Args :
Title : definition
Usage : $def = $obj->definition()
Function: Get a descriptive definition for this ontology.
Example :
Returns : value of definition (a scalar)
Args :
Title : close
Usage :
Function: Release any resources this ontology may occupy. In order
to efficiently release used memory or file handles, you
should call this method once you are finished with an
ontology.
Example :
Returns : TRUE on success and FALSE otherwise
Args : none
Their documentations are copied here for completeness. In most use cases, you
will want to access the query methods of an ontology, not just the name and
description ...
Title : add_term
Usage : add_term(TermI term): TermI
Function: Adds TermI object to the ontology engine term store.
For ease of use, if the ontology property of the term
object was not set, an implementation is encouraged to set
it to itself upon adding the term.
Example : $oe->add_term($term)
Returns : its argument.
Args : object of class TermI.
Title : add_relationship
Usage : add_relationship(RelationshipI relationship): RelationshipI
Function: Adds a relationship object to the ontology engine.
Example :
Returns : Its argument.
Args : A RelationshipI object.
Title : get_relationships
Usage : get_relationships(TermI term): RelationshipI
Function: Retrieves all relationship objects from this ontology engine,
or all relationships of a term if a term is supplied.
Example :
Returns : Array of Bio::Ontology::RelationshipI objects
Args : None, or a Bio::Ontology::TermI compliant object for which
to retrieve the relationships.
Title : get_predicate_terms
Usage : get_predicate_terms(): TermI[]
Function:
Example :
Returns :
Args :
Title : get_child_terms
Usage : get_child_terms(TermI term, TermI predicate_terms): TermI
Function: Retrieves all child terms of a given term, that satisfy a
relationship among those that are specified in the second
argument or undef otherwise. get_child_terms is a special
case of get_descendant_terms, limiting the search to the
direct descendants.
Example :
Returns : Array of TermI objects.
Args : First argument is the term of interest, second is the list
of relationship type terms.
Title : get_descendant_terms
Usage : get_descendant_terms(TermI term, TermI rel_types): TermI
Function: Retrieves all descendant terms of a given term, that
satisfy a relationship among those that are specified in
the second argument or undef otherwise.
Example :
Returns : Array of TermI objects.
Args : First argument is the term of interest, second is the list
of relationship type terms.
Title : get_parent_terms
Usage : get_parent_terms(TermI term, TermI predicate_terms): TermI
Function: Retrieves all parent terms of a given term, that satisfy a
relationship among those that are specified in the second
argument or undef otherwise. get_parent_terms is a special
case of get_ancestor_terms, limiting the search to the
direct ancestors.
Example :
Returns : Array of TermI objects.
Args : First argument is the term of interest, second is the list
of relationship type terms.
Title : get_ancestor_terms
Usage : get_ancestor_terms(TermI term, TermI predicate_terms): TermI
Function: Retrieves all ancestor terms of a given term, that satisfy
a relationship among those that are specified in the second
argument or undef otherwise.
Example :
Returns : Array of TermI objects.
Args : First argument is the term of interest, second is the list
of relationship type terms.
Title : get_leaf_terms
Usage : get_leaf_terms(): TermI
Function: Retrieves all leaf terms from the ontology. Leaf term is a
term w/o descendants.
Example : @leaf_terms = $obj->get_leaf_terms()
Returns : Array of TermI objects.
Args :
Title : get_root_terms
Usage : get_root_terms(): TermI
Function: Retrieves all root terms from the ontology. Root term is a
term w/o descendants.
Example : @root_terms = $obj->get_root_terms()
Returns : Array of TermI objects.
Args :
Title : get_all_terms
Usage : get_all_terms: TermI
Function: Retrieves all terms from the ontology.
We do not mandate an order here in which the terms are
returned. In fact, the default implementation will return
them in unpredictable order.
Example : @terms = $obj->get_all_terms()
Returns : Array of TermI objects.
Args :
Title : find_terms
Usage : ($term) = $oe->find_terms(-identifier => "SO:0000263");
Function: Find term instances matching queries for their attributes.
An implementation may not support querying for arbitrary
attributes, but can generally be expected to accept
-identifier and -name as queries. If both are provided,
they are implicitly intersected.
Example :
Returns : an array of zero or more Bio::Ontology::TermI objects
Args : Named parameters. The following parameters should be recognized
by any implementation:
-identifier query by the given identifier
-name query by the given name
Title : relationship_factory
Usage : $fact = $obj->relationship_factory()
Function: Get (and set, if the implementation supports it) the object
factory to be used when relationship objects are created by
the implementation on-the-fly.
Example :
Returns : value of relationship_factory (a Bio::Factory::ObjectFactoryI
compliant object)
Args :
Title : term_factory
Usage : $fact = $obj->term_factory()
Function: Get (and set, if the implementation supports it) the object
factory to be used when term objects are created by
the implementation on-the-fly.
Example :
Returns : value of term_factory (a Bio::Factory::ObjectFactoryI
compliant object)
Args :