Writing Rules for the Semantic Web using SWRL and Jess

The Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) aims to be the standard rule language of the Semantic Web. It provides the ability to write Horn-like rules expressed in terms of OWL concepts. This paper describes an open-source rule editor for SWRL that operates within the Protege OWL Plugin, the most widely-used OWL development platform. This editor provides a highly interactive rule editing interface that is tightly integrated with the OWL Plugin and supports the full set of current SWRL language features. This editor also provides a mechanism that allows third-party rule engines to be tightly integrated with the editor. We describe the integration of the Jess rule engine with the editor and show how SWRL coupled with Jess can provide a rich rule-based reasoning facility for the Semantic Web.