Ontology-Based Modelling of Web Content: Example Leipzig Health Atlas

The realisation of a complex web portal is a challenging process. The contents describe different interconnected entities that form a complex structure. The entities and their relations have to be analysed, and the content has to be uploaded into the web portal. Ontologies (the study of categories of being and their relations) provide a suitable solution for modelling and specifying complex entities and their relations. However, the functionality for automated import of ontologies is not available in current web portals. In order to describe the content of a web portal, we developed an ontology. Based on this ontology, we implemented a pipeline that imports the content into the web portal Drupal. Our method enables the development of web portals with the focus on a suitable representation of structured knowledge (entities, their properties and relations). Furthermore, it makes it possible to represent existing ontologies in such a way that their content can be understood by users without knowledge of ontologies. Our approach has successfully been applied in building the LHA (Leipzig Health Atlas) portal, which provides access to information about clinical data, publications and methods from various research projects at the University of Leipzig.

The realisation of a complex web portal, including the modelling of content, is a challenging process. The contents describe different interconnected entities that form a complex structure. The entities and their relations have to be systematically analysed, and the content has to be specified and integrated into a content management system (CMS). Ontologies provide a suitable solution for modelling and specifying complex entities and their relations. However, the functionality for automated import of ontologies is not available in current content management systems. In order to describe the content of a web portal, we developed an ontology. Based on this ontology, we implemented a pipeline that allows the specification of the portal’s content and its import into the CMS Drupal. Our method is generic. It enables the development of web portals with the focus on a suitable representation of structured knowledge (entities, their properties and relations). Furthermore, it makes it possible to represent existing ontologies in such a way that their content can be understood by users without knowledge of ontologies and their semantics. Our approach has successfully been applied in building the LHA (Leipzig Health Atlas) portal, which provides access to metadata, data, publications and methods from various research projects at the University of Leipzig.