Volkswagen’s Use of structWSF in their Semantic Web Platform

Frederick Giasson

TribalDDB London, Volkswagen UK‘s partner, mentioned earlier this week that Volkswagen are using some parts of the Open Semantic Framework to develop the next generation of their online platform.

This story has been published by Jennifer Zaino’s in her article: Volkswagen: Das Auto Company is Das Semantic Web Company!

I can now talk about this project that uses some pieces of the framework that we have been developing for more than 3 years now.

The Objective

Volkswagen’s main objective behind the development of the next version of their Web platform started by improving their online search engine, but as William Greenly mentioned, it quickly became a strategic decision:

“So the objectives were about site search and improving it, but in the long-run it was always the idea to contextualize content, to facet content, to promote it in different contexts.”

The objective is to create a platform that gives them the flexibility to leverage all the data assets they own. This flexibility will help them to leverage the data assests they have to improve not only their search engine, but also to contextualize it in different parts of their websites, partner’s websites or to promote, and publish that same information on different communication channels or devices.

The Flexibility

What is a flexible platform in that context? A flexible platform is one that can integrate any kind of information sources. Such information sources in the context of Volkswagen can be a series of relational dataset schemas spread around the World, Excel spreadsheets, CSV files, old plain text technical documents about past model of cars, semi-structured documents such as webpages, etc.

A flexible platform is also one that minimally impact (if at all) the data consumers if the data structure changes in the system. This is really important since the World we live in constantly changes. This means that things constantly change and we have to reflect these changes in the data we own and maintain. This is why this point is so important, because we want to minimize the impact of the data structure changes that will happen all the time.

Having the flexibility to constantly adapt your data, while minimally impacting the data consumers of the system, enables you to make quick decision to adapt your strategy in a highly competitive World. This flexibility gives you a clear business advantage.

A flexible platform is also one that let you publish your data the way you want, in the format that is needed. Such a flexible platform has to give you access to an interface that give you access to all the functionalities of the platform without having to care about what happens under the hood.

A flexible system is one that can communicate your information on any kind of communication channels, and to any devices that have access to the Web.

Under the Hood

That next generation platform that Volkswagen is currently developing is partly based on a few of the main pieces of the Open Semantic Framework. These pieces help them to reach their goal by helping them giving the flexibility their platform needs.

The first step they gone thru was to create their Volkswagen Vehicles Ontology that is used to describe all the entities they want to index into their platform. The Web Ontology Language (OWL), along with the Resource Description Framework (RDF) is what gives them the complete flexibility on how they can integrate all the pieces of information they want, in a canonical format.

Then they choose to use structWSF (the structured data web services framework). This piece gives them the flexibility to get a series of web interfaces (web service endpoints) to create, update, manage and query their data. This web service layer enables them to do anything they want with their data, from anywhere on the Web. This is possible because all the functionalities of the framework are exposed as web service endpoints. StructWSF also gives them the possibility to communicate their data in multiple different formats. This makes it the perfect flexible system to feed their information in different contexts, in different communication channels or on different devices.

At Volkswagen, structWSF is used to populate, and keep in sync, their Solr and Triple Store instances. It gives them the time to care about the more important aspects of their platform, and to care about how the data should be synced between the various specialized data management systems.

By using structWSF to manage their data, they are able to reach some objectives to make their platform as flexible as possible:

  • To be able to minimize the impact of data changes to the data consumers
    • Because structWSF uses OWL & RDF to describe all the data it index
  • To be able to manipulate their data from anywhere
    • Because all the functionalities of structWSF are exposed as web service endpoints
  • To be able to communicate the information in different contexts, communication channels and devices
    • Because structWSF has, in its core, is designed to transform all the data it indexes in any other kind of format

The Next Step

One of their longer term goal and objective is to analyze their unstructured and semi-structured textual documents to extract some structure out of them, and to index them into their semantic platform. To do this, they are looking at using Scones, which is the structWSF semantic tagger web service endpoint. Scones will use some subject reference structures such as UMBEL to semantically tag the textual document. Once the document as been processed by Scones, and indexed in structWSF, it can now be re-published in different contexts based on the reference concepts that have been tagged to it. This gives them the flexibility to leverage non-structured sources of data and to re-purpose it in different ways by publishing it in different context and in different systems.

This second system will enable them to leverage the investment they made in the past, by writing all these textual documents, and to re-purpose, and re-contextualizing, them in all kind of different contexts.

Conclusion

I think that TribalDDB and Volkswagen make the good decision for their future. Taking the business decision to develop and maintain a completely new kind of information system is not an easy decision to take. I am not saying that they made the good choice to use our pieces of the stack. The decision goes far beyond this. Such a Semantic Platform challenges everything in an organization: the people that takes the decisions, the people that create and manage the data, the people that develop the system, the people that maintain that system, the consumers of the system, the customers, the partners, etc. This is a big decision; whatever the technology stack you plan to use. I congratulate them for the decision they took.

I strongly believe that this was the right decision to take considering the future opportunities they are creating to themselves.

