MARS: Modular Active Rules for the Semantic Web
SWAN: Semantic Web Active Node

MARS is a general framework for specifying and implementing active rules (ECA rules) in the Semantic Web. SWAN is an architecture for individual active nodes that are compatible with MARS.

MARS and SWAN are developed by the DBIS group of Göttingen University within the Working Group I5: Evolution and Reactivity of the EU FP6 Network of Excellence REasoning on the WEb with Rules and SEmantics (REWERSE). MARS shares its ideas with the R³ project at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. The components and interfaces of both projects are interoperable.

A prototype for MARS&SWAN is available with an online interface at http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/frontend. The travel scenario frontend is another demonstrator for the MARS and SWAN prototypes.

The MARS protopype features the following services/languages:

• ECA-ML (designed by the MARS group) as rule language
• woodstock as an implementation of the SNOOP Composite Event Algebra,
• an implementation of XML-QL for atomic event matching,
• OWLQ (designed by the MARS group) as query language (for queries, tests, and event matching) and RDF-CL as RDF generation language (for actions and for raising events),
• an implementation of the CCS - Calculus of Communicating Systems process algebra for implementing composite actions,
• an LSR - Languages and Services registry where all services that signed on to the MARS infrastructure are listed. Note that the MARS framework is open for foreign languages and services.

Publications

• Evolution and Reactivity for the Web. José Júlio Alferes, Wolfgang May; In Reasoning Web, First International Summer School, Norbert Eisinger and Jan Maluszynski, eds., Springer LNCS 3564, pp. 134-172, 2005.
• A general language for Evolution and Reactivity in the Semantic Web. José Júlio Alferes, Ricardo Amador, Wolfgang May; Workshop on Principles and Practice of Semantic Web Reasoning (PPSWR 2005) , Sept. 11-16, 2005. Dagstuhl, Germany, Springer LNCS 3703, pp. 101-115.
• An Ontology- and Resources-Based Approach to Evolution and Reactivity in the Semantic Web. Wolfgang May, José Júlio Alferes, Ricardo Amador; Ontologies, DataBases, and Applications of Semantics (ODBASE 2005) , Oct. 31 - Nov. 4, 2005. Agia Napa, Cyprus, Springer LNCS 3761, pp. 1553-1570.
• Active Rules in the Semantic Web: Dealing with Language Heterogeneity. Wolfgang May, José Júlio Alferes, Ricardo Amador; International Conference on Rules and Rule Markup Languages for the Semantic Web (RuleML 2005) , Nov 10-12, 2005. Galway, Ireland, Springer LNCS 3791, Springer, pp. 30-44.
• An ECA Engine for Deploying Heterogeneous Component Languages in the Semantic Web. Erik Behrends, Oliver Fritzen, Wolfgang May, Daniel Schubert; Workshop 'Reactivity on the Web' , March 31, 2006. Munich, Germany, LNCS 4254 (EDBT Workshops), Springer, pp. 887-898.
• Extending an OWL Web Node with Reactive Behavior. Wolfgang May, Franz Schenk, Elke von Lienen; Workshop on Principles and Practice of Semantic Web Reasoning (PPSWR 2006) , June 10/11, 2006. Springer LNCS 4187, pp. 134-148.
• Combining ECA Rules with Process Algebras for the Semantic Web. Erik Behrends, Oliver Fritzen, Wolfgang May, Franz Schenk; International Conference on Rules and Rule Markup Languages for the Semantic Web (RuleML 2006) , November 10/11, 2006. Athens, Georgia, IEEE Comp. Sc. Press, pp. 29-38.
• A Framework and Components for ECA Rules in the Web (Demo). Erik Behrends, Oliver Fritzen, Wolfgang May, Franz Schenk, Daniel Schubert; International Conference on Rules and Rule Markup Languages for the Semantic Web (RuleML 2006; Demonstration Session) , November 10/11, 2006. Athens, Georgia, USA.
• Rule-Based Active Domain Brokering for the Semantic Web. Erik Behrends, Oliver Fritzen, Tobias Knabke, Wolfgang May, Franz Schenk; The First International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems , June 7-8, 2007. Innsbruck, Austria, Springer LNCS 4524, p. 259-268.
• Event Algebras and Process Algebras in ECA Rules. Erik Behrends, Oliver Fritzen, Wolfgang May, Franz Schenk; Fundamenta Informaticae 82, pp. 237-263, 2008.
• Markup and Component Interoperability for Active Rules. Oliver Fritzen, Wolfgang May, Franz Schenk; The Second International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems , October 31 - November 1, 2008. Karlsruhe, Germany, to appear in Springer LNCS
• A Database-Based Service for Handling Logical Variable Bindings. Wolfgang May; Workshop Database-as-a-Service , March 3, 2009. Münster, Germany, Technical Report, Institut f. Wirtschaftsinformatik, Univ. Münster, No. 122 , pp. 13-25.
• Deep Web Queries in a Semantic Web Environment. Thomas Hornung, Wolfgang May; 2nd Workshop on Advances in Accessing Deep Web (ADW 2009) , April 27, 2009. Poznan, Poland, LNBIP 37, pp. 39-50.
• Process Algebra-Based Query Workflows. Thomas Hornung, Wolfgang May, Georg Lausen; 21st International Conference on Advanced Information Systems , June 8 - 12, 2009. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Springer LNCS 5565, pp. 440-454.
• Semantic Annotations and Querying of Web Data Sources. Thomas Hornung, Wolfgang May; International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems (CoopIS 2009) , Nov. 3 - 5, 2009. Vilamoura, Portugal, Springer LNCS 5870, pp. 112-129.
• An Active Domain Node Architecture for the Semantic Web. Franz Schenk, Wolfgang May; Ontologies, DataBases, and Applications of Semantics (ODBASE 2009) , Nov. 2 - 4, 2009. Vilamoura, Portugal, Springer LNCS 5870, pp. 1095-1102.
• Ontology-Based Support for Graph Algorithms in Online Exploration Workflows (Poster). Thomas Hornung, Wolfgang May; Ontologies, DataBases, and Applications of Semantics (ODBASE 2009) , Nov. 2 - 4, 2009. Vilamoura, Portugal, Springer LNCS 5870, pp. 13-14.
• Query Workflows on the Web. Wolfgang May; CENTRIA, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal , November 9, 2009.
• A comprehensive set of slides on MARS can be found [here (pdf)].

