COEUS is focused on integration and interoperability. These are the key goals that defined COEUS' development and its internal organization.
For a simpler interpretation of COEUS internal structure, we thought about organizing it according to a gardening metaphor.

The first thing to consider are single COEUS instances. These standalone applications are built according to a configuration file, in Javascript, and a setup file, in RDF, adopting COEUS Ontology.

Each COEUS instance integrates data in a mini-warehouse (or a large warehouse, depending on the number of resources you are collecting!) and is called a Seed.
Building a new seed involves three key steps:

  1. Configure the resource integration settings. In this step we define what data we want to import, where the data comes from, how the data sources are connected, how they will be integrated, and, at last, to what ontologies/models will the newly imported data be matched.
  2. Build the knowledge base. This step loads the configuration files and imports data using flexible connectors (for CSV, XML, SQL, SPARQL, RDF, ...) resources, abstracting it to a semantic environment, using advanced data/ontology selectors.
  3. Access the collected data. The final step involves the creation of custom client applications that access all the integrated data available in the knowledge base through any of the available APIs. This simplifies the creation of new applications for web, desktop or mobile platforms.

Since all seeds publish acquired data by default, we can deploy multiple seeds and connect them easily, creating a knowledge federation layer: the Garden.

Seeds

A single COEUS instance is a seed. This represents a standalone application, built from integrated resources, with a public API.

COEUS Seed

Garden

And you get multiple seeds working together... they bloom, creating a garden: a truly federated semantic knowledge network.

COEUS Garden

The following code snippets highlight how to configure data loading from the various supported formats. The examples include one resource connector and one or more selectors.

XML (RSS)

This configuration specifies how to extract data from an RSS/XML feed. This example was taken from the News Aggregator tutorial.
# Resource configuration for BBC Sport News feed
coeus:resource_BBC coeus:endpoint "http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/sport/0/rss.xml"^^<&xsd;string>;
    coeus:extends coeus:concept_BBC;
    coeus:hasKey coeus:xml_BBC_id;
    coeus:isResourceOf coeus:concept_BBC;
    coeus:loadsFrom coeus:xml_BBC_id,
        coeus:xml_BBC_title,
        coeus:xml_description,
        coeus:xml_link;
    coeus:method "cache"^^<&xsd;string>;
    coeus:order "1"^^<&xsd;integer>;
    coeus:query "//item"^^<&xsd;string>;
    dc:publisher "xml"^^<&xsd;string>;
    dc:title "BBC"^^<&xsd;string>;
    a coeus:Resource,
        owl:NamedIndividual;
    rdfs:comment "Resource loader for BBC XML feeds."^^<&xsd;string>;
    rdfs:label "resource_bbc"^^<&xsd;string>.
    
# Loading news identifiers from XML XPath queries
coeus:xml_BBC_id coeus:isKeyOf coeus:resource_BBC;
    coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_BBC;
    coeus:property "dc:identifier"^^<&xsd;string>;
    coeus:query "guid"^^<&xsd;string>;
    coeus:regex "[0-9]{5,}"^^<&xsd;string>;
    dc:title "BBC identifier"^^<&xsd;string>;
    a coeus:XML,
        owl:NamedIndividual;
    rdfs:label "xml_bbc_id"^^<&xsd;string>.

# Loading news titles from XML XPath queries
coeus:xml_BBC_title coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_BBC;
    coeus:property "dc:title"^^<&xsd;string>;
    coeus:query "title"^^<&xsd;string>;
    dc:title "BBC entry title"^^<&xsd;string>;
    a coeus:XML,
        owl:NamedIndividual;
    rdfs:label "xml_bbc_title"^^<&xsd;string>.

# Loading news descriptions from XML XPath queries
coeus:xml_description coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_BBC;
    coeus:property "dc:description"^^<&xsd;string>;
    coeus:query "description"^^<&xsd;string>;
    dc:title "entry description"^^<&xsd;string>;
    a coeus:XML,
        owl:NamedIndividual;
    rdfs:label "xml_description"^^<&xsd;string>.

# Loading news links from XML XPath queries
coeus:xml_link coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_BBC;
    coeus:property "dc:publisher"^^<&xsd;string>;
    coeus:query "link"^^<&xsd;string>;
    dc:title "entry link"^^<&xsd;string>;
    a coeus:XML,
        owl:NamedIndividual;
    rdfs:label "xml_link"^^<&xsd;string>.

