Re: SKOS API .... are u serious?

Hi Leo

> we are in implementing a SKOS api for
> www.gnowsis.org
>
great :-)

> so, to repeat this:
> we implement SKOS in real code and want to solve real problems like
> annotating emails or PDF documents into a thesauri. Or into my Wordpress
> categories (yes, we made this). The application shall understand drag
> drop and be used by real people, not us, the semantic web nerds.
>
> Given the fact that we want to write REAL code, the api at
> http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe/reports/thes/api/docs/
> is not usable.
>
Why is it not usable? I am not quite sure I understand you. The API is a 
first pass at an *abstract* API, according to which 'real' applications may 
be developed. So the API itself is not supposed to be code that you pick up 
and run with, but rather an abstract definition of what 'methods' & 'object 
types' a SKOS implementation should be able to support.

For example click on 'SKOSThesaurus' at 
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe/reports/thes/api/docs/
in order to view the interface for a SKOS service: the method summary lists 
what we deem to be required methods - they are derived from our review of 
use cases and subsequent implementation experience. For e.g:
" Concept[] 	getAllConceptRelatives(Concept concept)
          Get a list of all concept relatives."

We used this abstract API ourselves to develop 'real' code. We developed a 
first-pass web service implementation (in java and using Axis for SOAP 
support) as a generic SKOS thesaurus service. We called it "DREFT". You may 
download this code from
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe/reports/thes/dreft/

Does that help at all?
Please also note that we used Sesame, not Jena, for our web service 
prototype. But our server implementation at 
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe/reports/thes/dreft/ is built extensibly & 
in such a way as it tries to be 
RDF-software/backend-relational-database-software agnostic. See the readme 
that comes with the software for further details - such as how you may 
write your own Jena plugin if you prefer to use Jena over Sesame.

I'd be happy to help/collaborate further,
thanks
Nikki


> three possibilities:
> * I am a loser and did not find the REAL api at http://......
> * One of  the members of the project makes this real good and publishes it
> * We define our own stuff,  based on JENA (and java.net.URI) and you may
> copy it to the official site
>
> anything works for me
>
> Leo
>



----------------------
NJ Rogers, Technical Researcher
(Semantic Web Applications Developer)
Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT)
Email:nikki.rogers@bristol.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)117 9287096 (Direct)
Tel: +44(0)117 9287193 (Office)

Received on Friday, 3 December 2004 13:31:46 UTC