 

 

Benchmark of PHP’s main String Search Functions

Frederick Giasson
I am currently upgrading the structWSF ontologies related web service endpoints along with the structOntology conStruct module to make them more performing so that we can load ontologies that have thousands of classes and properties (at least up to 30 000 of them).

While testing these new upgrades with them UMBEL ontology, I noticed that much of the time was spent by a few number of stripos() calls located in the loadXML() function of the ProcessorXML.php internal structXML parser. They were used to extract the prefixes in the header of the structXML files, and then to resolve them into the XML file. I was using stripos() instead of strpos() to make the parsing of these structXML files case-insensitive even if XML is case-sensitive itself. However, due to their processing cost, I did change this behaviors by using the strpos() function instead. Here are the main reasons to this change:

  • XML is itself case-sensitive, so don’t try to be too clever
  • These structXML files that are exchanged are mostly internal to structXML
  • Their parsing performances is critical

The Tests

This is a non-scientific post about some experimentation I made related to the various PHP 5.3 string search functions. These tests have been performed on a small Amazon EC2 instance using DBG and PHPeD.

[cc lang=’php’ line_numbers=’true’]
[raw]

[/raw]
[/cc]

The first test uses a text of 138 words. That text get exploded into an array where each value is a word of that text. Then, before each iteration, we randomly select a word that we will search, within the text, using each of the 4 search functions.

Note that in the result images below, each of the line in the left-most column are the ones of the PHP code above.

That first test starts with 10 000 iterations. Here are the results of the first run:


The second test uses the same 138 words, but the test is performed 100 000 times:

As we can see, strpos() and strstr() are clearly faster than their case-insensitive counterparts.

Now, let’s see what is the impact of the size of the text to search. We will now perform the two tests with 10 000 and 100 000 iterations but with a text that has 497 words.

[cc lang=’php’ line_numbers=’true’]
[raw]

[/raw]
[/cc]

That third test starts with 10 000 iterations. Here are the results of the third run:

The fourth test uses the same 497 words, but the test is performed 100 000 times:

As we can see, even if we add more words, the same kind of performances are experienced.

Conclusion

After many runs (I only demonstrated a few here). I think I can affirm that strpos() and strstr() are way faster than their case-insensitive counterparts. However, strpos() seems a little bit faster than strstr(), but it seems to depends of the context, and which random words are being searched for. In any cases, according to PHP’s documentation, we should always use strpos() instead of strstr() because it supposedly use less memory.

There may also be some unknown memory considerations that may affect the code I used to test these functions. In any case, I can affirm that in a real context, where queries are sent to the Ontology: Read web service endpoint that hosts the UMBEL ontology, that strpos() is a way faster than stripos().

Querying the MyPeg datasets using the structWSF SPARQL endpoint

Frederick Giasson
The last blog post I wrote demonstrated how one could query the MyPeg.ca portal using the full set of structWSF web service endpoints to get data out of the portal. However, I didn’t cover the usage of the SPARQL endpoint since I wanted to cover it in its own blog post to explain all its characteristics.

In this blog post, I will demonstrate how one can get data out of the MyPeg.ca community indicators web portal for Winnipeg’s citizens using the SPARQL endpoint. I will also cover all the specificities of this SPARQL endpoint: all its characteristics and access/permission features.

Two Modes

The first characteristic of the structWSF SPARQL endpoint is that there are two modes (usecases) it can be used for:

  1. Getting SPARQL resultsets that match some SPARQL queries patterns
  2. Getting complete records descriptions in any format supported by the endpoint

The first mode is not different than any other SPARQL endpoint. Users just send different SPARQL queries and retrieve their related SPARQL resultsets. These resultsets can be returned using different MIME types.

For a SELECT query, these formats can be used:

  1. application/sparql-results+xml
  2. application/sparql-results+json

For a DESCRIBE or a CONSTRUCT query, these formats can be used:

  1. text/rdf+n3 (RDF+N3)
  2. application/rdf+xml (RDF+XML)
  3. application/rdf+json (RDF+JSON)
  4. text/plain (NTRIPLES)

The second mode is quite different. The main characteristic of the structWSF SPARQL endpoint is that it can export resultsets into different formats, not usually supported by other endpoints. However, these other formats are usually used to describe complete descriptions of records, and not just some triples matching some SPARQL patterns.

For that reason, the SPARQL query that is sent using this second mode needs to have the three variables (1) ?s, (2) ?p and (3) ?o bound in the SPARQL query, otherwise an empty resultset will be returned. For example, the following SPARQL query would return the complete records descriptions of all the records that are peg:Theme and that are themes of the peg:WellBeing cross cutting issue:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]SELECT ?s ?p ?o
WHERE
{
?s a <http://purl.org/ontology/peg#Theme> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> ;
?p ?o .
}[/cc]

This mode is used to return a set of records descriptions that match a SPARQL pattern. Supported MIME formats for that second mode are:

  • text/xml (structXML)
  • application/json (structXML in JSON)
  • application/rdf+xml (RDF+XML)
  • application/rdf+n3 (RDF+N3)
  • application/sparql-results+xml (SPARQL resultset in XML)
  • application/sparql-results+json (SPARQL resultset in XML)

Getting Records in Different Formats

Now, let’s take a look at what is returned for the SPARQL query above, for each of these supported MIME types, from the MyPeg.ca SPARQL endpoint.

