The Talis Platform
A Linked DataEngine
Leigh DoddsPlatform Programme Manager
SemTech June 2010
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/
Agenda
• Platform Overview• Managing RDF in the Platform• Data Extraction Features• Current & Recent Projects
Multi-Tenant Data Storage Service
Software as a Service
Self-contained data stores with services that operate on their contents
Platform Stores
Store any binary content
Unstructured Data Storage
RDF triple store
Structured Data Storage
Stores are world-readable by defaultConfigurable access optionsHTTP Digest Authentication
Access Control
Trigger or schedule store management jobs
Reset, Snapshot, Restore, Reindex
(Future feature: Bulk Load)
Job Control
Generic services that operate on any kind of data
Aim for design consistency via service checklist
RESTful APIs
RDF, SPARQL, HTTP
Where there are no standards we create open specifications
Standards Compliance
Branded Linked Data Hosting
Domain hosting
Surfacing of platform services
The Meta Box
Managing structured metadata
Create, read, update, delete RDF resources
Web-accessible RDF triplestore
Public/Private application dataSeparate access control options
Future Feature: API for managing graphs
Partition data into sub-graphs
Support RDF/XML, Turtle, N-Triples
Store data with HTTP POST
Vocabulary and protocol for describing changes to RDF triple stores
Updates using Changesets
Maintain audit trail of changes to Metabox
Support for Versioned Updates
Combine several changesets into single requestApplied atomically
Batch Update Mechanism
Searching
SPARQL
Augmentation
Data Extraction Features
Full-text index over RDF literals in the MetaboxConfigurable indexing options
Every Store has a Search Index
Paging, Sorting, Relevance Ranking
Flexible query syntax (fielded and boolean searches)
Standard Search Engine features
/items?query=[query] &max=[10] &offset=[0] &sort=[comma-separated fieldnames] &xsl=[XSLT stylesheet] &content-type=[mimetype for XSLT results]
Includes Open Search extensions: paging, relevance ranking
Includes full description of each RDF resource
Search Results are RSS 1.0
Group search results by specific fields
Simple XML response format
Facetted Search
/services/facet ?query=[query] &fields=[comma-separated fieldnames] &top=[10] &format=[xml|html]
Automatic data annotation
Pipe an RSS 1.0 feed through a Store and enrich it with available data
Augmentation
RSS 1.0 RSS 1.0Augmenter
MetaBox
/services/augment ?data-uri=[url-of-RSS-feed]
&xsl=[XSLT stylesheet] &content-type=[mimetype for XSLT results]
Standards compliant SPARQL 1.0 serviceEarly access to draft SPARQL 1.1 features
SPARQL Query API
/services/sparql ?query=[query] &output=[syntax (xml, rdf, json)]
Current Projects
Quick tour of current & recent projects
Crawling and hosting Linked Data from bbc.co.uk
Public SPARQL Endpoint
BBC
Community annotation of Linked Data using Twitter
Based on BBC Linked Data
fanhu.bz
Linked Data from UK Government
Domain hosting Public SPARQL and Search APIs
data.gov.uk
Explore UK research project funding
http://bis.clients.talis.com
BIS Research Explorer
Linked Data UK Geography and Gazetteer
Domain hosting Public SPARQL and Search APIs
Ordnance Survey
Linked Data from EU Government and UK cultural heritage
UK & EU Research Projects
Free use of the Platform for Public Domain data
http://www.talis.com/cc
Talis Connected Commons
Help explore potential of Linked Data Developer workshops, training, data conversions
Your Organisation?
Summing Up
Summary, Additional Resources
The Talis Platform provides…
Cloud based data storage
Simple API for managing data
Flexible data extraction features
Linked Data publishing platform
Additional Resources
API Referencehttp://n2.talis.com/wiki/Platform_API
Mailing Listhttp://groups.google.com/group/n2-dev
Bloghttp://blogs.talis.com/n2/
Support Deskhttp://talisplatform.zendesk.com