Web information representation, extraction and reasoning based on existing programming

The chapter presents a framework on web information representation, extraction and reasoning utilising an object-oriented approach. A structure, which is similar to a class in object-oriented design and programming, is defined as an extended class (eClass). An eClass contains data attributes, member functions/methods, inference rules and presentations, and therefore, facilities both web presentation and information reasoning. As an object-oriented approach, the framework also supports encapsulation, polymorphism and inheritance. It can be implemented as an extension of an existing object-oriented programming language. An eClass can be extremely effective in describing content-dependent entities. It describes a value under its context, consequently, the search engine not only searches the value, but also understands the meaning of the value in the context. The chapter attempts to integrate GOPT-resolution, which is a reasoning mechanism based on partial intersection and truncation, into OOWIS. GOPT-resolution is ideal for reasoning in a web environment because, comparing with other approaches, it requires less search during its derivations