Note that the queries below are using the Curl application (available for multiple operating systems) to send the HTTP queries to the structWSF SPARQL web service endpoint.

StructXML: text/xml

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]
curl -H “Accept: text/xml” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/sparql/” -d “dataset=http://www.mypeg%2Eca%2Fwsf%2Fdatasets%2F249%2F&query= SELECT+%3Fs+%3Fp+%3Fo%0D%0AWHERE%0D%0A{%0D%0A++%3Fs+a+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%23Theme>+%3B%0D%0A+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%23isThemeOf>+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%2Fframework%23WellBeing>+%3B%0D%0A+++++%3Fp+%3Fo+.%0D%0A}%0D%0A”
[/cc]

[cc lang=’xml’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<resultset>
<prefix entity=”owl” uri=”http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#”/>
<prefix entity=”rdf” uri=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”/>
<prefix entity=”rdfs” uri=”http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#”/>
<prefix entity=”wsf” uri=”http://purl.org/ontology/wsf#”/>
<subject type=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#Theme” uri=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Economy”>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf”>
<object uri=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing”/>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf”>
<object uri=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Poverty”/>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/sco#displayComponent”>
<object uri=”http://purl.org/ontology/sco#sRelationBrowser”/>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label”>
<object type=”rdfs:Literal”>economy</object>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/iron#prefLabel”>
<object type=”rdfs:Literal”>Economy</object>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description”>
<object type=”rdfs:Literal”>Economy includes all that people do in our community to produce, exchange, distribute, and consume goods and services.</object>
</predicate>
</subject>
</resultset>

[/cc]

StructXML in JSON: application/json

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

curl -H “Accept: application/json” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/sparql/” -d “dataset=http://www.mypeg%2Eca%2Fwsf%2Fdatasets%2F249%2F&query= SELECT+%3Fs+%3Fp+%3Fo%0D%0AWHERE%0D%0A{%0D%0A++%3Fs+a+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%23Theme>+%3B%0D%0A+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%23isThemeOf>+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%2Fframework%23WellBeing>+%3B%0D%0A+++++%3Fp+%3Fo+.%0D%0A}%0D%0A”

[/cc]

[cc lang=’javascript’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

{
“prefixes”: [
{
“owl”: “http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#”,
“rdf”: “http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”,
“rdfs”: “http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#”,
“wsf”: “http://purl.org/ontology/wsf#”,
“ns0”: “http://purl.org/ontology/peg#”,
“ns1”: “http://purl.org/ontology/sco#”,
“ns2”: “http://purl.org/ontology/iron#”,
“ns3”: “http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”
}
],
“resultset”: {
“subject”: [
{
“uri”: “http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Economy”,
“type”: “ns0:Theme”,
“predicates”: [
{
“ns0:isThemeOf”: {
“uri”: “http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing”
}
},
{
“ns0:isThemeOf”: {
“uri”: “http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Poverty”
}
},
{
“ns1:displayComponent”: {
“uri”: “http://purl.org/ontology/sco#sRelationBrowser”
}
},
{
“rdfs:label”: “economy”
},
{
“ns2:prefLabel”: “Economy”
},
{
“ns3:description”: “Economy includes all that people do in our community to produce, exchange, distribute, and consume goods and services.”
}
]
},
]
}
}

[/cc]

RDF in XML: application/rdf+xml

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

curl -H “Accept: application/rdf+xml” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/sparql/” -d “dataset=http://www.mypeg%2Eca%2Fwsf%2Fdatasets%2F249%2F&query= SELECT+%3Fs+%3Fp+%3Fo%0D%0AWHERE%0D%0A{%0D%0A++%3Fs+a+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%23Theme>+%3B%0D%0A+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%23isThemeOf>+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%2Fframework%23WellBeing>+%3B%0D%0A+++++%3Fp+%3Fo+.%0D%0A}%0D%0A”

[/cc]

[cc lang=’xml’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<rdf:RDF  xmlns:owl=”http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#” xmlns:rdf=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#” xmlns:rdfs=”http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#” xmlns:wsf=”http://purl.org/ontology/wsf#” xmlns:ns0=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#” xmlns:ns1=”http://purl.org/ontology/sco#” xmlns:ns2=”http://purl.org/ontology/iron#” xmlns:ns3=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”>

<ns0:Theme rdf:about=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Economy”>
<ns0:isThemeOf rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing” />
<ns0:isThemeOf rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Poverty” />
<ns1:displayComponent rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/sco#sRelationBrowser” />
<rdfs:label>economy</rdfs:label>
<ns2:prefLabel>Economy</ns2:prefLabel>
<ns3:description>Economy includes all that people do in our community to produce, exchange, distribute, and consume goods and services.</ns3:description>
</ns0:Theme>

