Re: Proposal: Looking inside tables

Thanks, Guha! In that case - and if you decide to add/extend the support for modeling meta-data with schema.org, then it should IMO be done in a conceptually clean manner, i.e. by adding respective properties and types as in my "from the top of my head" example instead of overloading existing properties that are defined for instance data. This would effectively boil down to adding the properties

    typeOfEntries - URL of schema.org type
    column - columns of the table (optional, since directly available from the HTML tree)

to http://schema.org/Table and to create a new type

    http://schema.org/TableColumn ( or Dimension or something more generic)

with the property

    mapsToProperty - URL or schema.org property

for the basic case (without modeling links between tables, defining columns as primary keys or foreign keys, etc.)

Martin
On Aug 20, 2013, at 8:07 PM, Guha wrote:

> Martin,
> 
>  Thank you for your feedback. It is always good to see a spirited discussion.
> 
>  For better or worse, it turns out that marking each cell in a table is not always an option. So ...
> 
> guha
> 
> 
> On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 2:52 AM, Martin Hepp <martin.hepp@ebusiness-unibw.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
> just from the top of my head - if you really want to add such a meta-data extension, why don't you create a type
> 
>     http://schema.org/Table
> 
> with the properties
> 
>     typeOfEntries - URL of schema.org type
>     column - columns of the table (optional, since directly available from the HTML tree)
> 
> and a second type
> 
>     http://schema.org/TableColumn ( or Dimension or something more generic)
> 
> with the property
> 
>     mapsToProperty - URL or schema.org property
> 
> That should to the trick without mixing apples (tables) and oranges (table entries).
> 
> 
> But in general, I strictly oppose the proposed extension, since it adds an unnecessary intermedia level. Putting in the proper markup directly in the body of the table is
> 
> 1. cleaner,
> 2. requires no special processing, and
> 3. works in RDFa and Microdata without proprietary inferences.
> 
> <table>
>   <thead>
>     <tr>
>       <th>Image</th>
>       <th>Name</th>
>       <th>Year</th>
>       <th>Technique</th>
>       <th>Dimensions</th>
>       <th>Gallery</th>
>     </tr>
>   </thead>
> <tbody>
>    <tr itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Painting">
>         <td><a itemprop="image" href="...URL">Image</a></td>
>         <td itemprop="name">The Cry</td>
>         ...
>    </tr>
> ...</tbody>
> </table>
> 
> 
> My strongest argument, however, is that most tables today are generated with loops from database content, so the HTML / template will contain the data markup in only one place anyway. So there is really no reason to add such an awkward, proprietary mechanism that mixes syntax and vocabulary.
> 
> 
> Martin
> 
> 
> 
> On Aug 14, 2013, at 2:47 PM, Dan Brickley wrote:
> 
> > Re-fwd'ing this as Omar's mail didn't get distributed for some reason.
> >
> > Somewhat related, see also schema.org position paper to W3C Open Data
> > on the Web workshop recently,
> > http://www.w3.org/2013/04/odw/odw13_submission_53.pdf via
> > http://www.w3.org/2013/04/odw/papers
> >
> > Dan
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: Omar Benjelloun (عمر بنجلون) <benjello@google.com>
> > Date: 13 August 2013 22:04
> > Subject: Proposal: Looking inside tables
> > To: public-vocabs@w3.org
> > Cc: Ramanathan Guha <guha@google.com>, Dan Brickley <danbri@google.com>
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Many useful datasets on the Web take the form of tables. The goal of
> > this proposal is to provide a simple, schema.org-friendly way to "look
> > inside" these tables, and map their contents into triples.
> >
> > This is an early draft proposal developed at Google. We're seeking
> > feedback from the community.
> >
> > The proposal is attached to this e-mail, and will be uploaded to the
> > WebSchemas/SchemaDotOrgProposals page shortly.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > -Omar
> > <Lookinginsidetables.html>
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------
> martin hepp
> e-business & web science research group
> universitaet der bundeswehr muenchen
> 
> e-mail:  hepp@ebusiness-unibw.org
> phone:   +49-(0)89-6004-4217
> fax:     +49-(0)89-6004-4620
> www:     http://www.unibw.de/ebusiness/ (group)
>          http://www.heppnetz.de/ (personal)
> skype:   mfhepp
> twitter: mfhepp
> 
> Check out GoodRelations for E-Commerce on the Web of Linked Data!
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

--------------------------------------------------------
martin hepp
e-business & web science research group
universitaet der bundeswehr muenchen

e-mail:  hepp@ebusiness-unibw.org
phone:   +49-(0)89-6004-4217
fax:     +49-(0)89-6004-4620
www:     http://www.unibw.de/ebusiness/ (group)
         http://www.heppnetz.de/ (personal)
skype:   mfhepp 
twitter: mfhepp

Check out GoodRelations for E-Commerce on the Web of Linked Data!
=================================================================
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Received on Wednesday, 21 August 2013 17:07:18 UTC