Open Semantic Framework 3.3 Released

Frederick Giasson
Structured Dynamics is happy to announce the immediate availability of the Open Semantic Framework version 3.3. This new release of OSF lets system administrators choose between two different communication channels to send SPARQL queries to the triple store: triple_120
  1. HTTP
  2. ODBC

In OSF 3.1, the only communication channel available was a ODBC channel using the iODBC drivers. In OSF 3.2, the only communication channel available was a HTTP channel. What we did with OSF 3.3 is to let the system administrator choose between the two.

Quick Introduction to the Open Semantic Framework

What is the Open Semantic Framework?

The Open Semantic Framework (OSF) is an integrated software stack using semantic technologies for knowledge management. It has a layered architecture that combines existing open source software with additional open source components. OSF is designed as an integrated content platform accessible via the Web, which provides needed knowledge management capabilities to enterprises. OSF is made available under the Apache 2 license.

OSF can integrate and manage all types of content – unstructured documents, semi-structured files, spreadsheets, and structured databases – using a variety of best-of-breed data indexing and management engines. All external content is converted to the canonical RDF data model, enabling common tools and methods for tagging and managing all content. Ontologies provide the schema and common vocabularies for integrating across diverse datasets. These capabilities can be layered over existing information assets for unprecedented levels of integration and connectivity. All information within OSF may be powerfully searched and faceted, with results datasets available for export in a variety of formats and as linked data.

Why Multiple Channels in OSF?

Historically, OSF only used the ODBC channel to communicate with Virtuoso, and it was using the iODBC drivers. As explained in a previous blog post, the fact that we were using the iODBC drivers in Ubuntu was adding a lot of complexity into the system since we had to recompile most of the PHP packages to use that other ODBC driver.

With OSF 3.2, we refactored the code such that we could query any SPARQL HTTP endpoint. The goal of this current improvement is to be able to use any triple store that has a compatible SPARQL HTTP endpoint with OSF, and not just Virtuoso.

With OSF 3.3, what we choose to do is to make both options a possibility. However, what we did is to make sure that the latest version of Virtuoso was now properly working with the unixODBC drivers, which are shipped by default with Ubuntu.

This means that people can now use the ODBC channel, but using the unixODBC drivers instead. The end result of this enhancement is that it makes the maintenance of a Ubuntu/OSF instance much easier since no packages are on hold, and that the PHP5 packages can be updated at any time without needing to be recompiled using the iODBC drivers.

Deploying a New OSF 3.3 Server

Using the OSF Installer

OSF 3.3 can easily be deployed on a Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server using the osf-installer application. The deployment is done by executing the following commands in your terminal:

[cc lang=”bash”]
[raw]
mkdir -p /usr/share/osf-installer/

cd /usr/share/osf-installer/

wget https://raw.github.com/structureddynamics/Open-Semantic-Framework-Installer/3.3/install.sh

chmod 755 install.sh

./install.sh

./osf-installer –install-osf -v
[/raw]
[/cc]

Using an Amazon AMI

If you are an Amazon AWS user, you also have access to a free AMI that you can use to create your own OSF instance. The full documentation for using the OSF AMI is available here.

Upgrading Existing Installations

It is not possible to automatically upgrade previous versions of OSF to OSF 3.3. It is possible to upgrade an older instance of OSF to OSF version 3.3, but only manually. If you have this requirement, just let me know and I will write about the upgrade steps that are required to upgrade these instances to OSF version 3.3.

Conclusion

This new version of the Open Semantic Framework should be even simpler to install, deploy and maintain. Several additional small updates have also provided in this new version to other aspects of installation simpler and faster.

Upgrading the Open Semantic Framework (OSF) Stack (Screencast)

Frederick Giasson

With this screencast, you will see how you can update all the pieces that compose the Open Semantic Framework (OSF) stack. You will discover all the tools that are available to you to update the different programs. You will be able to update the following applications with the latest release or development code:

Here is the list of commands that have been run in this screencast:

[cc lang=’bash’ line_numbers=’false’]

; Upgrade Ubuntu
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

; Upgrade the OSF Installer script
cd /usr/share/osf-installer
rm upgrade.sh
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/structureddynamics/Open-Semantic-Framework-Installer/3.0/upgrade.sh
chmod 755 upgrade.sh
./upgrade.sh

; Upgrade the OSF Web Services PHP API
./osf-installer –upgrade-osf-ws-php-api=”3.0″