</rdf:RDF>

[/cc]

RDF in N3: application/rdf+n3

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

curl -H “Accept: application/rdf+n3” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/sparql/” -d “dataset=http://www.mypeg%2Eca%2Fwsf%2Fdatasets%2F249%2F&query= SELECT+%3Fs+%3Fp+%3Fo%0D%0AWHERE%0D%0A{%0D%0A++%3Fs+a+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%23Theme>+%3B%0D%0A+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%23isThemeOf>+<http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%2Fframework%23WellBeing>+%3B%0D%0A+++++%3Fp+%3Fo+.%0D%0A}%0D%0A”

[/cc]

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix wsf: <http://purl.org/ontology/wsf#> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Economy> a <http://purl.org/ontology/peg#Theme> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Poverty> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/sco#displayComponent> <http://purl.org/ontology/sco#sRelationBrowser> ;
<http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label> “””economy””” ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/iron#prefLabel> “””Economy””” ;
<http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description> “””Economy includes all that people do in our community to produce, exchange, distribute, and consume goods and services.””” .

[/cc]

Getting Records Using CONSTRUCT

You always have the possibility to use a CONSTRUCT query to return data in different formats. Unlike with the second mode supported by the endpoint, you won’t have access to different formats (such as structXML both in XML and JSON). Here is such a CONSTRUCT query:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]
CONSTRUCT FROM <http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/datasets/249/>
{
?s ?p ?o .
}
WHERE
{
?s peg:isThemeOf <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> .
?s ?o ?p .
}
[/cc]

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]
curl -H “Accept: application/rdf+xml” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/sparql/” -d “query=PREFIX%20peg%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%23%3E%0ACONSTRUCT%0A%7B%0A%20%20%3Fs%20peg%3AisThemeOf%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%2Fframework%23WellBeing%3E%20.%0A%7D%0AFROM%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mypeg.ca%2Fwsf%2Fdatasets%2F249%2F%3E%0AWHERE%20%0A%7B%20%0A%20%20%3Fs%20peg%3AisThemeOf%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%2Fframework%23WellBeing%3E%20.%0A%7D”
[/cc]

[cc lang=’xml’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″ ?>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#” xmlns:rdfs=”http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#”>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#EducationAndLearning”><n0pred:isThemeOf xmlns:n0pred=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#” rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing”/></rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#BasicNeeds”><n0pred:isThemeOf xmlns:n0pred=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#” rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing”/></rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Health”><n0pred:isThemeOf xmlns:n0pred=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#” rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing”/></rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#SocialVitality”><n0pred:isThemeOf xmlns:n0pred=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#” rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing”/></rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#BuiltEnvironment”><n0pred:isThemeOf xmlns:n0pred=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#” rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing”/></rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#NaturalEnvironment”><n0pred:isThemeOf xmlns:n0pred=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#” rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing”/></rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Economy”><n0pred:isThemeOf xmlns:n0pred=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#” rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing”/></rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Governance”><n0pred:isThemeOf xmlns:n0pred=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#” rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing”/></rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
[/cc]

SPARQL Queries Restrictions

The structWSF SPARQL endpoint has some restrictions that have been introduced to make sure that the requesting users can only query the data to which they have access.

In structWSF, all permissions are attached to a dataset (a graph). Different users have different Create, Read, Update and Delete permissions on different datasets hosted on the same structWSF endpoint. Because of this core mechanism in structWSF, we had to make sure that these same restrictions were applied for the SPARQL endpoint. This means that different SPARQL clauses and usages are restricted.

This section covers these specific restrictions for a structWSF SPARQL endpoint.

Accessing Dataset Without Permissions

Let’s try to see what happens when someone tries to access a dataset to which he doesn’t have access. Consider this SPARQL query:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]
PREFIX mypeg: <http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/>
SELECT ?s ?p ?o FROM mypeg:
WHERE
{
?s ?p ?o .
}
[/cc]

Obviously, no user has a direct access to that dataset on the MyPeg instance:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]
curl -H “Accept: application/rdf+n3” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/sparql/” -d “query= PREFIX%20mypeg%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mypeg.ca%2Fwsf%2F%3E%0ASELECT%20%3Fs%20%3Fp%20%3Fo%20FROM%20mypeg%3A%0AWHERE%0A%7B%0A%20%20%3Fs%20%3Fp%20%3Fo%20.%0A%7D%0A”
[/cc]

[cc lang=’xml’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

<error>
<id>WS-AUTH-VALIDATOR-303</id>
<webservice>/ws/auth/validator/</webservice>
<name>No access defined</name>
<description>No access defined for this requester IP , dataset and web service</description>
<debugInformation>No access defined for this requester IP (174.129.43.163), dataset (http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/) and web service (http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/ws/sparql/)</debugInformation>
<level>Warning</level>
</error>

[/cc]

So, even if a dataset exists in a triple store that exposes a SPARQL endpoint, not all users have access to all of these datasets. The access and permissions layer will restrict the access to them if need be.

