Interface OntologyHierarchySession

All Superinterfaces:
AutoCloseable, Closeable, OsidSession, OsidSession

public interface OntologyHierarchySession extends OsidSession

This session defines methods for traversing a hierarchy of Ontology objects. Each node in the hierarchy is a unique Ontology . The hierarchy may be traversed recursively to establish the tree structure through getParentOntologies() and getChildOntologies() . To relate these Ids to another OSID, getOntologyNodes() can be used for retrievals that can be used for bulk lookups in other OSIDs. Any Ontology available in the Ontology OSID is known to this hierarchy but does not appear in the hierarchy traversal until added as a root node or a child of another node.

A user may not be authorized to traverse the entire hierarchy. Parts of the hierarchy may be made invisible through omission from the returns of getParentOntologies() or getChildOntologies() in lieu of a PERMISSION_DENIED error that may disrupt the traversal through authorized pathways.

This session defines views that offer differing behaviors when retrieving multiple objects.

  • comparative view: ontology elements may be silently omitted or re-ordered
  • plenary view: provides a complete set or is an error condition