SQL

This resource definition describes how to load data from SQL query results.
# Resource configuration for generic SQL resource
coeus:&coeus;resource_SomeSQL coeus:endpoint "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/\"db_name\"?user=\"user\"&password=\"pwd\""^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:hasKey coeus:&coeus;sql_id;
	coeus:isResourceOf coeus:&coeus;concept_SQL;
	coeus:loadsFrom coeus:&coeus;sql_id;
	coeus:method "cache"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:order "20"^^<&xsd;integer>;
	coeus:query "SELECT b AS entry FROM hummer WHERE rel=37";
	dc:description "Resource connecting SQL information."^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:publisher "sql"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "SomeSQL"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:&coeus;Resource,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:comment "Resource connecting SQL information."^^<&xsd;string>;
	rdfs:label "resource_somesql"^^<&xsd;string>.
	
# Loading data identifiers from SQL query "entry" variable
coeus:&coeus;sql_id coeus:isKeyOf coeus:&coeus;resource_SomeSQL;
	coeus:loadsFor coeus:&coeus;resource_SomeSQL;
	coeus:property "dc:title|dc:identifier"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "entry"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:description "SQL identifier for data."^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:&coeus;SQL,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:comment "SQL identifier for data."^^<&xsd;string>;
	rdfs:label "sql_id"^^<&xsd;string>.

CSV

This sample configuration details how to specify data imports from CSV files into COEUS' knowledge base. This example was taken from the Proteinator tutorial.
# UniProt Resource configuration
coeus:resource_UniProt coeus:endpoint "http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/?query=breast+cancer+AND+taxonomy%3a%22Homo+sapiens+%5b9606%5d%22&force=yes&format=tab&columns=id,entry%20name,reviewed,protein%20names,genes,organism,length"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:extends coeus:concept_UniProt;
	coeus:hasKey coeus:csv_UniProt_entry;
	coeus:isResourceOf coeus:concept_UniProt;
	coeus:loadsFrom coeus:csv_UniProt_entry,
		coeus:csv_UniProt_entryname,
		coeus:csv_UniProt_proteinname;
	coeus:method "cache"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:order "0"^^<&xsd;integer>;
	dc:publisher "csv"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "UniProt"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:Resource,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:comment "UniProt data loader."^^<&xsd;string>;
	rdfs:label "resource_uniprot".

# Loading UniProt accession entries from CSV column 0
coeus:csv_UniProt_entry coeus:isKeyOf coeus:resource_UniProt;
	coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_UniProt;
	coeus:property "dc:identifier"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "0"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "UniProt entry"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:CSV,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "csv_uniprot_entry"^^<&xsd;string>.

# Loading UniProt entry names from CSV column 1
coeus:csv_UniProt_entryname coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_UniProt;
	coeus:property "dc:title"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "1"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "UniProt Entry Name"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:CSV,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "csv_uniprot_entryname"^^<&xsd;string>.

# Loading UniProt proteint names from CSV column 3
coeus:csv_UniProt_proteinname coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_UniProt;
	coeus:property "dc:description"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "3"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "UniProt Protein Name"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:CSV,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "csv_uniprot_proteinname"^^<&xsd;string>.

JSON

This sample configuration details how to specify data imports from JSON files into COEUS' knowledge base. This example was taken from the Tester sample.
# Mesh Json Resource configuration
coeus:resource_mesh_cache coeus:endpoint "http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/diseasecard/api/triple/diseasecard:uniprot_P51587/coeus:isAssociatedTo/obj"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:extends coeus:concept_mesh;
	coeus:hasKey coeus:json_mesh_type;
	coeus:isResourceOf coeus:concept_mesh;
	coeus:loadsFrom coeus:json_mesh_type;
	coeus:method "cache"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:order "5"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "$.results.bindings[*]"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:publisher "json"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "Resource mesh cache"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:Resource,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:comment "resource for mesh terms cache"^^<&xsd;string>;
	rdfs:label "resource_mesh_cache"^^<&xsd;string>.
# Loading mesh id from Json 
coeus:json_mesh_id coeus:isKeyOf coeus:resource_mesh_cache_ext;
	coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_mesh_cache_ext;
	coeus:property "dc:identifier"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "$.obj.value"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:regex "D[0-9]{6}"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "json mesh identifier"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:class_json,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "json_mesh_id"^^<&xsd;string>.
# Loading mesh type from Json 
coeus:json_mesh_type coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_mesh_cache;
	coeus:property "rdfs:comment"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "$.obj.type"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "json mesh type"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:class_json,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "json_mesh_type"^^<&xsd;string>.
# Loading mesh uri from Json 
coeus:json_mesh_uri coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_mesh_complete;
	coeus:property "dc:description"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "$.obj.value"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "json mesh uri"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:class_json,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "json_mesh_uri"^^<&xsd;string>.

