Allow additional fields when describing a class

[paulmillar]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

A class' IRI resolves to the HTML fragment that describes the class, within the Widoko-generated page. Currently, that HTML fragment contains only information from the ontology. It isn't possible to provide links to external services that would accept the IRI as an argument.

Describe the solution you'd like

I'd like the ability to customise the Widoco HTML fragment that describes a class, so that I can include some custom HTML content. There should be the ability to inject the IRI; e.g., by replacing a placeholder with the IRI.

Describe alternatives you've considered

text-based editing to inject HTML into the descriptions.

[paulmillar]

Perhaps relevant is the stylesheet file src/main/resources/lode/extraction.xsl.

[dgarijo]

Hi @paulmillar.
I do not understand very well the request. Widoco takes the ontology and generates the website. Is this about recognizing extra metadata properties in the class? If so, it's the extraction.xsl, but the extended one.
If it's about allowing text editing the generated html, why not use your regular favorite HTML text editor?

[paulmillar]

To give a concrete example, I'm looking at the Widoco generated page for the PaNET ontology.

We've configured resolver services so that the PaNET IRI, when placed in a web-browser will land at the corresponding description of that term within the Widoco page. For example, "extended x-ray absorption fine structure" has an IRI http://purl.org/pan-science/PaNET/PaNET01198. When this link is followed, the browser shows the corresponding fragment within the Widoco-generated page.

We are also building integrations with existing services, where the PaNET terms may be used. For example, we have a catalogue of training material where the material is classified by PaNET terms; we also have catalogues of datasets where the datasets are classified by these terms. Over time, we hope to include more of these services as we continue PaNET adoption.

These services that "understand" PaNET provide a way to query for matching material. Given a PaNET IRI, it is possible to derive a PaNET-term-specific URL (for that service) where the service will return an HTML page showing a search result of related material (training material, datasets, etc).

What I would like to do is provide a way that, when someone puts the PaNET IRI into their web browser and their browser is redirected to the corresponding fragment of the Widoco-generated page, they are offered the opportunity to explore training material on this topic, search for datasets obtained with this technique, etc..

I think this makes most sense if it were a standard part of the term's description within the Widoco-generate page; i.e., for each PaNET term, the description also contains links like "explore training material" or "explore datasets". These links would take the user to the corresponding service using the IRI-specific URL.

[dgarijo]

I see. Widoco is built from the ontology, so if you would like to support new sections you first have to annotate the ontology with the extra URLs you'd like to point to, and then create an extension in extraction.xsl to support your use case.

But I think this goes beyond a common feature for the tool, as it would be for your specific use case, no?
There is a part in extraction.xsl for custom annotations (line 2185). You would have to define a template such as this one, which shows examples for classes using vaem:rationale:

 <!--CUSTOM ANNOTATIONS-->
    <xsl:template name="get.rationale">
        <xsl:if test="exists(vaem:rationale)">
            <dl>
                <dt>
                    <xsl:value-of select="f:getDescriptionLabel('rationale')"/>
                </dt>
                <xsl:for-each select="vaem:rationale[f:isInLanguage(.)]">
                    <dd>
                        <xsl:value-of select="text()"/>
                    </dd>
                </xsl:for-each>
            </dl>
        </xsl:if>
    </xsl:template>

[paulmillar]

Thanks for the hints.

The point about including the services within the ontology is an interesting point. I'm not sure this is strictly necessary, but it's certainly something to consider.

I think we could use the custom annotation would be a reasonable extension point, in order to inject the new content.

Do you happen to know if it's possible to run the standard widoco jar with a custom XSLT?

[dgarijo]

Not at the moment, it's an open issue :) #611
Technically speaking it is not complicated: you need to replace the xslt applied to use your file instead of the one included in the JAR.
But I did not have enough time to include it.