Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Eric Prud'hommeaux]

On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 08:02:03PM +0200, Thomas Tanon wrote:
> Hi James,
> 
> I'm not the best person to answer your questions (I've never actually used
> ShEx or contributed to it) but I hope to be able to answer your questions.
> 
> > I'm not clear whether there is an RDF representation of ShEx that could
> be added to WDQS -- this is a point that would be useful to clarify;
> and, if not, whether work is going on in this direction.
> 
> TL;DR: yes but it does not seem much used at the moment.
> 
> ShEx specifies [1] two syntaxes, ShExC that is the "plain text" syntax used
> on Wikidata and ShExJ that is based on JSON-LD. JSON-LD beeing an RDF
> seralization, there is indeed an RDF representation of ShEx. To get plain
> triples one could use the JSON-LD to RDF triples conversion algorithm that
> is implemented in most JSON-LD libraries. The old ShEx documentation pages
> refers to a ShExR serialization of ShEx to RDF but I believe it has been
> dropped in favor of ShExJ+JSON-LD to RDF conversion.

We actually do test the ShExR with a Turtle representation. We have
~500 round-trip tests between the three representations:
  

It would be pretty easy to add a translation to RDF in the backend of
a schema update. That would give you all the clever meta queries you'd
like for dependency-checking and auditing without making people edit
triples.


> > It's not immediately clear to me whether SHACL adapts easily to
> memberships defined by eg P31 "instance on" or P279 "subclass of"
> statements, etc; also memberships possibly further defined or limited by
> other statements.
> 
> Indeed Shacl 1.0 does not seem to be able to express it. There is an
> extension [1] that allows to specify targets using a sparql query, just
> like what is done with the ShEx playground using the focus nodes sparql
> query.
> 
> Thomas
> 
> [1] http://shex.io/shex-semantics/
> [2]
> https://www.w3.org/2018/jsonld-cg-reports/json-ld-api/#deserialize-json-ld-to-rdf-algorithm
> [3] https://www.w3.org/TR/shacl-af/#SPARQLTarget
> 
> Le ven. 31 mai 2019 à 11:06, James Heald  a écrit :
> 
> > On 30/05/2019 17:45, Benjamin Good wrote:
> > > I'd like to restate the initial question.
> > >
> > > Why did wikidata choose shex instead of other approaches?
> > >
> > >  From this very detailed comparison
> > > http://book.validatingrdf.com/bookHtml013.html  (thank you Andra!) I
> > could
> > > see arguments in both directions.  I'm curious to know what swayed the
> > > wikidata software team as my group is currently grappling with the same
> > > decision.
> > >
> >
> >
> > One of the key differences would seem to be that SHACL has been
> > deliberately constructed to directly representable in RDF -- so a SHACL
> > expression could be put straight into WDQS and made queryable for what
> > it pertains to.
> >
> > I'm not clear whether there is an RDF representation of ShEx that could
> > be added to WDQS -- this is a point that would be useful to clarify;
> > and, if not, whether work is going on in this direction.
> >
> > IMO, it would be a very important asset to be able to query the Shape
> > specifications using SPARQL -- querying not for compliance, but for what
> > the specifications actually contain.
> >
> >
> >
> > On the other hand, SHACL seems very strongly based on shapes for members
> > that are connected by an "is a" relationship.
> >
> > It's not immediately clear to me whether SHACL adapts easily to
> > memberships defined by eg P31 "instance on" or P279 "subclass of"
> > statements, etc; also memberships possibly further defined or limited by
> > other statements.
> >
> > It would seem a basic requirement, but I didn't see it on a first quick
> > skim-read.
> >
> >-- James.
> >
> > ___
> > Wikidata mailing list
> > Wikidata@lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata
> >

> ___
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> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata


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Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Thomas Tanon]

Hi James,

I'm not the best person to answer your questions (I've never actually used
ShEx or contributed to it) but I hope to be able to answer your questions.

> I'm not clear whether there is an RDF representation of ShEx that could
be added to WDQS -- this is a point that would be useful to clarify;
and, if not, whether work is going on in this direction.

TL;DR: yes but it does not seem much used at the moment.

ShEx specifies [1] two syntaxes, ShExC that is the "plain text" syntax used
on Wikidata and ShExJ that is based on JSON-LD. JSON-LD beeing an RDF
seralization, there is indeed an RDF representation of ShEx. To get plain
triples one could use the JSON-LD to RDF triples conversion algorithm that
is implemented in most JSON-LD libraries. The old ShEx documentation pages
refers to a ShExR serialization of ShEx to RDF but I believe it has been
dropped in favor of ShExJ+JSON-LD to RDF conversion.

> It's not immediately clear to me whether SHACL adapts easily to
memberships defined by eg P31 "instance on" or P279 "subclass of"
statements, etc; also memberships possibly further defined or limited by
other statements.

Indeed Shacl 1.0 does not seem to be able to express it. There is an
extension [1] that allows to specify targets using a sparql query, just
like what is done with the ShEx playground using the focus nodes sparql
query.

Thomas

[1] http://shex.io/shex-semantics/
[2]
https://www.w3.org/2018/jsonld-cg-reports/json-ld-api/#deserialize-json-ld-to-rdf-algorithm
[3] https://www.w3.org/TR/shacl-af/#SPARQLTarget

Le ven. 31 mai 2019 à 11:06, James Heald  a écrit :

> On 30/05/2019 17:45, Benjamin Good wrote:
> > I'd like to restate the initial question.
> >
> > Why did wikidata choose shex instead of other approaches?
> >
> >  From this very detailed comparison
> > http://book.validatingrdf.com/bookHtml013.html  (thank you Andra!) I
> could
> > see arguments in both directions.  I'm curious to know what swayed the
> > wikidata software team as my group is currently grappling with the same
> > decision.
> >
>
>
> One of the key differences would seem to be that SHACL has been
> deliberately constructed to directly representable in RDF -- so a SHACL
> expression could be put straight into WDQS and made queryable for what
> it pertains to.
>
> I'm not clear whether there is an RDF representation of ShEx that could
> be added to WDQS -- this is a point that would be useful to clarify;
> and, if not, whether work is going on in this direction.
>
> IMO, it would be a very important asset to be able to query the Shape
> specifications using SPARQL -- querying not for compliance, but for what
> the specifications actually contain.
>
>
>
> On the other hand, SHACL seems very strongly based on shapes for members
> that are connected by an "is a" relationship.
>
> It's not immediately clear to me whether SHACL adapts easily to
> memberships defined by eg P31 "instance on" or P279 "subclass of"
> statements, etc; also memberships possibly further defined or limited by
> other statements.
>
> It would seem a basic requirement, but I didn't see it on a first quick
> skim-read.
>
>-- James.
>
> ___
> Wikidata mailing list
> Wikidata@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata
>
___
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Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[James Heald]

On 30/05/2019 17:45, Benjamin Good wrote:

I'd like to restate the initial question.

Why did wikidata choose shex instead of other approaches?

 From this very detailed comparison
http://book.validatingrdf.com/bookHtml013.html  (thank you Andra!) I could
see arguments in both directions.  I'm curious to know what swayed the
wikidata software team as my group is currently grappling with the same
decision.




One of the key differences would seem to be that SHACL has been 
deliberately constructed to directly representable in RDF -- so a SHACL 
expression could be put straight into WDQS and made queryable for what 
it pertains to.


I'm not clear whether there is an RDF representation of ShEx that could 
be added to WDQS -- this is a point that would be useful to clarify; 
and, if not, whether work is going on in this direction.


