Hi Igor,
I just realized I never responded to this - sorry for the long delay.
So - I didn't realize that all the columns would be defined by values of a
single property. Given that, what you're saying makes sense. I would just
suggest some slight changes to the syntax you proposed. For the
"traceability matrix", with just an 'X' in each cell, a query like this:
{{#ask:[[Category:Components]]
|?implements
|format=pivot
|columns property=implements
}}
(i.e., no need to set "X" - it's assumed.)
...and for the more-complex "dependency matrix", a query like this:
{{#ask:[[Category:Dependencies]]
|?declared for
|?depends on
|?comment
|format=pivot
|rows property=declared for
|columns property=depends on
|cells property=comment
}}
In both cases, the parameter names are hopefully a little clearer, and
parameters are all separated by pipes, not commas.
-Yaron
On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 6:01 PM, Igor Lobanov <igor.loba...@ymail.com> wrote:
> Yaron,
>
> I agree with you with regard to benefits of having this feature implemented
> as a result formatter, thank you. So this is my primary approach.
>
> I find the syntax you've proposed a bit confusing. The question mark sign
> in the #ask query means that you're adding additional fields to the output.
> However, in our 'reference example' there's no such properties as 'create'
> and 'read', they are string literal values of the 'access type' property.
> Have you meant that there is a 'create' relation between System and Data?
>
> I've thought about the syntax and I'd like to share my idea. Yaron, sorry
> if it's exactly what's you had in mind, in this case I think detailed
> explanation is useful to have and probably reuse later.
>
> Idea is that the query is used to fetch actual cell contents. Then you just
> specify which properties of query result are used to define rows and
> columns. This approach effectively allows to use the either internal objects
> or normal pages to fill out the cells.
>
> Couple of examples to illustrate the idea:
>
> (1) Requirements to components traceability
> - there are categories: Requirement, Component
> - each Requirement has title (page name)
> - each Component has title (page name) and a multi-valued relation
> 'implements' to Requirement
>
> In order to build traceability matrix, you have to query Components. The
> Component title is used to produce values for rows. Values for cells are
> constant, that is 'X' literal value since we are only interested in showing
> if there a relation. In addition we only need to specify which property is
> used to derive columns, that is 'implements' in this case.
>
> The in-line query is looks like the following:
> {{#ask:[[Category:Components]]
> |?implements
> |format=pivot,columns=implements,cells='X'}}
>
> (2) Dependencies matrix
> - there are categories: Components, Dependencies
> - each Component has a title (page name) and a set of internal objects of
> category Dependencies (category is assigned by template)
> - each Dependency has an internal name (not interesting), a back reference
> to a declaring Component 'declared for', a reference 'depends on' to another
> component which the declaring component has the dependency from, and a
> string value property 'comment' that adds come informal insight on the
> nature of the dependency.
>
> Dependency matrix should have components both on rows and columns. In order
> to build it we need to query Dependencies. Values for cells are taken from
> the dependencies comments, values for rows are from 'declared for' values of
> dependencies, and finally values for columns are from 'depends on' values.
>
> The query should look like the following:
> {{#ask:[[Category:Dependencies]]
> |?declared for
> |?depends on
> |?comment
> |format=pivot,rows=declared for,columns=depends on,cells=comment}}
>
> It seems that this approach is versatile and still concise. What's your
> view?
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Igor Lobanov
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Yaron Koren <ya...@wikiworks.com>
> *To:* Igor Lobanov <igor.loba...@ymail.com>
> *Cc:* Patrick Nagel <m...@patrick-nagel.net>; "
> semediawiki-devel@lists.sourceforge.net" <
> semediawiki-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>
> *Sent:* Monday, 6 June 2011, 16:00
>
> *Subject:* Re: [SMW-devel] Matrix result formatter
>
> Hi Igor,
>
> It seems to me like this could be done as a query result... the example you
> gave might be callable like this:
>
>
> {{#ask:[[Category:Systems]]|?create=blue|?update=yellow|?read=green|format=traceabilitymatrix}}
>
> There might be no reason to need to specify the "Data" category, i.e. the
> set of columns, if they're already covered by the values of the properties.
> But if there are any empty columns, you might want to specify it manually -
> you could do that with something like:
>
>
> {{#ask:[[Category:Systems]]|?create=blue|?update=yellow|?read=green|columns=Data|format=traceabilitymatrix}}
>
> In general, I would say, if you can implement this as a result format, that
> would definitely be the better approach - it'll be easier for you to
> implement, easier for admins to install (assuming it were added to Semantic
> Result Formats), and easier for users to use, since they would already know
> the #ask syntax.
>
> -Yaron
>
> On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 7:03 PM, Igor Lobanov <igor.loba...@ymail.com>wrote:
>
> Patrick, Yaron,
>
> Thank you for your feedback!