            

RDF

This sample configuration details how to specify data imports and individuals association from RDF/XML files into COEUS' knowledge base. This example was taken from the Tester sample.
# UniProt RDF Resource configuration
coeus:resource_uniprot_rdf_complete coeus:endpoint "http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/#replace#.rdf"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:extends coeus:concept_uniprot;
	coeus:extension "dc:identifier"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:isResourceOf coeus:concept_uniprot;
	coeus:method "complete"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:order "12";
	coeus:query "http://purl.uniprot.org/uniprot/"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:publisher "rdf"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "Resource Uniprot RDF complete"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:Resource,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:comment "resource uniprot for rdf data"^^<&xsd;string>;
	rdfs:label "resource_uniprot_rdf_complete"^^<&xsd;string>.

            

LinkedData

This sample configuration details how to link data into COEUS' knowledge base. This example was taken from the Tester sample.
# UniProt LinkedData Resource configuration
coeus:resource_uniprot_ld_complete coeus:endpoint "http://purl.uniprot.org/uniprot/#replace#"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:extends coeus:concept_uniprot;
	coeus:extension "dc:identifier"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:hasKey coeus:ld_uniprot_complete;
	coeus:isResourceOf coeus:concept_uniprot;
	coeus:loadsFrom coeus:ld_uniprot_complete;
	coeus:method "complete"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:order "14";
	dc:publisher "ld"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "Resource Uniprot Linked Data"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:Resource,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:comment "resource uniprot for linked data "^^<&xsd;string>;
	rdfs:label "resource_uniprot_ld_complete"^^<&xsd;string>.
# Make the association
coeus:ld_uniprot_complete coeus:isKeyOf coeus:resource_uniprot_ld_complete;
	coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_uniprot_ld_complete;
	coeus:property "rdfs:seeAlso"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query ""^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "linkeddata uniprot complete"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:LD,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "ld_uniprot_complete"^^<&xsd;string>.

            

UniProt entries

The following RDF snippet details how to load miscellaneous metadata for protein entries from a CSV files (provided by UniProt's services). This example is used in the Proteinator tutorial.
# UniProt Resource configuration
coeus:resource_UniProt coeus:endpoint "http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/?query=breast+cancer+AND+taxonomy%3a%22Homo+sapiens+%5b9606%5d%22&force=yes&format=tab&columns=id,entry%20name,reviewed,protein%20names,genes,organism,length"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:extends coeus:concept_UniProt;
	coeus:hasKey coeus:csv_UniProt_entry;
	coeus:isResourceOf coeus:concept_UniProt;
	coeus:loadsFrom coeus:csv_UniProt_entry,
		coeus:csv_UniProt_entryname,
		coeus:csv_UniProt_proteinname;
	coeus:method "cache"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:order "0"^^<&xsd;integer>;
	dc:publisher "csv"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "UniProt"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:Resource,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:comment "UniProt data loader."^^<&xsd;string>;
	rdfs:label "resource_uniprot".

# Loading UniProt accession entries from CSV column 0
coeus:csv_UniProt_entry coeus:isKeyOf coeus:resource_UniProt;
	coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_UniProt;
	coeus:property "dc:identifier"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "0"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "UniProt entry"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:CSV,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "csv_uniprot_entry"^^<&xsd;string>.

# Loading UniProt entry names from CSV column 1
coeus:csv_UniProt_entryname coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_UniProt;
	coeus:property "dc:title"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "1"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "UniProt Entry Name"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:CSV,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "csv_uniprot_entryname"^^<&xsd;string>.

# Loading UniProt proteint names from CSV column 3
coeus:csv_UniProt_proteinname coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_UniProt;
	coeus:property "dc:description"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "3"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "UniProt Protein Name"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:CSV,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "csv_uniprot_proteinname"^^<&xsd;string>.