Ontology Files

• The ontology of language and service types: http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/mars-language-and-service-types.rdf
• The ontology of domain-notions: http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/mars-domain-notions.rdf
• The services ontology: http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/services-ontology.rdf
• The LSR RDF/XML frame: http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/lsr.rdf
• The LSR entries (that describes the actual services based on the above ontologies): http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/lsr-entries.rdf (use "show page source" since the pure fragment itself is not valid XML)
• The LSR configuration entities: http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/mars-semwebtech.cfg
• A sample SPARQL query that uses all three of them: http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/lsr-query.sparql
• The DSR (Domain Service Registry): http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/dsr.rdf

Ontology of Language Structures

The non-ECA-specific meta-ontologies of language structures [internal: Whitepaper Section 12] http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/:

• The ontology of expressions: http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/expr.rdf
• The ontology of algebraic expressions: http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/algexpr.rdf
• The ontology of variable usage: http://www.semwebtech.org/mars/2006/vars.rdf

Specific Languages Ontologies

The Framework defines the ECA-ML Language as its main language and introduces existing component languages (such as SNOOP for composite events and CCS for processes). Note that the language-specific things are located under http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/.

• the OWL ontology of the ECA-ML language: http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/eca-ml.rdf
• the OWL ontology of the SNOOP language: http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/snoopy.rdf
• the OWL ontology of the OWLQ query language: http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/owlq.rdf
• the OWL ontology of the CCS language: http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/ccs.rdf

• the "striped DTD" of the ECA-ML language: http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/eca-ml-striped.dtd
• the DTD of the ECA-ML language: http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/eca-ml.dtd
• the "striped DTD" of the SNOOP language: http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/snoopy-striped.dtd
• the DTD of the SNOOP language: http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/snoopy.dtd
• the DTD of the OWLQ language (the OWLQ XML markup is striped XML): http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/owlq.dtd
• the "striped DTD" of the CCS language: http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/ccs-striped.dtd
• the DTD of the CCS language: http://www.semwebtech.org/languages/2006/ccs.dtd