RuleML 1.0: The Overarching Specification of Web Rules

RuleML is a family of languages, whose modular system of XML schemas permits high-precision Web rule interchange. The family’s top-level distinction is deliberation rules vs. reaction rules. Deliberation rules include modal and derivation rules, which themselves include facts, queries (incl. integrity constraints), and Horn rules (incl. Datalog). Reaction rules include Complex Event Processing (CEP), Knowledge Representation (KR), and Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules, as well as Production (CA) rules. RuleML rules can combine all parts of both derivation and reaction rules. This allows uniform XML serialization across all kinds of rules. After its use in SWRL and SWSL, RuleML has provided strong input to W3C RIF on several levels. This includes the use of ‘striped’ XML as well as the structuring of rule classes into sublanguages with partial mappings between, e.g., Datalog RuleML and RIFCore, Hornlog RuleML and RIF-BLD, as well as Production RuleML and RIF-PRD. We discuss the rationale and key features of RuleML 1.0 as the overarching specification of Web rules that encompasses RIF RuleML as a subfamily, and takes into account corresponding OASIS, OMG (e.g., PRR, SBVR), and ISO (e.g., Common Logic) specifications.