Loading GPC, GDSN, and KATO in Protégé¶

Open the KATO instance ontology as the main ontology in Protégé Desktop, then resolve its imports to the local GPC and GDSN files. GPC and GDSN can load in either order; both must be available in KATO's imports closure.

Prepare the files¶

Use these generated files from the repository root:

Purpose	Local file	Ontology IRI
GPC classification vocabulary	`build/gpc.ttl`	`urn:gs1:std:gpc:`
GDSN trade item model	`build/gdsn.ttl`	`urn:gs1:std:gdsn:`
KATO product instances and import declarations	`build/KATO/kato-instances.ttl`	`urn:gs1:sample:kato:ontology`

If the files are missing, follow Ontology generation and KATO instance generation first.

The KATO file already declares these imports:

@prefix kato: <urn:gs1:sample:kato:> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .

kato:ontology a owl:Ontology ;
    owl:imports <urn:gs1:std:gdsn:>,
                <urn:gs1:std:gpc:> .

flowchart TD
    K["KATO instance ontology"] -->|imports| G["GPC ontology"]
    K -->|imports| D["GDSN ontology"]

Open KATO and resolve the imports¶

Start Protégé Desktop and select File → Open.
Open build/KATO/kato-instances.ttl.
When Protégé asks for the location of urn:gs1:std:gpc:, select the local file build/gpc.ttl.
When it asks for urn:gs1:std:gdsn:, select build/gdsn.ttl. The prompts may appear in either order.
Keep urn:gs1:sample:kato:ontology as the active ontology.

The imported identifiers are URNs, not downloadable HTTP addresses. Protégé needs a local-file mapping for each one. If it already has those mappings, it may resolve the imports without prompting.

Use the imports in one workspace

Opening GPC, GDSN, and KATO in three separate windows does not establish their import relationships. Open KATO and resolve both dependencies within its ontology workspace.

Verify the loaded ontologies¶

In Active Ontology → Imported Ontologies, check that both the GPC and GDSN imports show their local document locations. An entry showing only an import IRI, without a loaded document location, indicates that the import did not resolve.

Use the class and individual views to inspect the combined model. For example, the generated KATO data contains these product individual IRIs:

urn:gs1:sample:kato:gtin/25196100024882
urn:gs1:sample:kato:gtin/25196100024899

With KATO active, its imports make the GPC and GDSN definitions available for interpreting those individuals. GPC and GDSN remain separate ontology modules.

Troubleshooting¶

Symptom	Check
Protégé cannot retrieve a `urn:gs1:std:...` import	Resolve the import to its local Turtle file rather than attempting a web download.
An import appears without a document location	Reopen KATO and resolve the missing import; check that the selected file still exists.
Classes or individuals seem to be missing	Confirm KATO is active and both imports are loaded in that workspace.
An import still fails after selecting a file	Check the ontology IRI inside that file against the table above, including the trailing colon on the GPC and GDSN IRIs.
Import resolution stops working after moving files	Update the local-file mappings to the new locations.

The GraphDB loading guide describes a different workflow using named graphs. Protégé's ontology imports are not GraphDB named graph assignments.