SHACL shape not recognized when not explicitly typed as a sh:NodeShape

[abrokenjester]

According to the SHACL specification, asserting an explicit type for a node shape is not required:

A node shape is a shape in the shapes graph that is not the subject of a triple with sh:path as its predicate. It is recommended, but not required, for a node shape to be declared as a SHACL instance of sh:NodeShape.

(emphasis mine)

However, the SHACLSail only recognizes / applies node shapes when they are explicitly typed as such. For example,

Data:

@prefix : <http://example.org/> .
:bob a :Person ;
        :name "Bob";
        :name "Alice" .

Shape:

@prefix sh: <http://www.w3.org/ns/shacl#>.
@prefix : <http://example.org/>.

:personShape a sh:Shape; 
       sh:targetClass :Person ;
       sh:property [
           sh:path :name ;
           sh:maxCount 1
       ].

This will not trigger a validation error because the person shape is not recognized. Only if we adapt the shape definition:

@prefix sh: <http://www.w3.org/ns/shacl#>.
@prefix : <http://example.org/>.

:personShape a sh:NodeShape;
      sh:targetClass :Person ;
       sh:property [
           sh:path :name ;
           sh:maxCount 1
       ].

does the validator detect the problem in the data.

[hmottestad]

I believe this is fixed in the new AST which uses RDFS and the SHACL schema.

[abrokenjester]

I believe this is fixed in the new AST which uses RDFS and the SHACL schema.

Good to know! This is not urgent from my perspective, just something I ran into when doing some comparisons between different SHACL engines.

[hmottestad]

TODO: Make a test for this to show that it's fixed with the new AST.