>
> I can see a problem with the 'result format' approach that originally
> forced me to start thinking about separate directive. This is what I refer
> to as 'inner join syndrome', i.e. you will have only those rows and columns
> in a matrix that have at least one relation of interest. In other words
> there won't be any empty rows and columns. So initially it seems that in
> order to build proper relationship matrix one need to specify three queries:
> rows of interest, columns of interest and actual cells. Other approach is to
> extend query expression to support something like OPTIONAL operator in
> SPARQL, but it doesn't seem to be any easier. However, I'll explore this
> possibility once I build up more understanding of how query execution works,
> so thanks for this idea.
>
> As for real world example, here it is. I use SMW as an implementation for
> architectural knowledge base and components repository. There is a lot of
> stuff going on, but in particular I have simple ontology used to relate
> enterprise-wide data and applications. There are two categories: Systems and
> Data. In addition, every System page has a set of internal records
> (form-driven) that relate the System with a particular kind of Data and has
> additional metadata such as type of dependency (create/read/update),
> middleware used to access the data, and some arbitrary comments. What I'd
> like to produce (and I did, albeit in a suboptimal way) is a 'CRUD matrix'
> with Systems listed as rows, kinds of Data as columns and a short summary of
> the relation. First, it's colour-coded: 'create' is blue, 'update' is
> yellow, 'read' is green. Second, there is a link to the middleware page and
> a comment displayed. All of these is provided by custom template that uses
> parser functions. Hope this explanation is clear enough, but I could be more
> specific.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Igor Lobanov
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Yaron Koren <ya...@wikiworks.com>
> *To:* Patrick Nagel <m...@patrick-nagel.net>
> *Cc:* semediawiki-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
> *Sent:* Thursday, 2 June 2011, 15:45
> *Subject:* Re: [SMW-devel] Matrix result formatter
>
> Hi Igor,
>
> Before I go further, let me note how refreshing it is to hear someone
> asking for advice on this mailing list before creating a new SMW extension.
> :) It happens more rarely than you might think.
>
> So - Patrick is right that this would ideally be created as a new SMW
> result format, and ideally a format added to the Semantic Result Formats
> extension. However - it depends a lot on the complexity of your
> implementation, whether such a thing is doable.
>
> Could you give an example of the "traceability" you would like to
> illustrate, as a calculation based on various properties and pages? In other
> words, for a single cell in the matrix, how would it be determined whether
> to put an "x" there, what color to set it to, etc.? I think that would help
> a lot in trying to figure out the right approach.
>
> -Yaron
>
> On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 10:36 PM, Patrick Nagel <m...@patrick-nagel.net>wrote:
>
> Hi Igor,
>
> On 2011-06-02 07:11, Igor Lobanov wrote:
> > I'm looking for a way to produce matrices out of relations between
> > arbitrary types of objects/pages in SMW. Simple example would be a
> > 'traceability matrix' between pages within such categories as 'Business
> > Requirement' and 'System Requirement'. Constructed matrix would have
> > business requirements and system requirements as row and column headers
> > respectively, while actual elements would be either emply (no
> > traceability) or flagged (traceability exists).
> >
> > Good example is provided in the Wikipedia article:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traceability_matrix
> >
> > More complex example (one that I have in mind) would be based not on a
> > simple relationship, but on internal objects representing relationships
> > among various objects with additional scalar properties. In this case,
> > cell content would be more flexible and somehow derived from the
> > properties, e.g. color, icons, formatting, etc.
> >
> > Next, I'm able to produce such matrices using a moderately complex
> > incantation based on obscure things like arrays and loops, but it's
> > O(NxM), needs to be tailored for a particular type of matrix, and look
> > awful in general.
> >
> > I believe that general-purpose matrix/pivot style result formatter for
> > inline queries would be good for SMW. Moreover, I'd like to try to blow
> > the dust from my PHP skills and actually produce one. What I'm looking
> > for is some informed advice on how to approach this one.
> >
> > My initial idea is to create an extension that introduces a
> > {{#pivot...}} instruction that actually does underlying query and
> > formatting. Does it make sense? Or it is something that can't be built
> > outside the SMW core?
>
> That sounds indeed very useful. I'm just a user of SMW, but I think the
> best way to implement this would be as an extension similar to Semantic
> Result Formats, or even better, within that extension. It would then not
> be a separate parser function, but just an output format, that can be
> chosen via the 'format' parameter to an #ask query.
>
> Patrick.
>
> --
> Key ID: 0x86E346D4 http://patrick-nagel.net/key.asc
> Fingerprint: 7745 E1BE FA8B FBAD 76AB 2BFC C981 E686 86E3 46D4
>
>
>
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