If a FROM clause, or multiple FROM NAMED clauses are specified in the SPARQL query, the access layer will make sure that the user has access to all these datasets. If he doesn’t have access to one of them, then an error will be returned.

CONSTRUCT

The CONSTRUCT clause can be used against this SPARQL endpoint, but only if it doesn’t use any GRAPH clauses. However, we encourage users to use the method described in the section “Getting Records in Different Formats” since more formats can be requested, and more formats can easily be added in the future.

Here is an example of a CONSTRUCT query that uses a GRAPH clause:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]
CONSTRUCT
{
?s ?p ?o
}
WHERE
{
graph <http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/datasets/249/>
{
?s ?p ?o
}
}
[/cc]

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]
curl -H “Accept: application/rdf+xml” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/sparql/” -d ” query=CONSTRUCT%0A%7B%0A%20%20%3Fs%20%3Fp%20%3Fo%0A%7D%0AWHERE%20%0A%7B%20%0A%20%20graph%20%3C%20http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mypeg.ca%2Fwsf%2Fdatasets%2F249%2F%3E%0A%20%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20%3Fs%20%3Fp%20%3Fo%0A%20%20%7D%0A%7D%0A”
[/cc]

[cc lang=’xml’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<error>
<id>WS-SPARQL-205</id>
<webservice>/ws/sparql/</webservice>
<name>GRAPH not permitted.</name>
<description>The SPARQL GRAPH clause is not permitted for this sparql endpoint. Please change your SPARQL query to specify the datasets you want to query with the FROM and FROM NAMED sparql clauses, or with the dataset parameter.</description>
<debugInformation></debugInformation>
<level>Warning</level>
</error>
[/cc]

As you can see, the endpoint will return a 205 error if a GRAPH clause is used within a CONSTRUCT statement.

GRAPH

As we saw above, no GRAPH clauses can be used in a SPARQL query. The reason is that we don’t want people to send SPARQL queries with GRAPH clauses that use variables. Otherwise, if we permitted GRAPH clauses to be used with variables, we couldn’t currently determine what triple comes from what dataset and so, we couldn’t ensure the access and permissions to that data.

However, in the future two improvements could be created to enable the usage of GRAPH clauses in SPARQL queries processed by structWSF:

  1. We could enable people to use GRAPH clauses that use direct IRI_REF references. That way, structWSF could easily check the permissions for these graphs (just like it does handle the FROM, FROM NAMED and DESCRIPTION clauses).
  2. We could enable the full usage of the GRAPH clause. However, we would have to modify the queries at the level of the endpoint to get the graph provenance of all the triples. Then the endpoint would have to analyze the provenance of each triple and only return the ones that the user has access to. This would inevitably slow down the query time to process the SPARQL request.

In the mean time, no GRAPH clauses can be used in any SPARQL query, and people should use the FROM and FROM NAMED clauses to get access to all the datasets they want from a particular endpoint.

SPARUL

No SPARQL/Update (SPARUL) queries can be sent via the structWSF SPARQL endpoint. All data modifications (records and/or dataset creation, updating and deleting) have to be performed by the Dataset and Record CRUD web service endpoints.

Conclusion

The structWSF SPARQL endpoint is a wrapper above a triple store’s SPARQL endpoint. It adds a permissions and access layer that is compatible with that used by other structWSF web services. This permission layer ensures that requesters only access the information they have access to within the triple store. Also, all of these access permissions are managed by the other structWSF web service endpoints, and can also be managed via the conStruct user interface.

The structWSF SPARQL endpoint also supports more resultset formats than are generally supported by mainstream triple stores. Also, the addition of new formats is made easier by using structWSF’s way to convert data in different formats.

Getting Data Out of MyPeg.ca using structWSF Endpoints

Frederick Giasson
A few weeks ago I presented the new MyPeg.ca community indicators web portal for Winnipeg’s citizens. I explained how in MyPeg.ca we leverage Structured Dynamics’ semantic technologies stack (akaThe Semantic Muffin). Today’s blog post explains one facet of the project that shows how external agents (people, services, software, etc.) can interact with the system’s indicator datasets using the structWSF web service endpoints.Since this post focuses only on data export, I suggest you read the structWSF Web Services Tutorial for a complete overview of how the endpoints architecture works.

Merging Pipes

Two Main structWSF Characteristics: Accessibility & Management

structWSF is a set of 22 web service endpoints that lets you integrate data from different sources, manage that integrated data, and publish it via different communication channels such as web pages, software applications, etc.

Obviously, the main characteristic of this framework is that everything is a web service. This means that all functionality of the system can be accessed from anywhere on the Internet. However, this doesn’t mean that everything is open like a snack-bar. In fact, there are two levels of accessibility: (1) access to the web service endpoint’s URL, and (2) access to the content of datasets hosted on structWSF. Depending on the usecase, people could restrict the direct access to the web service endpoint(s) by properly configuring their web server, others could choose to let anyone access the endpoints, but would restrict the access to the dataset(s) hosted by structWSF. In case of MyPeg.ca, the sponsor chose to open the access to their web service endpoints and datasets.

