Use BigSemantics Service

BigSemantics provides a service that accepts a URL, extracts metadata, and returns as a document in a given format. The service can be used to build thin clients on desktop, mobile devices, and in the cloud.

Table of Contents Access BigSemantics service API Examples Metadata In-Context Expander (MICE) Host your own BigSemantics service Crawl semantic data

Access BigSemantics service

The Interface Ecology Lab hosts a BigSemantics service at http://ecology-service.cse.tamu.edu, freely available for non-commercial uses. However, there is absolutely NO GUARANTEE of its availability, usability, or performance, and it may be changed without notice. Please do NOT abuse.

API

The service can be accessed through HTTP GET requests. Different functionalities can be accessed using different paths, as summarized in the table shown below.

The paths shown in the table are partial paths, and should be accessed by concatenating them with the base URL. The base URL for the service is http://<your-bigsemantics-service-host>/BigSemanticsService, where you can fill in your own service host name. We provide a service host at ecology-service.cse.tamu.edu.

<format> in the table can be xml, json, or jsonp (for metadata requests only). In particular, when you use jsonp for a metadata request, the callback parameter should be a JavaScript function name that accepts one parameter. It will be used to wrap the extracted metadata object (as the argument) in a call to the callback function. In this way, when metadata is extracted and returned, the callback function -- implemented in your web application -- will be called to process and present the extracted metadata.

Path after base URL	Parameters	Description	Example
/mmdrepository.<format>		Returns the whole wrapper repository as a single file, in the given format.	Repository
/mmd.<format>	name url	Returns the wrapper with the specified name or the wrapper that applies to the specified URL. The two parameters should not be used together.	Wrapper
/metadata.<format>	url reload callback	Returns a metadata object that is extracted from the given URL using appropriate wrapper. In most cases, the service will cache extracted metadata for a certain amount of time to reduce network load, unless the reload is set to true, in which case the service will refresh its cache and extract fresh metadata. Caching can be disabled for particular type or source in the wrapper. When you use the jsonp format, the callback parameter is required, as explained before.	Metadata

Examples

Metadata In-Context Expander (MICE)

MICE is a dynamic interface that visualizes expanding graph of metadata while maintaining the context for the user. For more details, check out its wiki page.

Host your own BigSemantics service

The service code is available through the BigSemanticsService project. Please refer to Deployment Guide for instructions on deploying your own service.

Crawl semantic data