Topic Maps for improved access to and use of content in relational databases - a case study on the descriptive variety lists of Germany's Bundessortenamt

Weber, Eilbracht, Kesberg @ TMRA 2010

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Sixth International Conference on Topic Maps Research and Applications – TMRA 2010Leipzig, 29 September – 1 October 2010

Gerhard E. Weber, Ralf Eilbracht, Stefan Kesberg

Nexxor GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany, www.nexxor.de

Topic Maps for improved access to and use of content in relational databases – a case study on the descriptive variety lists of Germany's Bundessortenamt


Unternehmen

2Problem statement

Physical access ubiquitous web access to data in relational databases

Unternehmen

Few perspectives only low number of views providedavailable views limit the number of answerable questions

Data-centrism frontends reflect data-centric information architecture

= restricted usability of content

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Unternehmen

3Suggested solution Unternehmen

Subject-centrism offer subjects networked by knowledge modelsinstead of data organized by relational data models

Many perspectives render relational views automatically from the underlying graphnot only from queries preformulated for anticipated questions

Many access paths offer many access paths to users‘ target viewsrather than a few hierarchical navigation structures

Topic Maps-driven as access layers „on top“ of relational data storesfrontends

increased usability

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4Anwendungsbeispiel

What is it? a national compilation of several thousand agricultural plant cultivars („products“),their properties such as yield, quality, processing, resistance, etc.,and their breeders („producers“)

German federal authority: BundessortenamtWho creates it?

URL www.bundessortenamt.de

farmers, growers, co-operatives, advisors, processing industryWho uses it?

repeated, randomized multi-year and multi-site growth trialsBasis of property assessments?

Use case: variety lists of Germany‘s Bundessortenamt

http://www.bundessortenamt.de/


5Anwendungsbeispiel

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Bundessortenamt – web app showing data on wheat cultivars

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http://www.bundessortenamt.de/


6Anwendungsbeispiel

Cultivars variety distribution over a particular kind of property in an assortment?distribution of barley varieties over susceptibility to mildew?

position of a particular variety in the assortments distribution?barley variety “Emily” susceptibility to mildew?

assortments of activity of a particular breeder?what are the assortments of breeder KWS Lochow?

breeders dominating in a particular assortment - to what extent?dominating breeders winter wheat?the two most important breeders?

Breeders

Some questions not answerable with the authorities web app


7Topic maps creation Anwendungsbeispiel

Data source relational database updated annuallyno direct access to sourcedownloaded ASCII- and html-files from authorities website

Ontology creation ontology design based on in-house expertise in application domain

Data preprocessing address fields preprocessed for entity recognition of locations, and breedersfor type recognition such as person, company, organisation

all source data transformed into topic mapsall maps merged

Transformation

Knowledge models assortment specialization, property specialization, geographic containments


8Variety lists as topic map based web app Anwendungsbeispiel

Topic Maps package

topicWorks with Topic Maps engine, configurable frontend, template system, integrated PivotViewer

URL www.topicmapsforge.org/topicmaps/sorten

individuals by default rendered in „topic view“ topic view collocates names, associations, and occurrences

types by default rendered in „table view“ table view lists instances and statements about them

customization for topics of particular interest (templates, tolog)

Visualizationpatterns

http://www.topicmapsforge.org/topicmaps/sorten


9Subject-centric information on wheat cultivars Markt

wheat

topic:year ofadmission

topic:susceptibilityto mildew

topic:year of admission 2004

topic:the breederKWS Lochow

topic:breeder

topic: mildewsusceptibility rating 5


10Markt

text filter: kws

breeder KWSoffers 12 wheatcultivars

What are the wheat cultivars offered by KWS?


11Markt

text filter: kws

mildew susceptibilitysorted in ascendingorder

What is the KWS wheat cultivar least susceptible to mildew?

the wanted cultivar

topic:susceptibilityto mildew


12Markt

mildew susceptibility

Wheat cultivar distribution over mildew susceptibility

Relational view automatically rendered from underlying topic map.No preconfigured query required. No view configuration required.

hierarchybrowser

how to judge midlew susceptibilityof „Tommi“?


13MarktHierarchical knowledge model – drill-up

drill-up a knowledge model:from a particular property (wheat disease)to more generic properties (all relevant wheat diseases)


14Markt

susceptibility for wheat diseases

Wheat diseases

80 „records“ on wheat diseasesavailable

Relational view automaticallyrendered from underlying topic map.No preconfigured query required. No view configurarion required.


15MarktHierarchical knowledge model – drill-down

drill-down to aparticular wheatdisease


16Markt

winter wheat cultivars

grid view of all winter wheat cultivars

PivotViewer as graphical visualization tool – wheat cultivars

properties of the winter wheat cultivars availablefor faceted filtering

cultivar distributionover susceptibilityrating for mildew


17Markt

cultivars groupedby yield rating

PivotViewer – wheat grouped by yield

cultivar distributionover year of admission


18Markt


PivotViewer – wheat grouped by yield and filtered by year


filtered for year ofof admission < 2001


19Markt


winter wheat cultivarsgrouped by yield rating

PivotViewer – zoom-in


zoom-in to a particularcultivar…


20Markt

cultivar properties

PivotViewer – wheat cultivar Batis

switch totopic view


Topic view of the wheat variety Batis 21Markt

cultivar properties

hierarchicalknowledge model

properties seed production areas


rel DB TM app

number of pages 3.000 20.000

internal links < 9.000 > 1.000.000

overviews 80 5000

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relational DB Topic Maps app

few hierarchical access pathslow number of overviewsmany relevant questions not answerable

many access pathslarge number of networked overviewsmany more relevant questions answerable

22Anwendungsbeispiel

knowledge modelson assortments,properties,locations

Variety lists in two different web apps


Topic Maps-based web app* on top of a relational data store of the German variety lists (seed properties of agricultural species).

23ZusammenfassungSummary and conclusion

Use case

Conclusion Topic Maps-based web frontends on top of relational resourcesimprove content usabilityby subject-centric information delivery.

* www.topicmapsforge.org/topicmaps/sorten

http://www.topicmapsforge.org/topicmaps/sorten

Technology

Topic Maps for improved access to and use of content in relational databases - a case study on the descriptive variety lists of Germany's Bundessortenamt