Just by surfing on the MyPeg.ca portal, you are already leveraging these endpoints in multiple different ways. First, each time you generate a browse or a search Web page, you are telling the web server to send multiple queries to different endpoints; then the web page’s content will be populated with that information and presented to you. But, each time you click on an explorer node, your web browser is also sending queries to exactly the same web service endpoints. So, in one case a PHP script acts to query the endpoints; and, in other cases, a Flash Semantic Component does. Depending, all structWSF data can be accessed from quite different environments.

The other main characteristic of structWSF is that any kind of data can be imported in, and exported out, of the system. structWSF leverages RDF (Resource Description Framework) as the canonical data format that can be used to express any other formats. It is because of the usage of RDF that structWSF can act as an effective ETL (Extract, transform, load) system. Depending on the web service endpoint, the output formats currently supported by most of the endpoints are:

But the architecture of the web service endpoints can easily accommodate other formats if needed for a specific usecase.

Getting Data Out Of MyPeg.ca

Now, how can you get data out of MyPeg.ca? There are really two methods. This blog post discusses the CRUD: Read, Browse and Search web service endpoints. In my next blog post, I will focus on using the SPARQL web service endpoint to do the same.

All of the query examples in this blog post will use a tool called Curl to send the queries and to get back the resultsets. I encourage you to download and use that tool to test these endpoints and to gain a feeling for how it works. Also note that only the first record of each resultset is recorded below (of course, the actual results include all records).

Browse

The Browse web service endpoint is used to return lists of records. These records can also be filtered according to their provenance (dataset), type and the attributes that describe them. Now, let’s see how you can use this web service to get data out of MyPeg.ca.

First, there are three datasets available to the public:

  1. Well-being Indicators (http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/datasets/258/)
  2. Stories (http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/datasets/272/)
  3. PEG Framework (http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/datasets/249/)

The resultsets can be serialized using one of these four different formats:

  • text/xml (structXML)
  • application/json (structXML in JSON)
  • application/rdf+xml (RDF/XML)
  • application/rdf+n3 (RDF/N3)

Note: if one of your desired formats is not directly available at the endpoint level, you can always use one of the converter web service endpoints such as: commON, irJSON or TSV/CSV.

Get the first 10 results of the Stories dataset in structXML

Query:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’]curl -H “Accept: text/xml” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/browse/” -d “attributes=all&types=all&datasets=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mypeg.ca%2Fwsf%2Fdatasets%2F272%2F&items=10&page=0&inference=on&include_aggregates=true”[/cc]

StructXML resultset:

[cc lang=’xml’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<resultset>
<prefix entity=”owl” uri=”http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#”/>
<prefix entity=”rdf” uri=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”/>
<prefix entity=”rdfs” uri=”http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#”/>
<prefix entity=”wsf” uri=”http://purl.org/ontology/wsf#”/>
<subject type=”http://purl.org/ontology/muni#Story” uri=”http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/datasets/272/resource/AgeOpportunity”>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/dc/terms/isPartOf”>
<object type=”http://rdfs.org/ns/void#Dataset” uri=”http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/datasets/272/”/>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/iron#prefLabel”>
<object type=”rdfs:Literal”>Age &amp; Opportunity</object>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/dc/terms/created”>
<object type=”rdfs:Literal”>2010-10-28T19:38:58+00:00</object>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/abstract”>
<object type=”rdfs:Literal”>Amanda Macrae, Deborah Lorteau and Stacey Miller work for Age and Opportunity.
The majority of clients are older adults living at lower socio economic status. When addressing the housing issue they say, “In a nutshell, it’s dire.” There is simply not enou…</object>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#interviewee”>
<object type=”rdfs:Literal”>Amanda Macrae, Deborah Lorteau, Stacey Miller</object>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#interviewer”>
<object type=”rdfs:Literal”>Molly Johnson</object>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#storyRelatedAgencyProgram”>
<object type=”rdfs:Literal”>Age &amp; Opportunity</object>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/sco#storyAnnotatedTextUri”>
<object>http://www.mypeg.ca/scones/AgeOpportunity.xml</object>
</predicate>
<predicate type=”http://purl.org/ontology/sco#storyTextUri”>
<object type=”rdfs:Literal”>http://www.mypeg.ca/scones/AgeOpportunity.txt</object>
</predicate>
</subject>
</resultset>

[/cc]

Get the 10 first results from all datasets that are records of type Neighborhoods in RDF/XML

Query:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’]curl -H “Accept: application/rdf+xml ” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/browse/” -d “attributes=all& type=http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%23Neighborhood &datasets=all&items=10&page=0&inference=on&include_aggregates=true”[/cc]

RDF/XML resultset:

[cc lang=’xml’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<rdf:RDF  xmlns:owl=”http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#” xmlns:rdf=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#” xmlns:rdfs=”http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#” xmlns:wsf=”http://purl.org/ontology/wsf#” xmlns:ns0=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg#” xmlns:ns1=”http://purl.org/dc/terms/” xmlns:ns2=”http://purl.org/ontology/iron#” xmlns:ns3=”” xmlns:ns4=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/” xmlns:ns5=”http://purl.org/ontology/aggregate#”>

