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Manchester editor

The Manchester editor is an OntoCode React panel for editing complex class expressions in Turtle ontologies — restrictions, intersections, unions, and cardinality. Parsing and patch application run in OntoCore (ontocore/parseManchester, ontocore/applyAxiomPatch).

Requires a .ttl file.

Open the editor

Entry point How
Entity Inspector Select a class → Edit in Manchester on a complex axiom row
Add axiom Inspector → Add Manchester axiom
Command Palette OntoCode: Open Manchester Editor
Command Palette OntoCode: Add Manchester Axiom

Workflow

  1. Choose axiom type: SubClassOf, EquivalentClasses, or DisjointClasses.
  2. Enter a Manchester expression, e.g. ex:hasRecord some ex:MedicalRecord.
  3. Use Insert pickers for classes, object properties, data properties, and XSD datatypes (from the indexed catalog).
  4. Validate — parse diagnostics and expression tree.
  5. Preview Turtle — see the Turtle fragment before writing.
  6. Apply — patch the .ttl file and re-index.

Edit vs add

  • Edit (existing complex axiom): removes the prior expression and adds the new one.
  • Add: appends a new complex axiom to the entity block.

Simple named-parent SubClassOf (e.g. ex:Person) is edited in the inspector quick form.

Expression support

Construct Example
Named class ex:Person
Intersection ex:A and ex:B
Union ex:A or ex:B
Existential restriction ex:hasRecord some ex:MedicalRecord
Universal restriction ex:hasRecord only ex:MedicalRecord
Cardinality ex:hasChild min 1 ex:Person
DisjointClasses Named class IRI via inspector / patch

Domain, range, and property chains are editable via the Entity Inspector and patch JSON (v0.12).

CLI

Manchester parsing is available via LSP. Use the VS Code panel or call ontocore/parseManchester from an LSP client — see LSP API.