Revision as of 11:04, 12 October 2009

Semantic queries can be used to automatically generate lists and tables of items satisfying some requirements.

For the complete documentation for inline queries see: http://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Inline_queries

In this page you can find some examples of ad hoc queries that may be useful in this wiki.

Examples of inline queries

All projects tutored by a given tutor

Specify all the conditions to be satisfied[1], inside the #ask function:

{{#ask: [[Category:Project]][[prjTutor::User:LeonardoDaVinci]] }}

The result of this query is: Flying machine

Results in a list

Various parameters can be added in the command, each introduced by a "|". To display the results in a list, you can set the format option to "ul":

{{
 #ask: [[Category:Project]][[prjTutor::User:{{PAGENAME}}]]
 | format = ul
 }}

You can see the result of this query here.

Note: {{PAGENAME}} is a variable which identifies the title of the current page. Putting this query inside a user's page, all projects tutored by that user will be shown as results.

Results in an external link

To display just a link to the results, you can add an option specifying a limit of 0, and a searchlabel for the name of the link:

{{#ask: 
 [[Category:Project]][[prjTutor::User:RiccardoTasso]]
 | limit=0 
 | searchlabel=projects tutored by Riccardo Tasso
}}

This way, a link to a dynamic page containing the results of the query will be created, like this: projects tutored by Riccardo Tasso.

The results are displayed in a table (the default format).

Showing more attributes

To show more details about the results, you can add the properties you want to be displayed. For example, to display the students, research topic, and the start and end dates of a projects:

{{#ask: 
 [[Category:Project]][[prjTutor::User:RiccardoTasso]] 
 | ? = Project
 | ?prjStudent = Students 
 | ?PrjResTopic = Research Topic 
 | ?PrjStart = Start 
 | ?PrjEnd  = End 
 | limit = 0 
 | searchlabel = projects tutored by Riccardo Tasso
 }}

The query generates this link: projects tutored by Riccardo Tasso

All master thesis proposals in a research area

To generate the results in a list, showing the research topic of each proposal:

{{#ask: 
[[Category:ProjectProposal]] 
[[PrjLevel::Bs]]
[[PrjType::Thesis]]
[[PrjResArea::Robotics]] 
| ?PrjResTopic = topic: 
| format=list
}}

Result: Barking Robots (topic: Robot development), BringMeHome (topic: E-2? - A robot for exhibitions), Designing Living Objects (topic: Living Objects), R2P IMU firmware development (topic: Robot development), Robot Games (topic: Robogames), Scan Matching Odometry and Multisensor SLAM (topic: None), Soccer Robots (topic: Robot development), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Visual Navigation (topic: None)

To generate a table in a dynamic page, showing the values of all the properties:

{{#ask: [[Category:ProjectProposal]] 
[[PrjLevel::Bs]]
[[PrjType::Thesis]]
[[PrjResArea::Social Software and Semantic Web]] |
? = Project Proposal
?PrjTitle = Title |
?PrjDescription = Description |
?PrjTutor = Tutors |
?PrjStarts = Start |
?PrjStudMin = StudMin |
?PrjStudMax = StudMax |
?PrjCFUMin = CFUMin |
?PrjCFUMax = CFUMax |
?PrjResArea = Research Area |
?PrjResTopic = Research Topic |
limit = 0 |
searchlabel = result table
}}

See the result table

Visualizing results in a template

An apposite template has been created for the visualization of project proposals. To show the results inside the template:

{{#ask: [[Category:ProjectProposal]] 
[[PrjLevel::Bs]]
[[PrjType::Thesis]]
[[PrjResArea::Social Software and Semantic Web]] |
?PrjTitle = |
?PrjImage = |
?PrjDescription = |
?PrjTutor = |
?PrjStarts = |
?PrjStudMin = |
?PrjStudMax = |
?PrjCFUMin = |
?PrjCFUMax = |
?PrjResArea = |
?PrjResTopic = |
format = template |
template = Template:ProjectProposalViz
}}

You can see the result of this query here.

All finished projects on a research topic, ordered by descending end date

{{#ask: 
 [[Category:Project]][[prjResTopic::Folksonomies]][[prjStatus::Closed]]
 | ?PrjTitle = 
 | sort=prjEnd
 | order=desc
 | format=ul
 }}

See the result here.

All theses tutored by a PhD advised by a given professor

{{#ask:
 [[Category:Project]]
 [[PrjType::Thesis]]
 [[PrjTutor::<q> [[Category:PhD]][[HasAdvisor::User:AndreaBonarini]]</q>]]
 | ? = Project
 | ?PrjTutor = tutors
 | ?PrjType = type
 | ?PrjLevel = level
 | limit = 0 
 | searchlabel = result
 }}

See the result

Note: a query enclosed in and is used as a property condition for the external query. Arbitrary levels of nesting are allowed.

All project proposals on a given topic or on a sub topic of a given area

All projects on the topic Semantic Tagging or on a sub topic of the area BioSignal Analysis:

{{#ask:
 [[Category:Project]][[PrjResTopic::<q>[[Semantic Tagging]] OR [[BelongsToArea::BioSignal Analysis]]</q>]]
 | ? = Project
 | ?PrjResTopic = research topic
 | ?PrjResArea = research area
 | sort = prjResArea
 | limit = 0 
 | searchlabel = result
 }}

See the result.

Note: a query enclosed in and is used as a property condition for the external query. Arbitrary levels of nesting are allowed.

Projects involving students advised by someone advised by someone who works in the area of Robotics :)

[[PrjStudent.HasAdvisor.HasAdvisor.HasResArea::Robotics]]

See the result.

Note: this query uses an alternative syntax for chains of properties.

Ask Page

In the page Special:Ask you can try any query, specifying conditions and printout options.

Useful Documentation

• Documentation for Inline queries
• Documentation for selecting pages
• Documentation for displaying information