<ns0:Component rdf:about=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Safety”>
<ns1:isPartOf rdf:resource=”http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/datasets/249/” />
<ns2:prefLabel>Safety</ns2:prefLabel>
<ns2:altLabel>safety</ns2:altLabel>
<ns3:>safety</ns3:>
<ns4:description>Safety is the state of being “safe”, the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be considered non-desirable.</ns4:description>
<rdfs:comment>Includes the idea of safety prevention</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:seeAlso>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety</rdfs:seeAlso>
<ns0:hasIndicator rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#HouseholdIncome” />
<ns0:hasIndicator rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#LowIncomeCutOffAfterTax” />
<ns0:hasIndicator rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#MarketBasketMeasure” />
<ns0:hasIndicator rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#ParticipationInSportsAndRecreation” />
<ns0:hasIndicator rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#MaternalSocialIsolation” />
<ns0:hasIndicator rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#PersonalSafety” />
<ns0:hasIndicator rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#EarlyDevelopmentInstrument” />
<ns0:hasIndicator rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#HighSchoolGraduationRate” />
<ns0:hasIndicator rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#LongTermUnemployment” />
<ns0:hasIndicator rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#TeenageBirths” />
<ns0:isComponentOf rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#BasicNeeds” />
<ns0:isComponentOf rdf:resource=”http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Poverty” />
</ns0:Component>
</rdf:RDF>

[/cc]

Search

The Search web service endpoint is also used to return lists of records. These records should match a search string and can also be filtered according to their provenance (dataset), type and the attributes that describe them.

The same mime types and datasets as the ones for the Browse web service are available for the Search endpoint.

Searching for records with the keyword “poverty” and get resultsets in RDF/N3

Query:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’]curl -H “Accept: application/rdf+n3” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/search/” -d “query=poverty&datasets=all&items=10&page=0&inference=on&include_aggregates=true”[/cc]

RDF/N3 resultset:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix wsf: <http://purl.org/ontology/wsf#> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Poverty> a <http://purl.org/ontology/peg#CrossCuttingIssue> ;
<http://purl.org/dc/terms/isPartOf> <http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/datasets/249/> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/iron#prefLabel> “””Poverty””” ;
<http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description> “””Poverty is not having the sufficient resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary to enjoy an adequate standard of living.  Poverty includes much more than a lack of money.  It includes being excluded from ordinary living patterns, customs and activities.  Consequently, people living in poverty are often unable to participate fully in their communities or to reach their full potential.””” ;
<http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#seeAlso> “””http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty””” .

[/cc]

CRUD: Read

The Browse and Search web service endpoints are really used to find lists of records according to some provided criteria. However, the complete description of these records is not returned by these endpoints, but only the information necessary to create the proper list to display to users in a user interface. So, to get the complete description of a record (or multiples thereof), you have to use the CRUD: Read web service endpoint. Also, sometimes you may get a reference to a record hosted on a structWSF node, then CRUD: Read is the way to get its full description.

Get the full description of the Ida story in irJSON

Query:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’]curl -H “Accept: application/iron+json” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/crud/read/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mypeg.ca%2Fwsf%2Fdatasets%2F272%2Fresource%2FIda&dataset=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mypeg.ca%2Fwsf%2Fdatasets%2F272%2F&include_reification=true&include_linksback=false[/cc]

irJSON resulset:

[cc lang=’javascript’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

{
“dataset”: {
“linkage”: [
{
“linkedType”: “application/rdf+xml”,
“attributeList”: {
“created”: {
“mapTo”: “http://purl.org/dc/terms/created”
},
“isAbout”: {
“mapTo”: “http://umbel.org/umbel#isAbout”
},
“prefLabel”: {
“mapTo”: “http://purl.org/ontology/iron#prefLabel”
},
“interviewee”: {
“mapTo”: “http://purl.org/ontology/peg#interviewee”
},
“interviewer”: {
“mapTo”: “http://purl.org/ontology/peg#interviewer”
},
“abstract”: {
“mapTo”: “http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/abstract”
},
“storyVideoAudio”: {
“mapTo”: “http://purl.org/ontology/peg#storyVideoAudio”
},
“storyAnnotatedTextUri”: {
“mapTo”: “http://purl.org/ontology/sco#storyAnnotatedTextUri”
},
“storyTextUri”: {
“mapTo”: “http://purl.org/ontology/sco#storyTextUri”
}
},
“typeList”: {
“Story”: {
“mapTo”: “http://purl.org/ontology/muni#Story”
}
}
}
]},
“recordList”: [
{
“id”: “http://www.mypeg.ca/wsf/datasets/272/resource/Ida”,
“type”: “Story”,
“created”: “2010-10-28T18:11:27+00:00”,
“isAbout”: [
{
“ref”: “@@http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#EducationAndLearning”
},
{
“ref”: “@@http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Health”
},
{
“ref”: “@@http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Program”
},
{
“ref”: “@@http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Income”
},
{
“ref”: “@@http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Poverty”
}     ],
“prefLabel”: “Ida”,
“interviewee”: “Ida”,
“interviewer”: “Christa Rust”,
“abstract”: “‘Poverty is earning just enough to get by; never having money for extras.’\n\nIda is the mother of two grown children, eight years apart.  She lives in a small bachelor suite, which costs her $428 per month, or 62% of her income.  She volunteers twice a we…”,
“storyVideoAudio”: “http://www.youtube.com/v/0zIqtYhiHfM”,
“storyAnnotatedTextUri”: “http://www.mypeg.ca/scones/Ida.xml”,
“storyTextUri”: “http://www.mypeg.ca/scones/Ida.txt”
}
]
}

