Michael K. Bergman wrote:
To All and the OpenLink Crew,
As my first posting to this list, I have some getting started newbie
developer questions. I have installed the Windows binaries (with
everything running fine) and have downloaded and extracted the source
code as well. I should note that my immediate interest is in interface
mods and refinements, so that I am focusing on ODS and its associated
.vspx and .css files.
Welcome!
Fred is a good companion re. ODS customization since he is working on
this as part of Zitgist :-)
A guiding principle for ODS is to look at it a being comprised of:
(V)iewer - VSPX or VSP
(C)ontroller - Web Services and Virtuoso PL based APIs
(M)odel - SQL (at its core) and RDF instance data for SIOC, FOAF, SKOS,
AtomOWL, Annotea Bookmarks, and others.
I articulate the architecture above due to the fact that it is really
possible to exploit ODS via the (C) and (M) components implying you can
easily build an alternative (V).
1. The ODS Quick Start guide
(http://virtuoso.openlinksw.con/wiki/main/Main/OdsConfig) indicates I
can install the ods_filesystem.vad package to make Web page changes on
the fly. I could not find that package, nor explanations of which source
files go in it if I wanted to re-build it
The VAD packages on the ODS Web Site are out of date :-(
I've uploaded a new set (ods_*) available from:
http://myopenlink.net:8890/DAV/home/kidehen/Public/Installers/ODS (there
are WebDAV and Filesystem folders. I recommend WebDAV since there are
one or two missing filesystem VADs. Also, the WebDAV approach is better
since all the components are in one logical DB unit associated with one
or more Physical DB files depending on whether you stripe your Physical
Virtuoso Storage files (.db files).
2. I have checked the excellent (but some dated, and most geared to the
commercial version) Virtuoso documentation and can find no documentation
on ods_dav.vad. Would I be correct that *after* making any UI code
changes that is advisable to re-build this package?
Not really, you are better off putting your modifications into a
separate VAD.
3. Are there any utilities to access and modify either .vsp or .vspx
files? Working with the XML directly is pretty hairy
Various Editors will work (in some cases you tell them to recognize the
vsp and vsp extensions e.g DreamWeaver and others). I use TextMate on
Mac OS X.
4. It would seem that either an adoption or a bridge to XUL would make
sense for VSPX (or perhaps some way to cross-link the two). It strikes
me that take up for anything with a UI component depends on having a
critic mass in a user community
Yes.
XUL can act as an alternative (V) as per my earlier comments if your choose.
OAT is another option.
5. Where might I find any documentation regarding how to create my own
Virtuoso/ODS plug-ins?
We are lacking a little on the documentation front.
What would you be plugging in here? If we are talking Metadata
Extractors for instance, then a tutorial doc is being completed. Where
are you looking to extend? (V), (C), or (M)?
6. Is there documentation for how best to include OAT with ODS, and does
it add anything at present out of the box?
From OAT's vantage point ODS is just another data source through which
it interacts with data via:
- SQL (over XMLA)
- RDF (SPARQL)
- XML (REST / Basic HTTP GET)
- Web Services that return JSON or XML (REST or SOAP variants)
Thus you can build a form using the various data bound controls against
ODS Data.
What is powerful but not always obvious is the fact that when you take
the RDF route you simply focus on URIs that are processed via SPARQL
(where you construct the SPARQL using the Query Builder).
Forgive me for the number of questions; there will certainly be more to
come.
Thanks, Mike
Basically, we need to update our screencasts for ODS and OAT :-)
--
Regards,
Kingsley Idehen Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
President & CEO
OpenLink Software Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
