Re: [topicmapmail] Querying Topic Maps (was Topic Map Server)

[Bryan Thompson <bryan@cog-tech.com>]

Hans,

Graham suggested that you are the person at STEP who might have the most to
offer in the way of information on use cases.  Let me encourage you to "step"
forward and participate in the XTM-UCS (Use Cases Subgroup).  We can definately
benefit from the experience of STEP in applying topic maps to large problems.

Thanks,

-bryan

On Thu, 24 Aug 2000, you wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> The article about a TMQL -- Topic Map Query Language -- written
> by my Polish colleague Rafal Ksiezyk can be found online at 
> http://www.gca.org/papers/xmleurope2000/papers/s22-03.html
> 
> It defines a very elegant SQL-like solution.
> 
> --Holger
> 
> 
> W. Eliot Kimber wrote:
> > 
> > Martin Bryan wrote:
> > >
> > > Robert:
> > >
> > > > Do you think it is wise to come up with a 'standardized' interface, maybe with a
> > > > TQL (topic map query language)? Can we exploit something existing? Maybe parts
> > > > of XPath together with axes?
> > >
> > > I expect that a standardized query mechanism for XML Topic Maps, based on the XML Query Language, will be possible, but first we must get agreement on the form of XML Topic Maps. Not sure how axes will fit into things, but I would expect to use XPath constructs to look for specific attribute values for architectural form properties or the contents of elements that conform to a particular type of AF element.
> > 
> > I think we have be careful about talking about querying topic maps in
> > terms of the interchange syntax, rather than the abstract model now
> > being developed by topicmaps.org.
> > 
> > That is, when I query a topic map, I need to be querying it in terms of
> > the fundamental abstraction of topic maps.
> > 
> > That is, when I query a topic map, I don't want to get back a node list
> > of element nodes (where the gi will be "x" and the topicmap
> > architectural form will be "topic"), I want to get back a node list of
> > topic nodes or association role nodes or occurrence nodes.
> > 
> > That is, I should be able to say something like:
> > 
> > SELECT topic FROM topicmapA WHERE scope includes "dog"
> > AND name matches "basset"
> > AND assocrl matches "pet"
> > 
> > or
> > 
> > select(
> >   filter(all_topics(),
> >          "dog"),
> >   and(match(name, "basset")
> >       match(assocrl, "pet")))
> > 
> > I think that if you think about this sort of query over topic maps, it
> > becomes clear that there are some difficult problems, both with the
> > mathematics behind the query (which I don't pretend to understand, but
> > have some feel for the nature of) and with the syntax for representing
> > the query (for example, how do you conveniently say "find all topics
> > that participate in an association of type 'x' that are not a member of
> > association role 'y'", must queries be closed over topics?, what would
> > operators like "*" from SQL mean in a topic map context (e.g., SELECT
> > topic FROM topicmapA where * matches "dog"--is this even meaningful to
> > consider?)).
> > 
> > But I know for sure that querying against the topic map *document*
> > itself is not the right thing to do as a general solution for doing
> > topic querying.
> > 
> > I think we need to give a great deal of deep thought to the problem--I
> > for one will need to review the papers on topic map querying presented
> > at XML Europe.
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > 
> > E.
> 
> -- 
>    \/\X\   Hans Holger Rath .................................................
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