[/cc]

Get Well-Being record description with linkbacks in RDF+N3

The characteristic of this query is that I enabled the “include_linksback” parameter. This returns a reference to all the records, in the datasets hosted on the structWSF node, that refers to that target record.

Query:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’]curl -H “Accept: application/rdf+n3” “http://www.mypeg.ca/ws/crud/read/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpeg%2Fframework%23WellBeing&datast=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mypeg.ca%2Fwsf%2Fdatasets%2F249%2F&registered_ip=self%3A%3A0&include_reification=true&include_linksback=true”[/cc]

RDF+N3 resultset:

[cc lang=’text’ line_numbers=’false’ escaped=’true’]

@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> a <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/iron#prefLabel> “””Well-being””” ;
<http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description> “””Well-being refers to the general quality of life experienced by individuals and communities. The elements of wellbeing include: the ability to meet basic needs, the economy, health, the built environment, governance, education and learning, the natural environment, and social vitality.””” ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/sco#displayComponent> <http://purl.org/ontology/sco#sRelationBrowser> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> a <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing> ;
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Economy> a <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Governance> a <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#BuiltEnvironment> a <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#NaturalEnvironment> a <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#SocialVitality> a <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#BasicNeeds> a <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#EducationAndLearning> a <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> .

<http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#Health> a <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing> ;
<http://purl.org/ontology/peg#isThemeOf> <http://purl.org/ontology/peg/framework#WellBeing> .

[/cc]

General Endpoint Parameters

The general parameters available for each of these web services is provided in their respective TechWiki documentation. For that detailed information, see the Browse, Search, or CRUD: Read articles.

Conclusion

As you can see, agents can get different kinds of data from the MyPeg.ca portal by querying a set of web service endpoints. This is one way to get data out of the system. These data can then be accessed for indexing in other systems, for direct use, or for dynamic applications like browsing the nodes in the explorer.

This is one of the ways to get data out of the system. A user can also export that same information from the Export features on the Browse, Search and Record View pages. Also, other methods will be explained in the next blog posts from this MyPeg.ca series.

All in all, this shows how effective structWSF can be to integrate, manage and publish a wide range of data in different data formats. It also shows how completely different parts of your software architecture can leverage your information, the way you want, from anywhere on the Internet.

Open Semantic Framework: Major New Releases

Frederick Giasson
Structured Dynamics has just released new versions of the three main packages that compose the Open Semantic Framework: structWSF, conStruct and the Semantic Components. This is the end result of about 6 months of work that has been sponsored by multiple different projects.

A lot of new features have been added and some web-services/modules/components have been greatly updated. Let’s take a look at the major improvements.

structWSF

The main additions to structWSF are the new Scones, commON converter, and Tracker web service endpoints. Multiple bugs have also been fixed in different other endpoints.

Semantic Components

Multiple things happened related to the semantic components. First, the Workbench application, along with the Dashboard and the sStory components, have been released. These are the major new components that have been implemented in the recent MyPeg.ca public Winnipeg City indicators data system that was released last week.

Also, the sRelationBrowser and the sMap components got major enhancements as well.

conStruct

The main additions to conStruct were two new modules: structAppend and structScones. structAppend has been created to help people manage the datasets they import in their structWSF instances. You can read more about dataset management strategies using structAppend by reading this tutorial page and this other one. structScones is a user interface to the Scones web service endpoint. It takes unstructured text as input, tags concepts and named entities to that text, and then indexes the result in the structWSF instance. It also manages the creation of the files used by the sStory semantic component.

Finally the structCreate and structUpdate modules have been upgraded and are now using the Instance Records Forms Format. These forms will eventually be generated automatically by the next generation of the ontologies management structWSF web service endpoints.

Conclusion

All these new releases, enhancements and bug fixes are the fruits from the great cooperation Structured Dynamics has with its clients. All of these projects have been sponsored by different entities, and each of them has benefitted from what others helped to develop. We have been fortunate to have clients that also share an understanding of open source benefits.

Structured Dynamics’ open source strategy is working well. The end result is a better open source data ingest, management, analysis and publication via the Open Semantic Framework.

We are looking forward to continuing this progress via follow-ons with our current clients. And, of course, we are always looking for new opportunities with new clients.