IMO, it would be a very important asset to be able to query the Shape 
specifications using SPARQL -- querying not for compliance, but for what 
the specifications actually contain.




On the other hand, SHACL seems very strongly based on shapes for members 
that are connected by an "is a" relationship.


It's not immediately clear to me whether SHACL adapts easily to 
memberships defined by eg P31 "instance on" or P279 "subclass of" 
statements, etc; also memberships possibly further defined or limited by 
other statements.


It would seem a basic requirement, but I didn't see it on a first quick 
skim-read.


  -- James.

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Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Benjamin Good]

I'd like to restate the initial question.

Why did wikidata choose shex instead of other approaches?

>From this very detailed comparison
http://book.validatingrdf.com/bookHtml013.html  (thank you Andra!) I could
see arguments in both directions.  I'm curious to know what swayed the
wikidata software team as my group is currently grappling with the same
decision.

On Thu, May 30, 2019 at 7:55 AM Peter F. Patel-Schneider <
pfpschnei...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The history of ShEx is quite complex.
>
> I don't think that one can say that there were complete and conforming
> implementations of ShEx in 2017 because the main ShEX specification,
> http://shex.io/shex-semantics-20170713/ was ill-founded.  I pointed this
> out
> in https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-shex/2018Mar/0008.html
>
> There were several quite different semantics proposed for ShEx somewhat
> earlier, all with significant problems.
>
> peter
>
>
>
>
>
> On 5/30/19 12:34 AM, Andra Waagmeester wrote:
> > I really don't see the issue here. SHACL, like ShEx is a language to
> express
> > data shapes. I adopted using ShEx in a wikidata context 2016 when ShEx
> was
> > demonstrated at a tutorial at the SWAT4HCLS conference [1] in Amsterdam,
> where
> > it was discussed in both a tutorial and a hackathon topic. At that
> conferene,
> > I was convinced that ShEx is helpful in maintaining quality in Wikidata.
> ShEx
> > offers not only the means to validate data shapes in Wikidata, but it
> also
> > provides a way to document how primary data is expressed in Wikidata.
> In 2016
> > I joined the ShEx community group [2]. Since I have been actively using
> ShEx
> > in defining shapes in various projects on Wikidata (e.g. Gene Wiki and
> > Wikicite).  It is not that this happened in secrecy. On the contrary, it
> was
> > discussed at both Wikimedia [3,4] and non-Wikimedia events [5,6,7].
> >
> > It is also not the case that SHACL has not been discussed in this
> context, on
> > the contrary, I have very good memories of a workshop where both were
> debated
> > (see page 24 ;) )  [8]
> >
> > IMHO  the statement that we all should adhere to one standard, simply
> because
> > it is a standard, is not a valid argument. Imagine having to dictate
> that we
> > all should speak English because it is the standard language.  In every
> single
> > talk that I have given since 2016, proponents of SHACL have been very
> vocal in
> > asking the same question over and over again "why not SHACL?", where the
> > discussion never went beyond, "You should because it is a standard". It
> is
> > also a bit disingenuous to suggest we all should adhere to SHACL because
> it is
> > the standard, while in the same sentence calling it a "Recommendation".
> >
> > Although initially, I was open to SHACL as well (I use both Mac and
> Linux, so
> > why not open up to different alternatives in data shapes), (Some)
> Arguments
> > for me to prefer ShEx over SHACL are:
> > 1. Already in 2017 there were different (open) implementations. At the
> time
> > SHACL didn't have much tooling to choose from, other than one javascript
> > implementation and a proprietary software package.
> > 2. ShEx has a more intuitive way of describing Shapes, which is the
> compact
> > syntax (ShExC). SHACL seems to have adopted the compact syntax as well,
> but
> > only yesterday [9].
> > 3. The culture in the Shape Expression community group aligns well with
> the
> > culture in Wikidata.
> > 4. I don't want to be shackled to one standard (pun intended). I assume
> the
> > name was chosen with a shackle in mind, which puts constraints at the
> core of
> > the language. Wikidata already has different methods in place to deal
> with
> > constraints and constraint violations. In the context of Wikidata, ShEx
> should
> > specifically not be intended to impose constraints, on the contrary, it
> allows
> > expressing of disagreement or variants of different shapes, whether
> conflict
> > or not. Which fits well with the NPOV concept. Symbols do matter.
> >
> > For a less personal comparison, I refer to the "Validating RDF data" book
> > which describes both ShEx and SHACL, and has a specific chapter on how
> they
> > compare and differ [10]
> >
> > Up until now, I have been using ShEx in repositories outside the Wikidata
> > ecosystem (e.g. Github), but I am really excited about the release of
> this
> > extension. I am curious about how the wiki extension will influence the
> > maintenance of schemas. Schemas are currently often expressed as static
> > images, while in practice the schemas are as fluid as the underlying data
> > itself. Being able to document these changes dynamically (the wiki way),
> can
> > be very interesting. One specific expectation I have is that it might
> make it
> > easier to write federated SPARQL queries. Currently, when writing these
> > federated queries we often have to rely on either a set of example
> queries or
> > a one-time schema description, which makes it hard to w

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Peter F. Patel-Schneider]

The history of ShEx is quite complex.

I don't think that one can say that there were complete and conforming
implementations of ShEx in 2017 because the main ShEX specification,
http://shex.io/shex-semantics-20170713/ was ill-founded.  I pointed this out
in https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-shex/2018Mar/0008.html

There were several quite different semantics proposed for ShEx somewhat
earlier, all with significant problems.

peter





On 5/30/19 12:34 AM, Andra Waagmeester wrote:
> I really don't see the issue here. SHACL, like ShEx is a language to express
> data shapes. I adopted using ShEx in a wikidata context 2016 when ShEx was
> demonstrated at a tutorial at the SWAT4HCLS conference [1] in Amsterdam, where
> it was discussed in both a tutorial and a hackathon topic. At that conferene,
> I was convinced that ShEx is helpful in maintaining quality in Wikidata. ShEx
> offers not only the means to validate data shapes in Wikidata, but it also
> provides a way to document how primary data is expressed in Wikidata.  In 2016
> I joined the ShEx community group [2]. Since I have been actively using ShEx
> in defining shapes in various projects on Wikidata (e.g. Gene Wiki and
> Wikicite).  It is not that this happened in secrecy. On the contrary, it was
> discussed at both Wikimedia [3,4] and non-Wikimedia events [5,6,7].
> 
> It is also not the case that SHACL has not been discussed in this context, on
> the contrary, I have very good memories of a workshop where both were debated
> (see page 24 ;) )  [8]
> 
> IMHO  the statement that we all should adhere to one standard, simply because
> it is a standard, is not a valid argument. Imagine having to dictate that we
> all should speak English because it is the standard language.  In every single
> talk that I have given since 2016, proponents of SHACL have been very vocal in
> asking the same question over and over again "why not SHACL?", where the
> discussion never went beyond, "You should because it is a standard". It is
> also a bit disingenuous to suggest we all should adhere to SHACL because it is
> the standard, while in the same sentence calling it a "Recommendation". 
> 
> Although initially, I was open to SHACL as well (I use both Mac and Linux, so
> why not open up to different alternatives in data shapes), (Some) Arguments
> for me to prefer ShEx over SHACL are:
> 1. Already in 2017 there were different (open) implementations. At the time
> SHACL didn't have much tooling to choose from, other than one javascript
> implementation and a proprietary software package. 
> 2. ShEx has a more intuitive way of describing Shapes, which is the compact
> syntax (ShExC). SHACL seems to have adopted the compact syntax as well, but
> only yesterday [9].
> 3. The culture in the Shape Expression community group aligns well with the
> culture in Wikidata. 
> 4. I don't want to be shackled to one standard (pun intended). I assume the
> name was chosen with a shackle in mind, which puts constraints at the core of
> the language. Wikidata already has different methods in place to deal with
> constraints and constraint violations. In the context of Wikidata, ShEx should
> specifically not be intended to impose constraints, on the contrary, it allows
> expressing of disagreement or variants of different shapes, whether conflict
> or not. Which fits well with the NPOV concept. Symbols do matter. 
> 
> For a less personal comparison, I refer to the "Validating RDF data" book
> which describes both ShEx and SHACL, and has a specific chapter on how they
> compare and differ [10]
> 
> Up until now, I have been using ShEx in repositories outside the Wikidata
> ecosystem (e.g. Github), but I am really excited about the release of this
> extension. I am curious about how the wiki extension will influence the
> maintenance of schemas. Schemas are currently often expressed as static
> images, while in practice the schemas are as fluid as the underlying data
> itself. Being able to document these changes dynamically (the wiki way), can
> be very interesting. One specific expectation I have is that it might make it
> easier to write federated SPARQL queries. Currently, when writing these
> federated queries we often have to rely on either a set of example queries or
> a one-time schema description, which makes it hard to write those queries,
> because of schemas changing constantly. Federated SPARQL queries now really is
> a process of "slot machine" querying, where one has to explore the underlying
> schema, query by query. With a wiki in place and a  community maintaining
> these ever-changing schema's, I expect better documentation.
> 
> The data shape community, instead of adhering to one language, should really
> be proud to have produced two very helpful languages. ShEx and SHACL are
> similar but do have differences so both have merit to exist and I wish we
> could steer away from this ShEx vs SHACL feud. It really isn't helping the
> cause, i.e. being able to ex

