Re: [topicmaps-comment] mapping topic maps on a relation database

["Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@comcast.net>]

[Lars Marius Garshol]
>
> * Thomas B. Passin
> |
> | Oh, good, you've got something going on an API.  Wish I had known...
> | We had a thread on this some months ago and it didn't seem like it
> | was going anywhere.
>
> Actually, it's been around for a while. It hasn't really been
> announced, though. I know Kal was planning to do this at some point,
> so I hope I haven't stolen his thunder now.
>
> | I won't have time to contribute until late summer at least, I'm
> | sorry to say, but I'd be glad to let you see the object API I use
> | with my javascript engine.  It could easily be translated to Python
> | or java.  This API is targeted towards end applications like
> | browsers.  Let me know if you would be interested.
>
> I would definitely be interested.
>

Lars has (off-line) asked me to make this API publicly available.  I agreed,
so here it is in the attachment.

I have found that this set of APIs is very practical for the applications I
have built so far.  In fact, I developed it so I could experiment with UIs
for topic maps.    In addition to the core API I have attached, I have a
bunch of utility functions, but I don't know that they belong in the API per
se, and haven't included them.

I won't pretend that this API is complete, but it has been a great help to
me in exploring UI issues for topic maps.  With the help of utility
functions, you can save maps in a javascript or xtm format, load the apps
using a javascript serialization (which you can get from an xtm map using an
xslt stylesheet), filter by scopes, and a wide range of other useful things.
It probably has about 80% of the features needed for general apps.

Porting this API to Python from javascript is almost a no-brainer.  I did it
in one long evening.  For java, since I use multiple inheritance, you would
want to make the abstract classes pure interfaces instead.  Then you could
implement the multiple interfaces where I'm using multiple inheritance.

What's that, you say?  Javascript does not have multiple inheritance?  Well,
it turns out you can simulate multiple inheritance.  Javascript doesn't
really have inheritance anyway, it uses prototypes in a way almost exactly
the same way as Python.  Python actually makes a good prototyping language
for javascript, although in this case I've done it the other way round.

Enjoy!

Tom P

// Tom Passin's Javascript Topic Map API
// 4-20-2002 Thomas B. Passin 

// Abstract classes - should probably just be interfaces

bareTopic(id) // Sets instanceOf to "tt-urtype" (universal type).

scopedObject() // Contains a list of scoping topic (ids)
	getScopes() // returns list of scopes
	addScope(scope)

	/* The next three methods accept a list of scope ids.
		they return boolean true or false */
	hasScope(filters) // Currently the same as hasScopeOr()
	hasScopeOr(filters) // Return true of object is scoped by any scope in filters
	hasScopeAnd(filters) // Return true of object is scoped by all scopes in filters

scopedTopic(id) // Inherits from bareTopic and scopedTopic
	// Has no other methods or properties


// topic class - inherits from bareTopic
// Currently, instanceOf values are get/set as properties, but there should be
// methods for this
topic(id) 
	addBaseName(name) // name is a string
	addOccur(Occur) // Occur is an occurrence object

	// "filters" is a list of filter topic ids
	getNamesFiltered(filters)
	getNamesFilteredAny(filters)
	getOccursFiltered(filters)
	erase() // Delete all components of a topic so it can be deleted
	setIdentity(subject_identity)
	getIdentity()

// baseName Class
baseName(label)
	getNameString()  // set by constructor or property assignment
	erase()

// Occurrence class - inherits from scopedTopic
occur(id) // id is optional

	// Currently resourceRef or resourceData are set by writing to the properties
	// (more Pythonic).  Probably should use setter methods for general use.
	getResource()
	getData()
	getResourceOrData()
	erase()

// Subject Identity class - this is not very developed yet, very crude
subjectIdentity(id) // id is optional
	getResourceRef()
	getResourceUri()
	changeResourceRef(newuri)
	getTopicRefs() // returns a list
	getSubjectIndicators() // returns a list
	setResourceRef(resourceRefObject)
	setResourceRefUri(uri)
	addTopicRef(topicRefObject)
	addSubjectIndicatorRef(subjIndicatorRefObject)

// Topic Map class
topicMap(id) // id is optional
	addTopic()
	addAssoc()
	getTopics() // Returns a dictionary (hash) of topic objects keyed by id
	getTopicsFiltered(filters) // "filters" is a list of filter topic ids
	addScope(scope) // If we keep an index of scopes, use this to add a scope

	/*	getTopicsFilteredAny(filters) returns a list of topics whose basenames are in
		one of the scope ids in "filters".  Currently it is a little mixed up
		because if no filter is specified, the entire dictionary of topics 
		is returned, but if there are any filtering topics, a list is returned.
		I need to decide how to make them consistent. */
	getTopicsFilteredAny(filter)
	getTopicById(id)
	getTopicsByType(typeid)
	getAssocIndex()
	getAllScopes()	// Return a list of all topics used as scopes 
					// (so they can be listed in a GUI)
	getNameScopes() // A list of all scopes used for scoping baseNames
	getAssocScopes() // A list of all scopes used for scoping associations
	getAssociations() // A dictionary of associations
	getAssociationsFilteredOr(filters)  // A list of associations, but has same
			// inconsistency as getTOpicsFilteredAny()
	getAssociationsFilteredAnd(filters)
	getAssocByType(typeid)
	erase() // Delete all components of a topic map
	deleteTopicById(id)


/*	scope class.  Each scope object references just one topic (actually
	the id of the topic).  This is set/get as a property, but there should
	be methods for this */
scope(topicid)
	erase()

// association class - inherits from scopedObject
association(id) // id is optional
	addMember(member) // If a member if this type already exists, add
		// its role-players to the existing member instead
	getMembers() // Returns a list of member objects in the association
	getMemberByRoleType(typeid) 
	getID()
	erase()

// member class.  Players are roleplaying topic objects.
member(roleSpec) // Create and initialize member.  "roleSpec" is a topic id.
	addPlayer(playerobject)
	getPlayers() // Return a list of role-playing topics
	erase()

//