; Upgrade the OSF
./osf-installer –upgrade-osf-web-services-code-base

; Upgrade the Datasets Management Tool
./osf-installer –upgrade-osf-datasets-management-tool=”3.0″

; Upgrade the Ontologies Management Tool
./osf-installer –upgrade-osf-ontologies-management-tool=”3.0″

; Upgrade the Permissions Management Tool
./osf-installer –upgrade-osf-permissions-management-tool=”3.0″

; Upgrade OSF for Drupal
cd /usr/share/drupal/
drush dl osf-7.x-3.x-dev -y
drush cc all

; Upgrade to a specific version of Drupal
drush pm-update projects drupal-7.26
[/cc]


tut_12_blog_400

Configuring and Using OSF Ontology (Screencast)

Frederick Giasson

This screencast will quickly introduce you to ontologies, and will explain you what are their rules in the Open Semantic Framework (OSF).

You will see how you can manage ontologies in OSF using the OSF for Drupal web interface. You will be able to import, create, update, delete and export ontologies. You will see how you can search within imported ontologies, how you can manage their permissions.

Finally you will see how you can manage the ontologies themselves: how you can create, update and delete classes, properties and named individuals using the Web user interface.


tut_10_blog_400

Configuring and Using OSF FieldStorage (Screencast)

Frederick Giasson

This screencast introduces you to another one of the most important OSF for Drupal connector: the OSF FieldStorage module. What this module does is to create a new FieldStorage type for Drupal7. It enables Drupal7 to save the values of its Content Types fields into another storage system than the default one (i.e MySQL in most of the cases).

Because of the way that the Field system has been designed in Drupal7, it is possible to save the values of different fields that compose the same Content Type bundle into different field storage system. For example, if your Content Type bundle is composed of 10 fields, then 4 of them could be saved into MySQL and 6 of them into OSF.

The main purpose of the OSF FieldStorage module is to be able to save Drupal local Content Type information into OSF. What that means is that all your Drupal7 local content then become accessible, manageable and manipulatable using the 27 Open Semantic Framework (OSF) web services endpoints. Your local Drupal content can then be shared with other Drupal instances that could use OSF for Drupal to connect to that same OSF instance and seamlessly republish/re-purpose that local content from the other Drupal portal.

Here is the documentation of the architecture of this connector module.

This is the power of the OSF FieldStorage connector module. It supports the following Drupal features:

  1. Full FieldStorage API
  2. Entities caching
  3. Revisioning
  4. SearchAPI
  5. 29 field widgets
  6. Export feature in 6 formats

In this screencast, you will be introduced to Drupal7’s Field system. Then you will see how the OSF FieldStorage module creates a new FieldStorage type for Drupal7 and how it can be used. Then you will see how to configure the OSF FieldStorage module: to creating new Content Type fields that uses this osf_fieldstorage type, how to map these fields to RDF, how to use one of the 29 supported field widgets, etc.

Finally, you will see how you can synchronize existing Content Type pages (that was created before OSF for Drupal was installed on your Drupal instance) into a OSF instance.

 


tut_8_blog_400

Configuring and Using OSF Entities (Screencast)

Frederick Giasson

This screencast introduces you to one of the most important OSF for Drupal connector: the OSF Entities module. This module creates a new Entity Type called Resource. The description of these entities is managed directly into the Open Semantic Framework (OSF). All the calls to the core entity API function like: entity_load(), entity_save(), entity_create() and entity_delete() are operated with different calls to different OSF web service endpoints.

What this means for a Drupal developer is that they can use Drupal’s Entity API to manage instance records that are hosted remotely in a OSF instance. They don’t have to know how OSF works in order to take advantage of it. They just have to use the API they are used to use. This new Entity Type supports the following Drupal features:

  1. Full Entity API
  2. Entities caching
  3. Revisioning
  4. SearchAPI
  5. Templates selection with inference on their type
  6. 29 field widgets
  7. Export feature in 6 formats

The screencast introduces you to the following aspects of the OSF Entities module:

  1. Introduction to the architecture of the OSF Entities module
  2. Exposing the available entities in OSF into Drupal Bundles and Fields
  3. Browsing and searching for Resource entities
  4. Managing Resource Type bundles
  5. Introduction to the OSF Entity Reference field widget
  6. Creating and updating Resource entities

 


tut_7_blog_400