structured data - The difference between isPartOf and hasPart in Schema.org?

Question

What is the difference between the Schema.org properties isPartOf and hasPart and when to use the one instead of the other?

Answer 1

As noted on their pages, they are inverse properties.

As an example, let’s take a webpage that is part of a website. You could then state one of these:

• WebSite hasPart WebPage

• WebPage isPartOf WebSite

It doesn’t matter which one you choose. (But there might of course be consumers that only recognize one of these properties.)

Note: Most of the time, Schema.org doesn’t define an inverse equivalent for a property. For example, there is author, but no authorOf. This is because you can use every property for both directions, with the help of the syntax:

• RDFa:
  rev
  (example)

• Microdata:
  itemprop-reverse (non-standard, which is one of the reasons to prefer RDFa over Microdata)
  (example)

• JSON-LD:
  @reverse
  (example)