InterPro/PDB/PROSITE identifiers

The following sample details how to load data for multiple protein identifiers from UniProt's knowledge base. This enables building a network of identifiers related with a list of UniProt entries. Please that the extension sort is specified in the resource configuration. This example is taken from the Proteinator tutorial.
# PDB Resource configuration
coeus:resource_PDB coeus:endpoint "http://uniprot.org/uniprot/#replace#.xml"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:extends coeus:concept_UniProt;
	coeus:hasKey coeus:xml_PDB_id;
	coeus:isResourceOf coeus:concept_PDB;
	coeus:loadsFrom coeus:xml_PDB_id;
	coeus:method "cache"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:order "11"^^<&xsd;integer>;
	coeus:query "//entry"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:publisher "xml"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "PDB"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:Resource,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:comment "Resource connecting PDB information."^^<&xsd;string>;
	rdfs:label "resource_pdb"^^<&xsd;string>.

# Loading PDB identifiers from UniProt's XML (with XPath)
coeus:xml_PDB_id coeus:isKeyOf coeus:resource_PDB;
	coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_PDB;
	coeus:property "dc:title|dc:identifier"^^<&xsd;string>;
	coeus:query "//dbReference[@type='PDB']/@id"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:publisher "xml"^^<&xsd;string>;
	dc:title "PDB id"^^<&xsd;string>;
	a coeus:XML,
		owl:NamedIndividual;
	rdfs:label "xml_pdb_id"^^<&xsd;string>.

For organising all resources and setting up a new seed, COEUS ontology comes to play.

Check it out Documentation is also available

To manage as various data organisations as possible, COEUS data structure is organised in a tree: Entity > Concept > Item.
Entities are classes for the upper data types, Concepts for a middle division and Items for individual level.

For example, to create a seed with transportation information we might have the following structure:

  • Entity: Vehicle
    • Concept: Land
      • Item: Car
      • Item: Motorbike
    • Concept: Air
    • Concept: Water

The abstraction layer used the instance configuration to specify the precise bits of information that will be translated into the knowledge graph.

COEUS abstraction

During the abstraction process, data are triplified. This means that new triples are generated in real time matching the configured properties. Developers can define the CSV columns, SQL query or XPath evaluation results that will be mapped to a configurable predicate from any ontology.

COEUS triplification

Seed

Seed
A Seed defines a single framework instance. In COEUS? model, Seed individuals are used to store a variety of application settings, such as component information, application descriptions, versioning or authors. Seed individuals are also connected to included entities through the :includes property (inverse of :isIncludedIn). This permits access to all data available in the seed, providing an over-arching entry point to the system information

Entity - Concept - Item

Entity
Entity individuals match the general data terms. These are ?umbrella? elements, grouping concepts with a common set of properties (the :isEntityOf predicate).
Concept
Concept individuals are area-specific terms, aggregating any number of items (the :isConceptOf object property) and belonging to a unique entity (the :hasEntity object property).
Item
Item individuals are the basic terms, with no further granularity and representing unique identifiers from integrated datasets. Item individuals are connected through the :isAssociatedTo object property and linked uniquely to a concept through the :hasConcept predicate.

Resources

Resource
External resource connector.
Resource individuals are used to store external resource integration properties. The configuration is further specialised with CSV, XML, JSON, RDF, TTL, SQL and SPARQL classes, mapping precise dataset results to the application model, through direct concept relationships. With the :hasResource property, the framework knows exactly what resources are connected to each concept and, subsequently, how to load data for each independent concept, generating new items.
CSV
External CSV selector.
Defines individual configuration properties to perform custom data abstractions from CSV files into COEUS' knowledge base.
XML
External XML selector.
Defines individual configuration properties to perform custom data abstractions from XML files into COEUS' knowledge base.
JSON
External JSON selector.
Defines individual configuration properties to perform custom data abstractions from JSON files into COEUS' knowledge base.
LinkedData
External LinkedData selector.
Defines individual configuration properties to perform external data link into COEUS' knowledge base.
RDF
External RDF selector.
Defines individual configuration properties to perform data import from RDF files into COEUS' knowledge base.
TTL
External TTL (Turtle) selector.
Defines individual configuration properties to perform data import from Turtle files into COEUS' knowledge base.
SQL
External SQL selector.
Defines individual configuration properties to perform custom data abstractions from SQL query results into COEUS' knowledge base.
SPARQL
External SPARQL selector.
Defines individual configuration properties to perform custom data abstractions from SPARQL query results into COEUS' knowledge base.