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Andra Waagmeester]

I really don't see the issue here. SHACL, like ShEx is a language to
express data shapes. I adopted using ShEx in a wikidata context 2016 when
ShEx was demonstrated at a tutorial at the SWAT4HCLS conference [1] in
Amsterdam, where it was discussed in both a tutorial and a hackathon topic.
At that conferene, I was convinced that ShEx is helpful in maintaining
quality in Wikidata. ShEx offers not only the means to validate data shapes
in Wikidata, but it also provides a way to document how primary data is
expressed in Wikidata.  In 2016 I joined the ShEx community group [2].
Since I have been actively using ShEx in defining shapes in various
projects on Wikidata (e.g. Gene Wiki and Wikicite).  It is not that this
happened in secrecy. On the contrary, it was discussed at both Wikimedia
[3,4] and non-Wikimedia events [5,6,7].

It is also not the case that SHACL has not been discussed in this context,
on the contrary, I have very good memories of a workshop where both were
debated (see page 24 ;) )  [8]

IMHO  the statement that we all should adhere to one standard, simply
because it is a standard, is not a valid argument. Imagine having to
dictate that we all should speak English because it is the standard
language.  In every single talk that I have given since 2016, proponents of
SHACL have been very vocal in asking the same question over and over again
"why not SHACL?", where the discussion never went beyond, "You should
because it is a standard". It is also a bit disingenuous to suggest we all
should adhere to SHACL because it is the standard, while in the same
sentence calling it a "Recommendation".

Although initially, I was open to SHACL as well (I use both Mac and Linux,
so why not open up to different alternatives in data shapes), (Some)
Arguments for me to prefer ShEx over SHACL are:
1. Already in 2017 there were different (open) implementations. At the time
SHACL didn't have much tooling to choose from, other than one javascript
implementation and a proprietary software package.
2. ShEx has a more intuitive way of describing Shapes, which is the compact
syntax (ShExC). SHACL seems to have adopted the compact syntax as well, but
only yesterday [9].
3. The culture in the Shape Expression community group aligns well with the
culture in Wikidata.
4. I don't want to be shackled to one standard (pun intended). I assume the
name was chosen with a shackle in mind, which puts constraints at the core
of the language. Wikidata already has different methods in place to deal
with constraints and constraint violations. In the context of Wikidata,
ShEx should specifically not be intended to impose constraints, on the
contrary, it allows expressing of disagreement or variants of different
shapes, whether conflict or not. Which fits well with the NPOV concept.
Symbols do matter.

For a less personal comparison, I refer to the "Validating RDF data" book
which describes both ShEx and SHACL, and has a specific chapter on how they
compare and differ [10]

Up until now, I have been using ShEx in repositories outside the Wikidata
ecosystem (e.g. Github), but I am really excited about the release of this
extension. I am curious about how the wiki extension will influence the
maintenance of schemas. Schemas are currently often expressed as static
images, while in practice the schemas are as fluid as the underlying data
itself. Being able to document these changes dynamically (the wiki way),
can be very interesting. One specific expectation I have is that it might
make it easier to write federated SPARQL queries. Currently, when writing
these federated queries we often have to rely on either a set of example
queries or a one-time schema description, which makes it hard to write
those queries, because of schemas changing constantly. Federated SPARQL
queries now really is a process of "slot machine" querying, where one has
to explore the underlying schema, query by query. With a wiki in place and
a  community maintaining these ever-changing schema's, I expect better
documentation.

The data shape community, instead of adhering to one language, should
really be proud to have produced two very helpful languages. ShEx and SHACL
are similar but do have differences so both have merit to exist and I wish
we could steer away from this ShEx vs SHACL feud. It really isn't helping
the cause, i.e. being able to express schemas in a formal language.
Honestly, this fued really reminds me of the famous monty python sketch,
"The machine that says Bing". Let us focus on the patient and not on the
"Bing".

Just my 2ct.






[1] http://www.swat4ls.org/workshops/amsterdam2016/
[2] https://www.w3.org/community/shex/
[3]
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikidataCon_2017/Submissions/Using_Shape_Expressions_for_data_quality_and_consistency_in_Wikidata
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCite_2017/Program
[5]
https://figshare.com/articles/Using_Shape_Expressions_ShEx_to_model_validate_and_curate_Wikidata/4766002
[6]
https://2017.semantics.c

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Antoine Zimmermann]

Hello,


Could you explain why the non-standard ShEx has been chosen rather than 
the W3C Recommendation SHACL?


I would assume that if one has several options for bringing a 
functionality to something that largely promotes interoperability (like 
Wikidata), the default choice should be a standard, and /only if/ one 
has a carefully crafted argumentation to reject it, one would opt for 
something else.


For those who may not know, the W3C RDF Data Shapes Working Group worked 
between 2014 and 2017 on defining a standard for describing data shapes 
in RDF. ShEx existed already and was a candidate for standardisation. 
Eventually, another standard emerged, Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL, 
see https://www.w3.org/TR/shacl/).


Disclaimer: I did not contribute to either SHACL or ShEx, and I do not 
know them enough to judge which one is better.



Best,
--AZ


On 19/05/2019 15:32, Léa Lacroix wrote:

Hello all,

After several months of development and testing together with the 
WikiProject ShEx 
, Shape 
Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.


*First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*

ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise, 
formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape 
Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the 
case of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and 
references that describe the domain being modeled.


See also:

  * a short video about ShEx
 made by community
members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
  * introduction to ShEx 
  * more details about the language 

*What can it be used for?*

On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe 
what the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, 
we probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many 
other important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if 
a statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this 
property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what 
is expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these 
statements.


Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to 
test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible 
errors or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be 
tested to see whether or not they conform to a specific shape through 
the use of validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to 
help the editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be 
especially useful for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure 
the modeling of items in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not 
restricting the world, Shape Expressions are a tool to highlight, not 
prevent, errors.


