QA Server Container and Application Orchestration

This app can be installed using Docker to serve as a Questioning Authority (QA) Server for accessing external authorities. It is part of a larger architecture supporting linked data authority access. See LD4P/linked_data_authorities for more information on the full architecture. From this app, you can send a search query and get back multiple results OR you can fetch a single term.

Setup

Setting up a development environment

Setup on AWS

TBD

Installation Instructions

Using the configuration

TEST QUERY: http://localhost:3000/qa/search/linked_data/_AUTHORITY_NAME__direct?q=your_query&maxRecords=3 TEST FETCH: http://localhost:3000/qa/show/linked_data/_AUTHORITY_NAME__direct/_ID_OR_URI_

Substitute the name of the configuration file for _AUTHORITY_NAME__direct in the URL. Substitute a valid ID or URI for ID_OR_URI in the URL, as appropriate. NOTE: Some authorities expect an ID and others expect a URI.

Expected Results

Search Query Results

This search query... http://localhost:3000/qa/search/linked_data/oclc_fast/personal_name?q=Cornell&maximumRecords=3

will return results like...

[{"uri":"http://id.worldcat.org/fast/5140","id":"5140","label":"Cornell, Joseph"},
 {"uri":"http://id.worldcat.org/fast/72456","id":"72456","label":"Cornell, Sarah Maria, 1802-1832"},
 {"uri":"http://id.worldcat.org/fast/409667","id":"409667","label":"Cornell, Ezra, 1807-1874"}]

Term Fetch Results

This term fetch... http://localhost:3000/qa/show/linked_data/oclc_fast/530369

will return results like...

{"uri":"http://id.worldcat.org/fast/530369",
 "id":"530369","label":"Cornell University",
 "altlabel":["Ithaca (N.Y.). Cornell University","Kornelʹskii universitet","Kʻang-nai-erh ta hsüeh"],
 "sameas":["http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79021621","https://viaf.org/viaf/126293486"],
 "predicates":{
   "http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier":"530369",
   "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#inScheme":["http://id.worldcat.org/fast/ontology/1.0/#fast","http://id.worldcat.org/fast/ontology/1.0/#facet-Corporate"],
   "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type":"http://schema.org/Organization",
   "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#prefLabel":"Cornell University",
   "http://schema.org/name":["Cornell University","Ithaca (N.Y.). Cornell University","Kornelʹskii universitet","Kʻang-nai-erh ta hsüeh"],
   "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#altLabel":["Ithaca (N.Y.). Cornell University","Kornelʹskii universitet","Kʻang-nai-erh ta hsüeh"],
   "http://schema.org/sameAs":["http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79021621","https://viaf.org/viaf/126293486"]}}

Connection and Accuracy Validations

Validations come in two flavors...

• connection validation - PASS if a request gets back a specified minimum size result set from an authority; otherwise, FAIL.
• accuracy test - PASS if a specific result is returned by a specified position (e.g. uri is in the top 10 results); otherwise, FAIL.

The validations can be defined in a file with a matching file name in the scenarios directory. For example, direct access to the AgroVoc authority, access is configured in config/authorities/linked_data/agrovoc_direct.json and the validations are defined in config/authorities/linked_data/scenarios/agrovoc_direct_validation.yml

The UI for qa_server provides access to running connection validation and accuracy tests in the Check Status navigation menu item.

Non linked-data authority access

QA Server is based on the Questioning Authority gem. As such, it can be used to serve up controlled vocabularies defined in one of three ways.

1. locally defined controlled vocabularies
2. specifically supported external authorities (non-linked data)
3. configurable access to linked data authorities

This document addresses the use of QA Server app for access to linked data authorities. You can reference Questioning Authorities documentation for more information on the other uses.