In its history, Topic Maps developed from a syntax-based standard to a pure data model without any syntax defined within its core data model. The syntaxes defined by the ISO for the exchange of Topic Maps are conforming to the generic data model, one of them, XTM, being based on XML. The usage of XTM without a Topic Maps engine is cumbersome because of the generalized schema and the merging rules. For example, extracting useful information from XTM using XSLT requires to query for the typing topics, which is a new subquery just for selecting the right subject whereas it was the entity name in a domain specific XML format. Querying the properties, called Names and Occurrences in Topic Maps, requires additional subqueries because their types and scopes are again Topics and not simple XML entity- and attribute names. The Topic Maps Query Language which is the latest draft in the ISO standardization presented here allows formulating queries against a Topic Maps store in a concise way and outputting the result in various representations. Our implementation TMQL4J uses any TMAPI-compatible store to operate on and allows optimized queries and outputting domain-specific XML. This is demonstrated by generating an ATOM feed for the subject identity record service subj3ct.com.

1. TOPIC MAPS RUN FROM XML
and is coming back with Flowers
Benjamin Bock

2. TOPIC MAPS RUN FROM XML
and is coming back with Flowers
Benjamin Bock

3. TOPIC MAPS RUN FROM XML
and is coming back with Flowers
Benjamin Bock

4. www.topicmapslab.de
TOPIC MAPS RUN FROM XML
and is coming back with Flowers
Benjamin Bock

5. TOPIC MAPS RUN FROM XML
and is coming back with Flowers
Benjamin Bock

6. TOPIC MAPS RUN FROM XML
and is coming back with Flowers
@bnjmnbck
Benjamin Bock

7. TOPIC MAPS RUN FROM XML
and is coming back with Flowers
@benjaminbock
Benjamin Bock

8. TOPIC MAPS RUN FROM XML
and is coming back with Flowers
@bnjmnbck
Benjamin Bock

9. <HISTORY/>

10. <HYTIME/>

11. <HYTIME/>
• ISO/IEC10744:1992 Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring
Language
• based on and extending SGML
• voluminous: 450+ pages

12. XML TOPIC MAPS 1.0

13. XML TOPIC MAPS 1.0
• „Transition“ to XML
• Broke compatibility by changing almost all element and
attribute names
• more concise, more generic

14. TOPIC MAPS RUN

15. STANDARD APPLICATION
MODEL (SAM)

16. TOPIC MAPS REFERENCE
MODEL (TMRM)

17. TOPIC MAPS REFERENCE
MODEL (TMRM)

18. TOPIC MAPS DATA MODEL

19. TOPIC MAPS DATA MODEL
• NOXML
• like DOM for the specific model from XTM
• Integration model (i.e. merging)

20. TOPIC MAPS DATA MODEL
• NOXML
• like DOM for the specific model from XTM
• Integration model (i.e. merging)

21. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING

22. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world

23. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world
model

24. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world
has name Leipzig model
has name Lipsia
has name Lipsk (in pl)

25. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world
has name Leipzig model
has name Lipsia
has name Lipsk (in pl)
was founded 1165

26. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world
has name Leipzig model
has name Lipsia
has name Lipsk (in pl)
was founded 1165

27. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world
has name Leipzig model
has name Lipsia
has name Lipsk (in pl)
has name Clara Wieck
was founded 1165

28. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world
has name Leipzig model
has name Lipsia
has name Lipsk (in pl)
has name Clara Wieck
was founded 1165

29. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world
has name Leipzig model
has name Lipsia
has name Lipsk (in pl)
has name Clara Wieck
was founded 1165

30. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world
has name Leipzig model
has name Lipsia
has name Lipsk (in pl)
has name Clara Wieck
was founded 1165

31. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world
has name Leipzig model
has name Lipsia
has name Lipsk (in pl)
has name Clara Wieck
was founded 1165
has name Lipsko (in cs)
has webseite http://www.leipzig.de

32. SUBJECT CENTRIC MODELING
"real" world
has name Leipzig model
has name Lipsia
has name Lipsk (in pl)
has name Clara Wieck
was founded 1165
has name Lipsko (in cs)
has webseite http://www.leipzig.de

33. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION

34. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION

35. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION
Leipzig
name

36. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION
Lipsia
variant
Leipzig
name

37. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION
Lipsia
variant
Leipzig
pl
name Lipsk scope

38. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION
Lipsia
variant
Leipzig
pl
name Lipsk scope
foundation
occurrence 1165 type

39. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION
Lipsia
variant
Leipzig
pl
name Lipsk scope
foundation
occurrence 1165 type
website
occurrence http://www.
leipzig.de/ type

40. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION
Leipzig C. Wieck

41. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION
Birth
Leipzig C. Wieck
association

42. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION
Birth
Birth place
Leipzig role type C. Wieck
role player ass. role association

43. TOPIC MAPS INTRODUCTION
Birth
Birth place Born person
Leipzig role type C. Wieck
role player ass. role association

44. TOPIC MAPS DATA MODEL

45. <SOME XML="TO"
KEEP="YOU“>EXCITED
</SOME>

46. TOPIC MAPS DATA MODEL

47. TOPIC MAPS DATA MODEL

48. TOPIC MAPS DATA MODEL

49. DATA MODEL: HIERARCHY

50. DATA MODEL: HIERARCHY

51. DATA MODEL: TOPIC MAP

52. DATA MODEL: TOPIC

53. DATA MODEL: ASSOCIATION

54. XTM: XML TOPIC MAPS 2.0
topic = element topic { id,
(itemIdentity | subjectLocator | subjectIdentifier)*,
instanceOf?, (name | occurrence)* }
name = element name { reifiable, type?, scope?, value, variant* }
association = element association { reifiable, type, scope?, role+ }
role = element role { reifiable, type, topicRef }

55. XTM: XML TOPIC MAPS 2.0
• <?xml version='1.0'?>
<topicMap version='2.0' xmlns='http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/'>
<topic id='t1'><itemIdentity href='urn:/base#a'/></topic>
<topic id='t2'><subjectIdentifier href='http://psi.topicmaps.org/
iso13250/model/type-instance'/></topic> [...]
<association>
<type><topicRef href='#t2'/></type>
<role><type><topicRef href='#t3'/></type><topicRef href='#t1'/></
role>
<role><type><topicRef href='#t5'/></type><topicRef href='#t4'/></
role>
</association></topicMap>

56. TOPIC MAPS STANDARDS

57. TOPIC MAPS QUERY
LANGUAGE (TMQL)

58. TOPIC MAPS QUERY
LANGUAGE (TMQL)
•3 Styles:
• Path expressions, similar to XPath
• Select: similar to SQL
• FLWOR: For-Let-Where-Order-Return, similar to XQuery

59. PATH STYLE

60. PATH STYLE
// Person [ . / shoesize > 42 ] / name

61. PATH STYLE
Person >> instances [ . >> characteristics shoesize > 42 ] >>
characteristics name

62. SELECT STYLE
select $p / name, $p / shoesize
where
$p isa person
& $p / shoesize > 42

63. FLWOR STYLE
for $p in // Person
where
$p / shoesize > 42
return
( $p / name, $p / shoesize )

64. FLWOR STYLE
RETURN
<people>{
for $p in // Person
where $p / shoesize > 42
return <person>
<name>{$p / name}</name>
<shoesize>{$p / shoesize}</shoesize>
</person>
}</people>

65. IDEAS
• SAX / DOM interface for output
• Integration of XML data into TM (using XPath)

66. MAIANA
Social Topic Mapping

67. TRY IT
http://maiana.topicmapslab.de/

68. CHECK IT OUT
• http://code.google.com/p/tmql/ (Code in Java, APL 2.0)
• http://tmql4j.topicmapslab.de/ (Documentation)
• http://rubygems.org/gems/rtm-tmql (Adapter for JRuby)

69. RTM-TMQL: FIRST STEPS
• Download + Install JRuby from http://jruby.org
• sudo jgem install rtm-tmql rtm-ontopia
• jirb
• require 'rtm-tmql'
• con = RTM.connect
• tm = con.from_xtm("some_topic_map.xtm")

70. RTM-TMQL: FIRST STEPS
• tm.tmql("// Person / name")

71. SEE YOU
• Topic Maps 2010, Oslo, April 14-15. http://topicmaps.com/
• TMRA 2010, Leipzig, Sept 29-Oct 1. http://tmra.de/

72. THANKS