On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future, 
for example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new 
item, what would be the basic structure for this item, and helping 
adding statements or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle 
, that is currently 
not based on ShEx.


*What is going to change on Wikidata?*

  * A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
, defining
the Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages
related to it.
  * A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
Expressions. Schemas will be identified with the letter E.
  * The Schemas will have multilingual labels, descriptions and aliases
(quite similar to the termbox on Items), and the schema text one can
fill with a syntax called ShEx Compact Syntax (ShExC)
. You can see an example here
.
  * The external tool shex-simple


is directly linked from the Schema pages in order to check entities
of your choice against the schema.

*When is this happening?*

Schemas will be enabled on on test.wikidata.org 
 on May 21st and on wikidata.org 
 on May 28th. After this release, they will be 
integrated to the regular maintenance just like the rest of Wikidata’s 
features.


*How can you help?*

  * Before the release, you can try to edit or create Shape Expressions
on our test system 
  * If you find any issue or feature you’d like to have, feel free to
create a new task on Phabricator with the tag |shape-expre

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Peter F. Patel-Schneider]

It is not really possible to determine what a reasonable shape is before
determining which Wikidata items are considered to be instances of human.  For
example, bog body (Q199414) is a subclass of human (Q5) but its instances are
quite different from other instances human.

In any case, shouldn't some proponent of this addition to Wikidata be
producing examples of reasonable shapes?  I could propose reasonable
constraints for instances of human, but I would do so in a formalism that I
much prefer.  Someone could, of course, translate these into ShEx, assuming
that ShEx could represent the constraints (which I'm not sure of at all).

To see what the differences (and difficulties) are consider a very reasonable
constraint - all the relatives of humans are humans (in my preferred syntax
human <= all relative human).  This *should* put a requirement on fathers,
mothers, children, etc. of humans as these are all sub-properties of relative.
 Is this going to work in ShEx?  I think that the answer is that it depends on
what RDF graph ShEX is going to run over.

peter


On 5/28/19 4:47 PM, Andra Waagmeester wrote:
> The schemas can strike a practical balance between capturing current practice
> and describing a todo list of things to fix on current practice. It's possible
> we will want to separate those roles. In the meantime, can you survey existing
> instances and propose a shape which is not too far from the deployed 
> instances?
> 
> On Tue, May 28, 2019 at 10:13 PM Peter F. Patel-Schneider
> mailto:pfpschnei...@gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> I sure hope that E10 is *not* the shape for human.  It certainly isn't a
> correct shape for humans that belong to subclasses of human (such as  Old
> Croghan Man (Q166790) or Delina Filkins (Q1408186)).  E10 is also 
> currently
> silent on what information should be present for humans, which I take it 
> to be
> the point of having ShEx in Wikidata.
> 
> It is also unclear what is means to be the shape for human.  The shape 
> E10-
> does not have any information on which items are to be considered against 
> the
> shape.  Are all items in Wikidata to be considered (as in the definition 
> of
> ShEx)?  That doesn't seem right.  Are all direct instances of human?  That
> seems to limiting.  Are all indirect instances of human?  This seems the 
> most
> natural, but where is this behaviour given?
> 
> Peter F. Patel-Schneider
> Samsung Research America
> 
> 
> 
> On 5/28/19 12:04 PM, Léa Lacroix wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > As previously announced, we just released shape expressions on 
> Wikidata. You
> > can for example have a look at E10, the shape for human
> > , or create a new
> EntitySchema
> > .
> >
> > A few useful links:
> >
> >   * WikiProject ShEx
> 
> >   * introduction to ShEx 
> >   * more details about the language 
> >   * More information about how to create a Schema
> >   
>  
> 
> >   * Phabricator tag: shape-expressions
> >     
> >   * User script
> >   
>   
> to
> >     highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the IDs
> into links
> >
> > If you have any question or encounter issues, feel free to ping me. 
> Cheers,
> >
> > Léa
> >
> >
> > On Sun, 19 May 2019 at 15:32, Léa Lacroix  
> > >> 
> wrote:
> >
> >     Hello all,
> >
> >     After several months of development and testing together with the
> >     WikiProject ShEx
> >     , Shape
> >     Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
> >
> >     *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
> >
> >     ShEx (Q29377880)  is a 
> concise,
> >     formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
> >     Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In
> the case
> >     of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and 
> references
> >     that describe the domain being modeled.
> >
> >     See also:
> >
> >       * a short video about ShEx
> 
> >         made by community members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
> >       * introduction to ShEx 
> >       * more d

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Magnus Sälgö]

Very interesting as Wikidata starts beeing part of more external data “flows” I 
would also like to see that we easy can tell
* this is the schema we use inside Wikidata
* this is external related schemas other organisations has created for this 
type of data
* how this WD schema relate to an external schema. What parts we map etc.

In Sweden the goverment speaks about basic data (swe. Grunddata) that they will 
define that I hope the data in Wikidata can “plug-in” and add value to.

Regards
Magnus Sälgö
0046-705937579
salg...@msn.com

29 maj 2019 kl. 09:44 skrev Léa Lacroix 
mailto:lea.lacr...@wikimedia.de>>:

Thanks for your feedback! There is already a ticket about adding a new data 
type allowing to link EntitySchemas from statements: 
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214884
If we don't encounter any major technical issue, this could be done in the 
incoming weeks.

On Tue, 28 May 2019 at 19:18, James Heald 
mailto:jpm.he...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi Léa,

Thanks to all the team for this.

I've proposed a property,

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Shape_Expression_for_class

To make this work, is it possible to have a Shape Expression as the
value of a statement on Wikidata (and the RDF dump, and WDQS) ?

Is there a timescale in which this should become possible ?

Thanks,

James.




On 28/05/2019 17:04, Léa Lacroix wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> As previously announced, we just released shape expressions on Wikidata.
> You can for example have a look at E10, the shape for human
> , or create a new
> EntitySchema .
>
> A few useful links:
>
> - WikiProject ShEx
> 
> - introduction to ShEx 
> - more details about the language 
> - More information about how to create a Schema
> 
> 
> - Phabricator tag: shape-expressions
> 
> - User script
> 
> to highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the IDs into
> links
>
> If you have any question or encounter issues, feel free to ping me. Cheers,
>
> Léa
>
> On Sun, 19 May 2019 at 15:32, Léa Lacroix 
> mailto:lea.lacr...@wikimedia.de>> wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> After several months of development and testing together with the WikiProject
>> ShEx , Shape
>> Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
>> *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
>>
>> ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise,
>> formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
>> Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the case
>> of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and references
>> that describe the domain being modeled.
>>
>> See also:
>>
>> - a short video about ShEx
>>  made by community
>> members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
>> - introduction to ShEx 
>> - more details about the language 
>>
>> *What can it be used for?*
>>
>> On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe what
>> the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
>> probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many other
>> important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
>> statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
>> property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what is
>> expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
>> statements.
>>
>> Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
>> test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible errors
>> or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested to see
>> whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
>> validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
>> editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially useful
>> for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the modeling of items
>> in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the world, Shape
>> Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent, errors.
>>
>> On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future, for
>> example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new item, what
>> would be the basic structure for this item, and helping adding statements
>> or values. A bit like this existing t

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Léa Lacroix]

Thanks for your feedback! There is already a ticket about adding a new data
type allowing to link EntitySchemas from statements:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214884
If we don't encounter any major technical issue, this could be done in the
incoming weeks.