One of COEUS' key liberating features (and of the Semantic Web) is the ability to use any ontology internally. Hence, we extend the existing COEUS ontology with well-known properties from external ontologies.

Data Properties

Property Description Mandatory Domain Range Sample
coeus:endpoint Defines a Resource endpoint.
  • For CSV resources, endpoint is the file location URI.
  • For XML resources, endpoint is the file location URI.
  • For JSON resources, endpoint is the file location URI.
  • For LD resources, endpoint is the location URI.
  • For RDF or TTL resources, endpoint is the file location URI.
  • For SQL resources, endpoint is the database connection string URI.
  • For SPARQL resources, endpoint is the SPARQL endpoint URI.
When the resource extends another concept, use the #replace# keyword to compose the URL with the values from the extended Concept items.
YES Resource String file:///coeus.xml
coeus:extension Defines the source element for a Resource extension query (where the data comes from). NO Resource String rdfs:label
coeus:line Starting line for CSV resource import. NO Resource String 2
coeus:loaded Defines if a Seed, Entity, Concept is or is not built. NO Seed, Entity, Concept Boolean false
coeus:method Defines a Resource integration method.
  • Use cache method to replicate resources in a local semantic warehouse.
  • Use map method to establish new mappings amongst existing resources in the knowledge base.
  • Use complete method to add new metadata to existing resources in the knowledge base.
YES Resource String cache
coeus:order Defines the Resource integration order (ASC). NO Resource Integer 0 (first)
coeus:property Property selector defining the predicates to where integrated will be loaded to. Multiple predicates can be separated with the pipe (|) delimiter. YES CSV, XML, SQL, SPARQL String dc:title
coeus:query Query selector defining the queries to apply to integrated resources for data translation.
  • For resources, this means the global object query. For each individual answer to this query, new Item individuals will be created.
    • For CSV resources, query is the combination of the headers skip number with the quotes delimiter (Ex: 1|") [1].
    • For XML resources, query is the global XPath query (//entry).
    • For JSON resources, query is the global JSONPath query ($.results.bindings[*]).
    • For RDF/TTL resources, query is the URI or prefix of the individuals to link.
    • For SQL resources, query is the SELECT query (SELECT * FROM ...).
    • For SPARQL resources, query is the SPARQL SELECT query (SELECT ?s ?o { ... }).
  • For connectors, this means the individual object query.
    • For CSV selectors, query is the column number (0)
    • For XML selectors, query is the internal XPath query (//item).
    • For JSON selectors, query is the internal JSONPath query ($.obj.value).
    • For SQL selectors, query is the query results column name (item).
    • For SPARQL selectors, query is the query results variable name (item).
YES Resource, CSV, XML, SQL, SPARQL String //item
coeus:regex Defines regular expression to get Item individual identification token from integrated resources. NO CSV, XML, SQL, SPARQL String [0-9]{5,}
dc:publisher Defines the Resource connector type: CSV, XML, JSON, RDF, TTL, SQL or SPARQL. The selectors' configuration will be loaded according to this value. YES Resource String sql
dc:title All individuals must have a valid title. YES Any String COEUS
rdfs:comment All individuals must have a valid comment/description. YES Any String COEUS is a new semantic web framework.
rdfs:label All individuals must have a valid label. YES Any String seed_COEUS

