[OpenID] ANN: Schemat Consumer 20070407 (first release) AX attribute metadata parser

[Dick Hardt]

Looks like very useful code Mark!

-- Dick

On 7-Apr-07, at 3:00 PM, Mark Wahl wrote:

>
> The specifications "Identity Attribute Metadata" at
> http://openid.net/specs/identity-attribute-metadata-1_0-01.html
> and at the Identity Schemas Wiki
> http://idschemas.idcommons.net/moin.cgi/MetaData
> describe how metadata of identity attributes can be represented
> using RDF.  Online structured metadata provides applications and
> developers with additional information about unfamiliar attributes.
> Elements of metadata might specify, for example, the syntax allowed
> for values of that attribute, how one attribute relates to other
> attributes.
>
> While this RDF metadata is represented in XML, just relying on a
> standard XML parser won't correctly interpret the structure of an
> RDF document, so an RDF-aware parser is needed.  However, these RDF
> parsers typically have APIs which are generic and allow for a wide
> range of RDF-based application data formats, which may be daunting
> to a developer who just is interested in one particular application
> of RDF.
>
> Today we (Informed Control Inc.) packaged up the source code for
> Schemat Consumer, a small, open source, proof of concept library
> for attribute type metadata parsing.
>
> The Schemat Consumer provides applications in an identity metasystem
> with a simple Java API for retrieving the metadata of URI-named  
> attribute
> types.  (It is intended for applications which are not already RDF- 
> aware,
> and just need to get additional details on unrecognized identity  
> attributes.)
>
> SchematConsumer sc = SchematConsumer.getInstance();
> // ...
> IAttributeTypeMetadataClasses iatmc =
>    sc.findAttributeTypeMetadataFromSubjectUri(new URI 
> (attribute_type));
> CommonAttributeTypeMetadata c = new CommonAttributeTypeMetadata 
> (iatmc);
>
> The CommonAttributeTypeMetadata implements get-methods for a subset of
> the metadata elements defined by W3C, Dublin Core, Higgins and  
> OpenID AX:
>
> String label = c.getLabel(); // get display label for the attribute  
> type
> String comment = c.getComment(); // get display comment for the  
> attribute type
> List seealso = c.getSeeAlsoUriStringsList(); // get URIs of 'see also'
> boolean isequiv = c.isEquivalentToUri(another_attribute_type); //  
> test are two attribute types equivalent?
> List acq_uris = c.getAcquisitionUriStringsList(); // get URIs where  
> to acquire values of this attribute
> List auth_uris = c.getAuthorityUriStringsList(); // get URIs of  
> authorities for this attribute
> String example = c.getValueExampleString(); // get String example  
> value of this attribute
> HigginsValuePropertyDatatype v = c.getHigginsValuePropertyDatatype();
> if (v != null) {
> String pattern = v.getPatternString();  // get regular expression  
> of value syntax
> }
>
> Future versions are anticipated to implement the full set of  
> Identity Schemas
> metadata in http://idschemas.idcommons.net/moin.cgi/MetaData
>
> Applications can also request an XHTML fragment describing the  
> attribute, or
> describing an entire schema collection of attributes.
>
> Schemat Consumer wraps the Jakarta HTTP core client library and the  
> HP Labs Jena ARP2
> RDF parser. Currently it implements the http and file URI schemes to
> retrieve the RDF/XML encoding of metadata, and has a cache of  
> metadata to avoid
> frequent retrievals and to support offline operations.
>
> More info at
> http://www.ldap.com/1/spec/schema/ont.shtml
> http://www.ldap.com/1/commentary/wahl/20070407_01.shtml
>
> Mark Wahl
> Informed Control Inc.
>
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>