On Tue, 28 May 2019 at 19:18, James Heald  wrote:

> Hi Léa,
>
> Thanks to all the team for this.
>
> I've proposed a property,
>
>
> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Shape_Expression_for_class
>
> To make this work, is it possible to have a Shape Expression as the
> value of a statement on Wikidata (and the RDF dump, and WDQS) ?
>
> Is there a timescale in which this should become possible ?
>
> Thanks,
>
> James.
>
>
>
>
> On 28/05/2019 17:04, Léa Lacroix wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > As previously announced, we just released shape expressions on Wikidata.
> > You can for example have a look at E10, the shape for human
> > , or create a new
> > EntitySchema .
> >
> > A few useful links:
> >
> > - WikiProject ShEx
> > 
> > - introduction to ShEx 
> > - more details about the language 
> > - More information about how to create a Schema
> > <
> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ShEx/How_to_get_started%3F
> >
> > - Phabricator tag: shape-expressions
> > 
> > - User script
> > <
> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Zvpunry/EntitySchemaHighlighter.js>
> > to highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the
> IDs into
> > links
> >
> > If you have any question or encounter issues, feel free to ping me.
> Cheers,
> >
> > Léa
> >
> > On Sun, 19 May 2019 at 15:32, Léa Lacroix 
> wrote:
> >
> >> Hello all,
> >>
> >> After several months of development and testing together with the
> WikiProject
> >> ShEx , Shape
> >> Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
> >> *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
> >>
> >> ShEx (Q29377880)  is a
> concise,
> >> formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
> >> Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the
> case
> >> of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and references
> >> that describe the domain being modeled.
> >>
> >> See also:
> >>
> >> - a short video about ShEx
> >>  made by community
> >> members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
> >> - introduction to ShEx 
> >> - more details about the language 
> >>
> >> *What can it be used for?*
> >>
> >> On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe
> what
> >> the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
> >> probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many other
> >> important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
> >> statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
> >> property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what
> is
> >> expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
> >> statements.
> >>
> >> Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
> >> test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible
> errors
> >> or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested to
> see
> >> whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
> >> validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
> >> editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially
> useful
> >> for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the modeling of
> items
> >> in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the world,
> Shape
> >> Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent, errors.
> >>
> >> On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future,
> for
> >> example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new item,
> what
> >> would be the basic structure for this item, and helping adding
> statements
> >> or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
> >> , that is currently
> >> not based on ShEx.
> >> *What is going to change on Wikidata?*
> >>
> >> - A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
> >> , defining
> the
> >> Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages related
> to it.
> >> - A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
> >> Expressions. 

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Thad Guidry]

Anyone know of a Language Server & Client for ShEx in Javascript ?  It
would be great to have one so all IDE's can take advantage of it.
https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/overview

I've opened an issue on github:shexSpec/shex.js to inquire as well...
https://github.com/shexSpec/shex.js/issues/58

Thad
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thadguidry/


On Tue, May 28, 2019 at 3:48 PM Andra Waagmeester  wrote:

> The schemas can strike a practical balance between capturing current
> practice and describing a todo list of things to fix on current practice.
> It's possible we will want to separate those roles. In the meantime, can
> you survey existing instances and propose a shape which is not too far from
> the deployed instances?
>
> On Tue, May 28, 2019 at 10:13 PM Peter F. Patel-Schneider <
> pfpschnei...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I sure hope that E10 is *not* the shape for human.  It certainly isn't a
>> correct shape for humans that belong to subclasses of human (such as  Old
>> Croghan Man (Q166790) or Delina Filkins (Q1408186)).  E10 is also
>> currently
>> silent on what information should be present for humans, which I take it
>> to be
>> the point of having ShEx in Wikidata.
>>
>> It is also unclear what is means to be the shape for human.  The shape
>> E10-
>> does not have any information on which items are to be considered against
>> the
>> shape.  Are all items in Wikidata to be considered (as in the definition
>> of
>> ShEx)?  That doesn't seem right.  Are all direct instances of human?  That
>> seems to limiting.  Are all indirect instances of human?  This seems the
>> most
>> natural, but where is this behaviour given?
>>
>> Peter F. Patel-Schneider
>> Samsung Research America
>>
>>
>>
>> On 5/28/19 12:04 PM, Léa Lacroix wrote:
>> > Hello all,
>> >
>> > As previously announced, we just released shape expressions on
>> Wikidata. You
>> > can for example have a look at E10, the shape for human
>> > , or create a new
>> EntitySchema
>> > .
>> >
>> > A few useful links:
>> >
>> >   * WikiProject ShEx <
>> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ShEx>
>> >   * introduction to ShEx 
>> >   * more details about the language 
>> >   * More information about how to create a Schema
>> > <
>> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ShEx/How_to_get_started%3F
>> >
>> >   * Phabricator tag: shape-expressions
>> > 
>> >   * User script
>> > <
>> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Zvpunry/EntitySchemaHighlighter.js> to
>> > highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the IDs
>> into links
>> >
>> > If you have any question or encounter issues, feel free to ping me.
>> Cheers,
>> >
>> > Léa
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sun, 19 May 2019 at 15:32, Léa Lacroix > > > wrote:
>> >
>> > Hello all,
>> >
>> > After several months of development and testing together with the
>> > WikiProject ShEx
>> > , Shape
>> > Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
>> >
>> > *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
>> >
>> > ShEx (Q29377880)  is a
>> concise,
>> > formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
>> > Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In
>> the case
>> > of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and
>> references
>> > that describe the domain being modeled.
>> >
>> > See also:
>> >
>> >   * a short video about ShEx <
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR75KhEoRKg>
>> > made by community members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
>> >   * introduction to ShEx 
>> >   * more details about the language > >
>> >
>> > *What can it be used for?*
>> >
>> > On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to
>> describe what
>> > the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human,
>> we
>> > probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many
>> other
>> > important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
>> > statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
>> > property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail
>> what is
>> > expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
>> > statements.
>> >
>> > Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible
>> to
>> > test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible
>> errors
>> > or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested
>> to see
>> > whether or not they conf

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Andra Waagmeester]

The schemas can strike a practical balance between capturing current
practice and describing a todo list of things to fix on current practice.
It's possible we will want to separate those roles. In the meantime, can
you survey existing instances and propose a shape which is not too far from
the deployed instances?

On Tue, May 28, 2019 at 10:13 PM Peter F. Patel-Schneider <
pfpschnei...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I sure hope that E10 is *not* the shape for human.  It certainly isn't a
> correct shape for humans that belong to subclasses of human (such as  Old
> Croghan Man (Q166790) or Delina Filkins (Q1408186)).  E10 is also currently
> silent on what information should be present for humans, which I take it
> to be
> the point of having ShEx in Wikidata.
>
> It is also unclear what is means to be the shape for human.  The shape E10-
> does not have any information on which items are to be considered against
> the
> shape.  Are all items in Wikidata to be considered (as in the definition of
> ShEx)?  That doesn't seem right.  Are all direct instances of human?  That
> seems to limiting.  Are all indirect instances of human?  This seems the
> most
> natural, but where is this behaviour given?
>
> Peter F. Patel-Schneider
> Samsung Research America
>
>
>
> On 5/28/19 12:04 PM, Léa Lacroix wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > As previously announced, we just released shape expressions on Wikidata.
> You
> > can for example have a look at E10, the shape for human
> > , or create a new
> EntitySchema
> > .
> >
> > A few useful links:
> >
> >   * WikiProject ShEx <
> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ShEx>
> >   * introduction to ShEx 
> >   * more details about the language 
> >   * More information about how to create a Schema
> > <
> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ShEx/How_to_get_started%3F
> >
> >   * Phabricator tag: shape-expressions
> > 
> >   * User script
> > <
> https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Zvpunry/EntitySchemaHighlighter.js> to
> > highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the IDs
> into links
> >
> > If you have any question or encounter issues, feel free to ping me.
> Cheers,
> >
> > Léa
> >
> >
> > On Sun, 19 May 2019 at 15:32, Léa Lacroix  > > wrote:
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > After several months of development and testing together with the
> > WikiProject ShEx
> > , Shape
> > Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
> >
> > *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
> >
> > ShEx (Q29377880)  is a
> concise,
> > formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
> > Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In
> the case
> > of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and
> references
> > that describe the domain being modeled.
> >
> > See also:
> >
> >   * a short video about ShEx <
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR75KhEoRKg>
> > made by community members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
> >   * introduction to ShEx 
> >   * more details about the language 
> >
> > *What can it be used for?*
> >
> > On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe
> what
> > the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
> > probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many
> other
> > important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
> > statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
> > property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail
> what is
> > expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
> > statements.
> >
> > Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible
> to
> > test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible
> errors
> > or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested
> to see
> > whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
> > validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
> > editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially
> > useful for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the
> modeling of
> > items in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the
> > world, Shape Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent,
> errors.
> >
> > On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the
> future, for
> > example building a tool 

