TMAPI 2.0

TMAPI 2.0
Topic Maps API 2.0

Lars Heuer <heuer@semagia.com>
Johannes Schmidt <js@sixgroups.com>

TMRA 2008, Leipzig · 17.10.2008

Table of Contents
Introduction
Design Objectives
Core Interfaces
Details – Core
Details – Index
Questions / Answers

Lars Heuer · http://www.semagia.com TMRA 2008, Leipzig · 17.10.2008 2
Johannes Schmidt · http://www.sixgroups.com

Introduction
TMAPI is a set of Java interfaces to interact with
topic maps
TMAPI makes applications Topic Maps engine
independent
TMAPI 1.0 has been implemented by several Open
Source and commercial Topic Maps engines
TMAPI 1.0 has been ported to other programming
languages
Not designed by a standards body but a de-facto
standard

Design Objectives
Topic Maps – Data Model (TMDM) compatible
(TMAPI 1.0 is not)
Respect TMDM constraints to some extend (i.e.
disallow quot;nullquot; in serveral places)
Java 1.5
Userfriendly (depends on the perspective, though)
More tests (TMAPI 1.0: 89 tests TMAPI 2.0: approx.
250 tests)
Apply lessons learned from TMAPI 1.0


Core Interfaces
Construct
Reifiable
Typed
Scoped
DatatypeAware(Reifiable, Scoped)
TopicMap(Reifiable)
Topic(Construct)
Association(Reifiable, Typed, Scoped)
Role(Reifiable, Typed)
Occurrence(Datatyped, Typed)
Name(Typed, Scoped)
Variant(Datatyped)


Details – Topic Map
Object / Topic lookup methods moved from
the TopicsIndex to the TopicMap interface:
getConstructByItemIdentifier
getTopicBySubjectIdentifier
getTopicBySubjectLocator


Details – Topics
TMAPI 1.0: One method to create topics
(createTopic Topic without any identity)
TMAPI 2.0: Four methods to create topics:
createTopicBySubjectIdentifier
createTopicBySubjectLocator
createTopicByItemIdentifier
createTopic ( Topic with an automatically
generated item identifier)


Details – Topics
Create or reuse existing topic with a sid in TMAPI 1.0:
TopicsIndex tIdx =
(TopicsIndex) tm.getHelperObject(TopicsIndex.class);
if (!tIdx.isOpen()) { tIdx.open(); }
if (!tIdx.getIndexFlags().isAutoUpdated()) {
tIdx.reindex();
}
Topic topic = tIdx.getTopicBySubjectIdentifier(sid);
if (topic == null) {
TopicMapObject tmo = tm.getObjectBySourceLocator(sid);
if (tmo instanceof Topic) { topic = (Topic) tmo; }
}
if (topic == null) {
topic = tm.createTopic(); topic.addSubjectIdentifier(sid);
}

Details – Topic Creation
Algorithm


Algorithm

Exists a topic with the specified subject identifier?


Algorithm


Yes
Return existing topic


Algorithm


Yes No

Return existing topic Exists a topic with an
item identifier == specified subject identifier?


Algorithm


Yes No


Yes

Add the subject identifier to the
existing topic and return the topic


Algorithm


Yes No


No
Yes

Add the subject identifier to the Create a topic with the subject identifier
existing topic and return the topic and return the topic


Details – Topics – Best
Practise
If possible use an explicit identity (subject
identifier, subject locator or item identifier)
createTopic() is implementation dependent
and not reliable


Details - Occurrences
TMAPI 1.0: Untyped occurrences possible,
only strings and locators are supported
TMAPI 2.0: Untyped occurrences are
disallowed, any datatype possible (c.f.
interface core.DatatypeAware)
occ.setValue(1) xsd:int
occ.setValue(quot;valuequot;) xsd:string
occ.setValue(1.0F) xsd:float
occ.setValue(quot;valuequot;, locator)
datatype = locator

Details - Associations
TMAPI 1.0: Untyped associations and roles
without a type or player are allowed
TMAPI 2.0: Untyped associations are
disallowed, every role has a type and a
player
Caution:
TMAPI 1.0: createAssociationRole(player, type)
TMAPI 2.0: createRole(type, player)


Details - Scope
TMAPI 1.0: quot;nullquot; represents the
unconstrained scope in factory methods:
createName(quot;The Beatlesquot;, null)
TMAPI 2.0: If the scope is not specified, the
statement is in the unconstrained scope
(variable argument):
createName(quot;The Beatlesquot;)
createName(quot;Pilzköpfequot;, nickname, german)
Scope definition works also for associations,
occurrences and variants

Details – Index
TMAPI 1.0: 8 indexes which implement a construct-centric view:
TopicMapObjectsIndex
ScopedObjectsIndex
TopicsIndex
TopicNamesIndex
VariantsIndex
OccurrencesIndex
AssociationsIndex
AssociationRolesIndex
TMAPI 2.0: 3 indexes which implement a generalized view on a
topic map:
LiteralIndex (Occurrences, Names, Variants)
ScopedIndex (Associations, Occurrences, Names, Variants)
TypeInstanceIndex (Topics, Associations, Roles, Occurrences,
Names)

Details – Index
TMAPI 1.0:
TopicsIndex idx = (TopicsIndex)
tm.getHelperObject(TopicsIndex.class);
(Exception handling omitted)

TMAPI 2.0:
TypeInstanceIndex idx =
tm.getIndex(TypeInstanceIndex.class);
(No checked exceptions)


Outlook
Notifications
Transactions
Advanced filter API (XPath aka TMPath
expressions are implemented by TMAPIX)
Participate! http://www.tmapi.org/


References
TMAPI
http://www.tmapi.org/
TMAPI 2.0
http://www.tmapi.org/2.0/
tinyTiM
TMAPI 1.0 / TMAPI 2.0 Topic Maps engine
http://tinytim.sourceforge.net/
PHPTMAPI
http://phptmapi.sourceforge.net/
QuaaxTM
PHPTMAPI 1.0 / PHPTMAPI 2.0 Topic Maps engine
http://quaaxtm.sourceforge.net/

References
TMAPI.NET (C#)
http://sourceforge.net/project/tmapinet
TMAPIX
Utilities for TMAPI (Java)
http://tmapix.googlecode.com/


Discussion

Questions?

Answers! ☺


TMAPI 2.0

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