Need Help With Relational Databases and RDF, JENA

[virgo091085]

Hi I have posted on this forum before in http://www.nabble.com/Patents-to-be-Auctioned-to14959172.html#a15012039
Re: College Senior Project To Make A Web Search Project
(yes out of frustration at the time, i posted my topic within another thread)

anyway the important thing is a short description of my project is there and updated version here:
Hi I'm Lora - a Senior Computer Science Major at Xavier University.

For my Senior Project, I am researching new "Semantic Web" technology in the area of Web Development.
To guide my research, I am working on creating a web site that will be well-designed and helpful to students. In my experience, a site that would ease the process of searching through classes available for next semester in preparation for meeting with advisers or planning a new schedule of classes to register with for the upcoming semester would be a helpful site.

Also, I think after reading articles on the Semantic Web that this site could use new Semantic Web technology to implement searches that can return results based on more than just keywords but also through the understanding of terms with defined meaning. For example, find "theology" classes on "Tuesdays/Thursdays" in the "afternoon", or find classes that meet "E/RS" requirement. This technology could also help improve filtering/sorting of data as well. I think that this can be done by defining the meaning/facts about data and the relationships between data items a web site is running over in the background.


***my current questions for the collected wisdom gather here is  described below.

my university is not allowing me access to the real university's database at the moment but I am going to get 'dumps' of certain tables of data relating to the class information that I want to test my site on. I think I will recreate this 'dumped' data into a MySQL database. I have been trying to read up on using RDF with a relational database or converting a relational database to RDF. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I should intergrate my tables/MySQL database with an RDF triplestore?

**I also think that I will use JENA to write my RDF triplestore. I do plan to try to reuse an 'university ontology' found here: http://www.patrickgmj.net/blog/moving-toward-a-university-ontology#comment-18664

Anyone familar with JENA, is it possible/how do I integrate this ontology? How could I also add
more vocabulary/properties like "afternoon" to it?

Should I have a MySQL database of information to fill in the RDF triplestore, or do I need to hand-type all
the information up in JENA with java code? I think figuring out how to integrate Relational Database data with RDF triplestores and SPARQL queries would be helpful as if I later wanted to sell/be hired to introduce my Semantic Web Schedule site to the university -- it could be adapted to the real university's database which is in Oracle.

Alright that is it for now, I am anxious to learn how to start implementing my site and would like to contribute/spread SW ideas around. So any advice and answers to my questions would be much appreciated.

[Kasper van den Berg]

Hi Lora,

I don't know much about SQL RDF integration, but perhaps
http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfAndSql can help you somewhat.  It's a topic
ESW Wiki about exporting SQL stores that are not designed with RDF in
mind to RDF.

Good luck with your project.

With kind regards,
Kasper

On Wed, 2008-02-20 at 12:02 -0800, virgo091085 wrote:

> Hi I have posted on this forum before in
> http://www.nabble.com/Patents-to-be-Auctioned-to14959172.html#a15012039
> Re: College Senior Project To Make A Web Search Project
> (yes out of frustration at the time, i posted my topic within another
> thread)
>
> anyway the important thing is a short description of my project is there and
> updated version here:
> Hi I'm Lora - a Senior Computer Science Major at Xavier University.
>
> For my Senior Project, I am researching new "Semantic Web" technology in the
> area of Web Development.
> To guide my research, I am working on creating a web site that will be
> well-designed and helpful to students. In my experience, a site that would
> ease the process of searching through classes available for next semester in
> preparation for meeting with advisers or planning a new schedule of classes
> to register with for the upcoming semester would be a helpful site.
>
> Also, I think after reading articles on the Semantic Web that this site
> could use new Semantic Web technology to implement searches that can return
> results based on more than just keywords but also through the understanding
> of terms with defined meaning. For example, find "theology" classes on
> "Tuesdays/Thursdays" in the "afternoon", or find classes that meet "E/RS"
> requirement. This technology could also help improve filtering/sorting of
> data as well. I think that this can be done by defining the meaning/facts
> about data and the relationships between data items a web site is running
> over in the background.
>
>
> ***my current questions for the collected wisdom gather here is  described
> below.
>
> my university is not allowing me access to the real university's database at
> the moment but I am going to get 'dumps' of certain tables of data relating
> to the class information that I want to test my site on. I think I will
> recreate this 'dumped' data into a MySQL database. I have been trying to
> read up on using RDF with a relational database or converting a relational
> database to RDF. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I should
> intergrate my tables/MySQL database with an RDF triplestore?
>
> **I also think that I will use JENA to write my RDF triplestore. I do plan
> to try to reuse an 'university ontology' found here:
> http://www.patrickgmj.net/blog/moving-toward-a-university-ontology#comment-18664
>
> Anyone familar with JENA, is it possible/how do I integrate this ontology?
> How could I also add
> more vocabulary/properties like "afternoon" to it?
>
> Should I have a MySQL database of information to fill in the RDF
> triplestore, or do I need to hand-type all
> the information up in JENA with java code? I think figuring out how to
> integrate Relational Database data with RDF triplestores and SPARQL queries
> would be helpful as if I later wanted to sell/be hired to introduce my
> Semantic Web Schedule site to the university -- it could be adapted to the
> real university's database which is in Oracle.
>
> Alright that is it for now, I am anxious to learn how to start implementing
> my site and would like to contribute/spread SW ideas around. So any advice
> and answers to my questions would be much appreciated.

[Dickinson, Ian J. (HP Labs, Bristol, UK)]

Hello Lora,
To view and query existing relational data as RDF triples, use D2RQ:

http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/d2rq/

To add more axioms or otherwise change your ontology, either make a copy of the OWL source and edit it, or create a new ontology which owl:imports the existing ontology and adds your new class and property definitions.

Jena doesn't require you to "integrate" an ontology, you just read it into an OntModel and start processing. To ask particular Jena support questions, please post to the Jena list:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/jena-dev

It generally helps if your questions are as specific and detailed as possible. Do read the tutorial and other documentation first.

Hope that helps,
Ian

____________________________________________________________
Ian Dickinson   http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Ian_Dickinson
HP Laboratories Bristol          mailto:ian.dickinson@...
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