Relation Types

Relation types are the "verbs" that link semantic concepts (called Entities in CogTL) together.

For example: an entity City can have a relation type is located in with an entity Country, and a Citizen can have one or many relation types with City, like was born in, lives in, likes, etc, depending on the business topic.

Like most configuration elements in CogTL, relation types have basic properties Name and Description (informative). They also have a Backwards name that will be used by CogTL whenever this relation is navigated backwards. For example, a relation type contains could have a backwards name is part of.

Features and usage

For simplification purposes, relation types can be configured, in one direction or both directions, by relation features. Relation features are abstract characteristics that may be common to multiple specific relation types. For example, family could be a feature that is attached to multiple relation types like is a parent of, is a brother of, is a child of, etc. More info about relation features here

Finally, to help reduce the risk of misconfiguration, you can define applicable source and target entity types for any relation. Typically, a relation type is located in is applicable to a couple City - Country, but not to Car and Insurance contract for example.