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Creating Web Presentation for Observatory and Planetarium

with Topic Maps

Germany - Leipzig17th October, 2008

University of Hradec KrálovéFaculty of Informatics and Management

Martina Husáková

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Content of the presentation

Observatory in Hradec Králové View of the original application used at the

Observatory Topic Maps as the new solution

− Topic Maps document creation− Web presentation creation

Final state and future of the pilot application

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Observatory in Hradec Králové

Science and research:− performing photometric observations of variable

stars and asteroids− astrometry of comets, study the dynamics of small

Solar system bodies Cultural program:

− observation of the Sun or evening performance− specialized scientific lecturers− systematic education

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Photograph of the Observatory

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Original application used at the Observatory File-manager like application written in Tcl/Tk

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Topic Maps document creation

Development of the Topic Maps document (TMd) was realised in diploma thesis

One of the main goals: verification feasibility Topic Maps approach

Domain expert (final user) helped with keeping objective accuracy of information presented in TMd

Requirenments for the content of the TMd were specified ...

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Requirenments for the TMd

User´s requirements PriorityCapturing the ontology of astronomical terms highTopics implementation highImplementation of associations among topics to enable navigation highExternal occurrences implementation mediumDefining internal occurrences mediumDefining topic names in different languages high

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Resolution connected with usage of the TMd The 1st version of the TMd in editor Ontopoly

that fulfils most of the requirenments Resolution: Topic Maps and Ontopoly is very

suitable solution for the Observatory needs Practical usage of the TMd with OKS

Samplers for the pilot version Resolution of the next consultation: it is

better to have own web application Requirenments for the web application were

specified ...

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Requirenments for the web application based on Topic Maps

User´s requirements PriorityIntuitive navigation highClear organization of web pages highPossibility to search Topic Maps elements highPossibility to visualize Topic Maps document in expandablegraph structure

high

Possibility to edit elements of the Topic Maps document fromweb-based forms

medium

Online presentation of the Topic Maps document high

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Experience with Ontopoly

Ontopia Navigator Framework (ONF) was chosen for the web application creation

At the beginning only experiments with ONF One serious problem occured:

− Web pages created with ONF contain ID values of the Topic Maps elements. If we modify TMd in Ontopoly, ID values change => we have to change ID values in web pages almost all the time

Next step → searching more suitable tool for TMd creation

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Next Topic Maps editors

Wandora, TMTab plugin, TM4L LTM syntax written in NotePad was tried too,

but this way is unsuitable for the customers TM4LTM4L editor was chosen because of:

− Intuitivenes in control over the environment− Low price− Installation with no sweat− Automated testing of web sources− And mainly: if we modify TMd, ID values of the Topic

Maps elements are steady

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Next steps ...

Detection: TMd created in Ontopoly could be opened in TM4L (ver. 1, 2), but taxonomy was not saved

Solution: developing TMd once more in TM4L (ver. 2)

After some white nights, we came up to creating web application with ONF and TM4L ... :-):-)

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Web presentation creation

Developing simple web pages with ONF lies in the use of the tolog query language

JSP web pages contain tolog queries that:− extract relevant information from the TMd− represent these information on the web pages

Firstly scope of the web had to be stated => only concepts related to selected objects of the Solar system were taken into account

Predefined layout was chosen and adjusted for our purposes ...

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Home page

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Topic Sun

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Czech/Englishdictionary

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Evaluation and future of the web application Navigation scheme and organization of pages

are clear and easy to use It is possible to quickly detect association(s)

between topics

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Concluding words ...

„The universe is a pretty big space. It's biggerthan anything anyone has ever dreamed ofbefore. So, if it's just us, seems like an awfulwaste of space, right?“

Carl Edward SaganCarl Edward Sagan

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?Thank you for your attention!

Questions ...