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Peter F. Patel-Schneider]

I sure hope that E10 is *not* the shape for human.  It certainly isn't a
correct shape for humans that belong to subclasses of human (such as  Old
Croghan Man (Q166790) or Delina Filkins (Q1408186)).  E10 is also currently
silent on what information should be present for humans, which I take it to be
the point of having ShEx in Wikidata.

It is also unclear what is means to be the shape for human.  The shape E10-
does not have any information on which items are to be considered against the
shape.  Are all items in Wikidata to be considered (as in the definition of
ShEx)?  That doesn't seem right.  Are all direct instances of human?  That
seems to limiting.  Are all indirect instances of human?  This seems the most
natural, but where is this behaviour given?

Peter F. Patel-Schneider
Samsung Research America



On 5/28/19 12:04 PM, Léa Lacroix wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> As previously announced, we just released shape expressions on Wikidata. You
> can for example have a look at E10, the shape for human
> , or create a new EntitySchema
> .
> 
> A few useful links:
> 
>   * WikiProject ShEx 
>   * introduction to ShEx 
>   * more details about the language 
>   * More information about how to create a Schema
> 
> 
>   * Phabricator tag: shape-expressions
> 
>   * User script
>  to
> highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the IDs into 
> links
> 
> If you have any question or encounter issues, feel free to ping me. Cheers,
> 
> Léa
> 
> 
> On Sun, 19 May 2019 at 15:32, Léa Lacroix  > wrote:
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> After several months of development and testing together with the
> WikiProject ShEx
> , Shape
> Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
> 
> *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
> 
> ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise,
> formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
> Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the case
> of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and references
> that describe the domain being modeled.
> 
> See also:
> 
>   * a short video about ShEx 
> made by community members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
>   * introduction to ShEx 
>   * more details about the language 
> 
> *What can it be used for?*
> 
> On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe what
> the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
> probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many other
> important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
> statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
> property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what is
> expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
> statements.
> 
> Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
> test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible errors
> or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested to see
> whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
> validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
> editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially
> useful for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the modeling of
> items in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the
> world, Shape Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent, errors.
> 
> On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future, for
> example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new item, what
> would be the basic structure for this item, and helping adding statements
> or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
> , that is currently not
> based on ShEx.
> 
> *What is going to change on Wikidata?*
> 
>   * A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
> , defining the
> Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages related to 
> it.
>   * A new entity type, EntitySchema, wil

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[James Heald]

Hi Léa,

Thanks to all the team for this.

I've proposed a property,

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Shape_Expression_for_class

To make this work, is it possible to have a Shape Expression as the 
value of a statement on Wikidata (and the RDF dump, and WDQS) ?


Is there a timescale in which this should become possible ?

Thanks,

   James.




On 28/05/2019 17:04, Léa Lacroix wrote:

Hello all,

As previously announced, we just released shape expressions on Wikidata.
You can for example have a look at E10, the shape for human
, or create a new
EntitySchema .

A few useful links:

- WikiProject ShEx

- introduction to ShEx 
- more details about the language 
- More information about how to create a Schema


- Phabricator tag: shape-expressions

- User script

to highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the IDs into
links

If you have any question or encounter issues, feel free to ping me. Cheers,

Léa

On Sun, 19 May 2019 at 15:32, Léa Lacroix  wrote:


Hello all,

After several months of development and testing together with the WikiProject
ShEx , Shape
Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
*First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*

ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise,
formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the case
of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and references
that describe the domain being modeled.

See also:

- a short video about ShEx
 made by community
members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
- introduction to ShEx 
- more details about the language 

*What can it be used for?*

On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe what
the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many other
important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what is
expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
statements.

Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible errors
or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested to see
whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially useful
for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the modeling of items
in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the world, Shape
Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent, errors.

On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future, for
example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new item, what
would be the basic structure for this item, and helping adding statements
or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
, that is currently
not based on ShEx.
*What is going to change on Wikidata?*

- A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
, defining the
Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages related to it.
- A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
Expressions. Schemas will be identified with the letter E.
- The Schemas will have multilingual labels, descriptions and aliases
(quite similar to the termbox on Items), and the schema text one can fill
with a syntax called ShEx Compact Syntax (ShExC)
. You can see an example here
.
- The external tool shex-simple


is directly linked from the Schema pages in order to check entities of your
choice against the schema.

*When is this happening?*

Schemas wil

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Léa Lacroix]

Hello all,

As previously announced, we just released shape expressions on Wikidata.
You can for example have a look at E10, the shape for human
, or create a new
EntitySchema .

A few useful links:

   - WikiProject ShEx
   
   - introduction to ShEx 
   - more details about the language 
   - More information about how to create a Schema
   

   - Phabricator tag: shape-expressions
   
   - User script
   
   to highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the IDs into
   links

If you have any question or encounter issues, feel free to ping me. Cheers,

Léa

On Sun, 19 May 2019 at 15:32, Léa Lacroix  wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> After several months of development and testing together with the WikiProject
> ShEx , Shape
> Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
> *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
>
> ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise,
> formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
> Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the case
> of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and references
> that describe the domain being modeled.
>
> See also:
>
>- a short video about ShEx
> made by community
>members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
>- introduction to ShEx 
>- more details about the language 
>
> *What can it be used for?*
>
> On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe what
> the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
> probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many other
> important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
> statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
> property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what is
> expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
> statements.
>
> Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
> test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible errors
> or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested to see
> whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
> validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
> editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially useful
> for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the modeling of items
> in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the world, Shape
> Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent, errors.
>
> On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future, for
> example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new item, what
> would be the basic structure for this item, and helping adding statements
> or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
> , that is currently
> not based on ShEx.
> *What is going to change on Wikidata?*
>
>- A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
>, defining the
>Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages related to it.
>- A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
>Expressions. Schemas will be identified with the letter E.
>- The Schemas will have multilingual labels, descriptions and aliases
>(quite similar to the termbox on Items), and the schema text one can fill
>with a syntax called ShEx Compact Syntax (ShExC)
>. You can see an example here
>.
>- The external tool shex-simple
>
> 
>is directly linked from the Schema pages in order to check entities of your
>choice against the schema.
>
> *When is this happening?*
>
> Schemas will be enabled on on test.wikidata.org on May 21st and on
> wikidata.org on May 28th. After this release, they will be integrated to
> the regular maintenance just like the rest of Wikidata’s features.
> *How can you help?*
>
>- Before the release, you can try to edit or create Shape Expressions
>on our test syste

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Luca Martinelli]

Il giorno mar 21 mag 2019 alle ore 15:07 Léa Lacroix
 ha scritto:
> For now, we didn't build any specific Lua support for shape expressions, but 
> that's something we could consider if there is the need for it. i'd be glad 
> to discuss about your ideas and needs when you have a bit more time :)

Ok, just give me the time to wrap my head around these things, and to
discuss it with somebody else. No rush. ;)

L.

