By now Open Source Topic Engines exist in abundance { TM4J and OKS for Java, RTM for Ruby, Mappa for Python, Topincs for PHP, Isidorus for Common Lisp, to name only a few. The same cannot be said for generic Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) for Topic Maps that are accessible to end-users. With the upcoming Topic Maps Constraint Language (TMCL) and the growing number of applications using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) as transport format, the use of these two important technologies suggests itself to autogenerate GUIs, the challenge answered by Isidor-UI. This paper explores this question in more details and presents an Open Source Ajax-based GUI framework that builds on TMCL and JSON to generate a user interface for a given ontology. It also suggests a transport protocol for a loosely-coupled server-client model.

1. TMRA 2009Isidorus-UI: Generating a UI withTMCL and JSON Lukas Giessmann Marc W. Kuester Christoph Ludwig

2. Isidorus – A Topic Maps Engine Isidorus-UI (Concept-Overview) Server-side RESTful interface AJAX-Client Problems/Conclusions Demo 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 2 Contents

3. Open Source Topic Maps Engine Reference implementationofSDShare Protocol Implemented in Common Lisp Features Im- andexporterfor XTM 1.0 and 2.0 Im- andexporterfor RDF/XML Mergingandversioningof TM-constructs Publishes ATOM feeds 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 3 Isidorus – A Topic Maps Engine

4. 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 4 Isidorus-UI (Concept-Overview)

5. Searches all standardconstraintsdefined in TMCL for a requestedtopic (-type) Creates a JSON-objectincluding all TMCL-constraints 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 5 Server-sideRESTful Interface I

6. Creates TM-fragmentsincluding a maintopic, all referencedassociationsandtopics Creates „summary“-JSON-objects (topictypes, topicinstances, tree-view, …) Createsnew TM-objects Updates existing TM-objects 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 6 Server-sideRESTful Interface II

7. Implemented in JavaScript Supports JSON (JavaScriptObject Notation) Supports asynchronousrequests (TMCL/TM-Fragments) „Embedded“ code in theuser‘s web browser  User does not needtoinstall additional software 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 7 AJAX-Client I

8. Splittedinto Overviewsection Represents a hierarchicalsnapshotofthestorage Offers „shortcuts“ foreditingandcreatingtopics Searchsection (not implementedyet) Editsection Displays existingtopicsandassociations Enablestheusertoeditexistingtopicsandassociations Createsection Enablestheusertocreatenewtopicsandassociations 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 8 AJAX-Client II

9. Supported TMCL-constraints All standardconstraintsdefined in TMCL draftdated 2008-08-07 Except: Unique-Occurrence-Constraint Occurrencedatais not validatedagainsttheoccurrencedata type Individual constraints (including TMQL-expressions) are not supported 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 9 AJAX-Client III

10. TMCL (2008-08-07) does not containconstraintsforname-variants variant-informationis not offered (scope, reg. expr.) Offer all scope-topics Accepttheregular-expression *. Differencesbetweenthe JavaScript implementationsof different browsers Focus on a subsetofavailablebrowsers „work-arounds“ 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 10 Problems/Conclusions

11. Import TMCL-data Start Isidorus-UI Overview-section Create new TM-Fragments Edit existing TM-Fragments Virtual-Box-Ubuntu-Image with an installedisidorussystemisavailableunder: http://festus.textgrid.it.fh-worms.de/TMRA2009/isidorus-vbox-image.tar.gz 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 11 Demo

12. Thankyou! 13.11.2009 Lukas Giessmann, TMRA 2009: Isidorus-UI 12 Questions