___
Wikidata mailing list
Wikidata@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Léa Lacroix]

Hey Luca,
For now, we didn't build any specific Lua support for shape expressions,
but that's something we could consider if there is the need for it. i'd be
glad to discuss about your ideas and needs when you have a bit more time :)

On Mon, 20 May 2019 at 10:53, Luca Martinelli 
wrote:

> This is fantastic news, as always. :) I've got a question: can/will those
> entities also be recalled from Lua templates to help build infoboxes?
> (Sorry for being cryptic, I'm busy and cannot further explain at the
> moment, but I cannot help my imagination run wild!) :)))
>
> L.
>
> Il dom 19 mag 2019, 15:32 Léa Lacroix  ha
> scritto:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> After several months of development and testing together with the WikiProject
>> ShEx , Shape
>> Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
>> *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
>>
>> ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise,
>> formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
>> Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the case
>> of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and references
>> that describe the domain being modeled.
>>
>> See also:
>>
>>- a short video about ShEx
>> made by community
>>members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
>>- introduction to ShEx 
>>- more details about the language 
>>
>> *What can it be used for?*
>>
>> On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe what
>> the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
>> probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many other
>> important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
>> statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
>> property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what is
>> expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
>> statements.
>>
>> Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
>> test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible errors
>> or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested to see
>> whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
>> validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
>> editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially useful
>> for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the modeling of items
>> in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the world, Shape
>> Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent, errors.
>>
>> On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future,
>> for example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new item,
>> what would be the basic structure for this item, and helping adding
>> statements or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
>> , that is currently
>> not based on ShEx.
>> *What is going to change on Wikidata?*
>>
>>- A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
>>, defining the
>>Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages related to it.
>>- A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
>>Expressions. Schemas will be identified with the letter E.
>>- The Schemas will have multilingual labels, descriptions and aliases
>>(quite similar to the termbox on Items), and the schema text one can fill
>>with a syntax called ShEx Compact Syntax (ShExC)
>>. You can see an example here
>>.
>>- The external tool shex-simple
>>
>> 
>>is directly linked from the Schema pages in order to check entities of 
>> your
>>choice against the schema.
>>
>> *When is this happening?*
>>
>> Schemas will be enabled on on test.wikidata.org on May 21st and on
>> wikidata.org on May 28th. After this release, they will be integrated to
>> the regular maintenance just like the rest of Wikidata’s features.
>> *How can you help?*
>>
>>- Before the release, you can try to edit or create Shape Expressions
>>on our test system 
>>- If you find any issue or feature you’d like to have, feel free to
>>create a new task on Phabricator with the tag shape-expressions
>>- Once Schemas are enabled, you can discuss about it on your favorite
>>wikiprojects: for example, what types of items would you like to model

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Iván Hernández Cazorla]

Wonderful! Awesome! Thank you very much, Léa, to announce us this
arrival. And, of course, thank you to everyone who is working in this
project.

I think ShEx is going to help to make the data of Wikidata more
consistent and trustworthy. I am wishing to learn how to create and use
this ShEx schemas!

Regards,
Iván

On 19/5/19 14:32, Léa Lacroix wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> After several months of development and testing together with the
> WikiProject ShEx
> , Shape
> Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
> 
> *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
> 
> ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise,
> formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
> Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the
> case of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and
> references that describe the domain being modeled.
> 
> See also:
> 
>   * a short video about ShEx
>  made by community
> members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
>   * introduction to ShEx 
>   * more details about the language 
> 
> *What can it be used for?*
> 
> On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe
> what the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human,
> we probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many
> other important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if
> a statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
> property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what
> is expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
> statements.
> 
> Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
> test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible
> errors or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be
> tested to see whether or not they conform to a specific shape through
> the use of validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to
> help the editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be
> especially useful for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure
> the modeling of items in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not
> restricting the world, Shape Expressions are a tool to highlight, not
> prevent, errors.
> 
> On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future,
> for example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new
> item, what would be the basic structure for this item, and helping
> adding statements or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
> , that is currently
> not based on ShEx.
> 
> *What is going to change on Wikidata?*
> 
>   * A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
> , defining
> the Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages
> related to it.
>   * A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
> Expressions. Schemas will be identified with the letter E.
>   * The Schemas will have multilingual labels, descriptions and aliases
> (quite similar to the termbox on Items), and the schema text one can
> fill with a syntax called ShEx Compact Syntax (ShExC)
> . You can see an example here
> .
>   * The external tool shex-simple
> 
> 
> is directly linked from the Schema pages in order to check entities
> of your choice against the schema.
> 
> *When is this happening?*
> 
> Schemas will be enabled on on test.wikidata.org
>  on May 21st and on wikidata.org
>  on May 28th. After this release, they will be
> integrated to the regular maintenance just like the rest of Wikidata’s
> features.
> 
> *How can you help?*
> 
>   * Before the release, you can try to edit or create Shape Expressions
> on our test system 
>   * If you find any issue or feature you’d like to have, feel free to
> create a new task on Phabricator with the tag |shape-expressions|
>   * Once Schemas are enabled, you can discuss about it on your favorite
> wikiprojects: for example, what types of items would you like to model?
>   * You can also get more information about how to create a Schema
> 
> 
> 
> *See also: *
> 
>   * Main Phabricator board
> 

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Luca Martinelli]

This is fantastic news, as always. :) I've got a question: can/will those
entities also be recalled from Lua templates to help build infoboxes?
(Sorry for being cryptic, I'm busy and cannot further explain at the
moment, but I cannot help my imagination run wild!) :)))

L.

Il dom 19 mag 2019, 15:32 Léa Lacroix  ha scritto:

> Hello all,
>
> After several months of development and testing together with the WikiProject
> ShEx , Shape
> Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
> *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
>
> ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise,
> formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
> Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the case
> of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and references
> that describe the domain being modeled.
>
> See also:
>
>- a short video about ShEx
> made by community
>members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
>- introduction to ShEx 
>- more details about the language 
>
> *What can it be used for?*
>
> On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe what
> the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
> probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many other
> important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
> statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
> property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what is
> expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
> statements.
>
> Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
> test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible errors
> or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested to see
> whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
> validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
> editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially useful
> for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the modeling of items
> in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the world, Shape
> Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent, errors.
>
> On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future, for
> example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new item, what
> would be the basic structure for this item, and helping adding statements
> or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
> , that is currently
> not based on ShEx.
> *What is going to change on Wikidata?*
>
>- A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
>, defining the
>Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages related to it.
>- A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
>Expressions. Schemas will be identified with the letter E.
>- The Schemas will have multilingual labels, descriptions and aliases
>(quite similar to the termbox on Items), and the schema text one can fill
>with a syntax called ShEx Compact Syntax (ShExC)
>. You can see an example here
>.
>- The external tool shex-simple
>
> 
>is directly linked from the Schema pages in order to check entities of your
>choice against the schema.
>
> *When is this happening?*
>
> Schemas will be enabled on on test.wikidata.org on May 21st and on
> wikidata.org on May 28th. After this release, they will be integrated to
> the regular maintenance just like the rest of Wikidata’s features.
> *How can you help?*
>
>- Before the release, you can try to edit or create Shape Expressions
>on our test system 
>- If you find any issue or feature you’d like to have, feel free to
>create a new task on Phabricator with the tag shape-expressions
>- Once Schemas are enabled, you can discuss about it on your favorite
>wikiprojects: for example, what types of items would you like to model?
>- You can also get more information about how to create a Schema
>
> 
>
> *See also: *
>
>- Main Phabricator board
>
>- Technical documentation of the extension
>
>- 

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[James Hare]

In other words: the benefits of standardized schemata but with less
gatekeeping and exclusivity. Cheers!


On Sun, May 19, 2019 at 3:32 PM Léa Lacroix 
wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> After several months of development and testing together with the WikiProject
> ShEx , Shape
> Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
> *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
>
> ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise,
> formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
> Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the case
> of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and references
> that describe the domain being modeled.
>
> See also:
>
>- a short video about ShEx
> made by community
>members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
>- introduction to ShEx 
>- more details about the language 
>
> *What can it be used for?*
>
> On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe what
> the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
> probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many other
> important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
> statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
> property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what is
> expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
> statements.
>
> Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
> test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible errors
> or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested to see
> whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
> validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
> editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially useful
> for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the modeling of items
> in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the world, Shape
> Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent, errors.
>
> On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future, for
> example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new item, what
> would be the basic structure for this item, and helping adding statements
> or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
> , that is currently
> not based on ShEx.
> *What is going to change on Wikidata?*
>
>- A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
>, defining the
>Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages related to it.
>- A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
>Expressions. Schemas will be identified with the letter E.
>- The Schemas will have multilingual labels, descriptions and aliases
>(quite similar to the termbox on Items), and the schema text one can fill
>with a syntax called ShEx Compact Syntax (ShExC)
>. You can see an example here
>.
>- The external tool shex-simple
>
> 
>is directly linked from the Schema pages in order to check entities of your
>choice against the schema.
>
> *When is this happening?*
>
> Schemas will be enabled on on test.wikidata.org on May 21st and on
> wikidata.org on May 28th. After this release, they will be integrated to
> the regular maintenance just like the rest of Wikidata’s features.
> *How can you help?*
>
>- Before the release, you can try to edit or create Shape Expressions
>on our test system 
>- If you find any issue or feature you’d like to have, feel free to
>create a new task on Phabricator with the tag shape-expressions
>- Once Schemas are enabled, you can discuss about it on your favorite
>wikiprojects: for example, what types of items would you like to model?
>- You can also get more information about how to create a Schema
>
> 
>
> *See also: *
>
>- Main Phabricator board
>
>- Technical documentation of the extension
>
>- To enhance the interface, you can use this user script
>
>to highlight items and propert

Re: [Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[David Abián]

I definitely think this is a big step forward that will reduce
maintenance effort, will boost consensus processes on how to represent
knowledge on Wikidata and will ensure that the data is consistently
represented so that it can be processed unambiguously and automagically
to an extent previously unthinkable. And I can't wait to start creating
Schemas. :-)

Congratulations to all who are making this possible!


On 5/19/19 15:32, Léa Lacroix wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> After several months of development and testing together with the
> WikiProject ShEx
> , Shape
> Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
> 
> *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
> 
> ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise,
> formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
> Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the
> case of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and
> references that describe the domain being modeled.
> 
> See also:
> 
>   * a short video about ShEx
>  made by community
> members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
>   * introduction to ShEx 
>   * more details about the language 
> 
> *What can it be used for?*
> 
> On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe
> what the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human,
> we probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many
> other important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if
> a statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
> property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what
> is expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
> statements.
> 
> Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
> test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible
> errors or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be
> tested to see whether or not they conform to a specific shape through
> the use of validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to
> help the editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be
> especially useful for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure
> the modeling of items in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not
> restricting the world, Shape Expressions are a tool to highlight, not
> prevent, errors.
> 
> On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future,
> for example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new
> item, what would be the basic structure for this item, and helping
> adding statements or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
> , that is currently
> not based on ShEx.
> 
> *What is going to change on Wikidata?*
> 
>   * A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
> , defining
> the Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages
> related to it.
>   * A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
> Expressions. Schemas will be identified with the letter E.
>   * The Schemas will have multilingual labels, descriptions and aliases
> (quite similar to the termbox on Items), and the schema text one can
> fill with a syntax called ShEx Compact Syntax (ShExC)
> . You can see an example here
> .
>   * The external tool shex-simple
> 
> 
> is directly linked from the Schema pages in order to check entities
> of your choice against the schema.
> 
> *When is this happening?*
> 
> Schemas will be enabled on on test.wikidata.org
>  on May 21st and on wikidata.org
>  on May 28th. After this release, they will be
> integrated to the regular maintenance just like the rest of Wikidata’s
> features.
> 
> *How can you help?*
> 
>   * Before the release, you can try to edit or create Shape Expressions
> on our test system 
>   * If you find any issue or feature you’d like to have, feel free to
> create a new task on Phabricator with the tag |shape-expressions|
>   * Once Schemas are enabled, you can discuss about it on your favorite
> wikiprojects: for example, what types of items would you like to model?
>   * You can also get more information about how to create a Schema
> 
> 
> 
> *See also

[Wikidata] Shape Expressions arrive on Wikidata on May 28th

[Léa Lacroix]

Hello all,

After several months of development and testing together with the WikiProject
ShEx , Shape
Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
*First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*

ShEx (Q29377880)  is a concise,
formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the case
of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and references
that describe the domain being modeled.

See also:

   - a short video about ShEx 
   made by community members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
   - introduction to ShEx 
   - more details about the language 

*What can it be used for?*

On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe what
the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many other
important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what is
expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
statements.

Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to test
some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible errors or
lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested to see
whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially useful
for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the modeling of items
in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the world, Shape
Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent, errors.

On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future, for
example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new item, what
would be the basic structure for this item, and helping adding statements
or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
, that is currently not
based on ShEx.
*What is going to change on Wikidata?*

   - A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
   , defining the
   Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages related to it.
   - A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
   Expressions. Schemas will be identified with the letter E.
   - The Schemas will have multilingual labels, descriptions and aliases
   (quite similar to the termbox on Items), and the schema text one can fill
   with a syntax called ShEx Compact Syntax (ShExC)
   . You can see an example here
   .
   - The external tool shex-simple
   

   is directly linked from the Schema pages in order to check entities of your
   choice against the schema.

*When is this happening?*

Schemas will be enabled on on test.wikidata.org on May 21st and on
wikidata.org on May 28th. After this release, they will be integrated to
the regular maintenance just like the rest of Wikidata’s features.
*How can you help?*

   - Before the release, you can try to edit or create Shape Expressions on
   our test system 
   - If you find any issue or feature you’d like to have, feel free to
   create a new task on Phabricator with the tag shape-expressions
   - Once Schemas are enabled, you can discuss about it on your favorite
   wikiprojects: for example, what types of items would you like to model?
   - You can also get more information about how to create a Schema
   


*See also: *

   - Main Phabricator board
   
   - Technical documentation of the extension
   
   - To enhance the interface, you can use this user script
   
   to highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the IDs into
   links

If you have any questions, feel free to reach me. Cheers,
-- 
Léa Lacroix
Project Manager Community Communication for Wikidata

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
10963 Berlin
www.wikimedia.de

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.