Object Properties

Property Description Mandatory Domain Range Sample
coeus:extends A Resource extends a Concept. This means that the subject resource will select data for processing from the concept Item individuals. YES Resource Concept coeus:resource_UniProt coeus:extends coeus:concept_UniProt
coeus:hasConcept An Item individual will belong (has) a certain Concept. AUTO Item Concept coeus:uniprot_P51587 coeus:hasConcept coeus:concept_UniProt
coeus:hasEntity A Concept belongs to (has) an Entity. YES Concept Entity coeus:concept_UniProt coeus:hasEntity coeus:entity_Protein
coeus:hasKey A Resource has a given key selector. The key selector will be used to generate unique Item individual identifications (i.e. URIs) from the integrated resources. YES Resource CSV, XML, SQL, SPARQL coeus:resource_UniProt coeus:hasKey coeus:csv_UniProt_id
coeus:hasResource A Concept is related to (has) a Resource. This defines the Resource individual connector that loads the data (generating items) for a given Concept. YES Concept Resource coeus:concept_UniProt coeus:hasResource coeus:resource_UniProt
coeus:includes Defines which Entity individuals are included in Seed individuals. YES Seed Entity coeus:seed_COEUS coeus:includes coeus:entity_Protein
coeus:isAssociatedTo Default association between two Item individuals loaded through Resource extensions (in the dependency graph). AUTO Item Item coeus:uniprot_P51587 coeus:isAssociatedTo coeus:hgnc_BRCA2
coeus:isConceptOf A concept individual is the Concept of multiple Item individuals. AUTO Concept Item coeus:concept_HGNC coeus:isConceptOf coeus:hgnc_BRCA2
coeus:isConnectedTo Default association between two Concept individuals. If two concepts are connected, then all their children items will be connected. NO Concept Concept coeus:concept_UniProt coeus:isConnectedTo coeus:concept_HGNC
coeus:isEntityOf An individual entity is the Entity of one or more Concept individuals. YES Entity Concept coeus:entity_Protein coeus:isEntityOf coeus:concept_UniProt
coeus:isExtendedBy An individual concept is extended by one or more Resource individuals (the connectors that load the data for the Concept). YES Concept Resource coeus:concept_UniProt coeus:isExtendedBy coeus:resource_HGNC
coeus:isIncludedIn An entity individual is included in a seed. YES Entity Seed coeus:entity_Protein coeus:isIncludedIn coeus:seed_COEUS
coeus:isKeyOf A selector individual act as the loading key for generating unique Item individuals identification (URIs) to a given resource. YES CSV, XML, SQL, SPARQL Resource coeus:csv_UniProt_id coeus:isKeyOf coeus:resource_UniProt
coeus:isResourceOf A resource individual is the Resource connector for the given Concept individual. YES Resource Concept coeus:resource_UniProt coeus:isResourceOf coeus:concept_UniProt
coeus:loadsFor A CSV, XML, SQL or SPARQL connector loads data for a Resource. YES CSV, XML, SQL, SPARQL Resource coeus:csv_UniProt_id coeus:loadsFor coeus:resource_UniProt
coeus:loadsFrom A Resource loads data from a CSV, XML, SQL or SPARQL connector. YES Resource CSV, XML, SQL, SPARQL coeus:resource_UniProt coeus:loadsFrom coeus:csv_UniProt_id
Notes:

[1] If query is not provided it will be tested some popular delimiters (such '\t', ';', .. ) with the default values for the quotes delimiter ('"') and for the headers skip number (1).

API

How are your Javadoc reading skills?
The Java documentation is pretty self-explanatory. For interacting with the knowledge base, use the API class to add new triples and perform SPARQL queries directly.

View Java Documentation

API call to retrieve data matching the given triple wildcards.
/* Invoke getTriple(...); */
pt.ua.bioinformatics.api.API.getTriple(?coeus:uniprot_P51587?, ?p?, ?o?, ?xml?);                                
API call to perform given SPARQL query, with results in desired format (encapsulated in String).
/* Invoke select(...); */
pt.ua.bioinformatics.api.API.select("SELECT ...", "js", false);                                
API call to add new triples to the knowledge base.
/* Invoke addStatement(...); */
pt.ua.bioinformatics.api.API.addStatement(Boot.getAPI().createResource(PrefixFactory.decode(sub)), Predicate.get(pred), Boot.getAPI().createResource(PrefixFactory.decode(obj)));                                

Factories

COEUS includes multiple factories to perform quick transformation between URIs, concepts, strings, prefixes, etc. We use these static methods throughout the entire framework, thus facilitating string-based data conversions.

Prefix Factory

The prefix factory is utility class for Prefix information and transformations. This class stores an internal prefix map, enabling quick composition or decomposition of full object URIs.

Get the URI for a given prefix.
/* Invoke getURIForPrefix(...); */
pt.ua.bioinformatics.api.PrefixFactory.getURIForPrefix("rdfs");                                
Encode a full URI into a prefixed string. For example, http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/Item into coeus:Item. The opposite is also available with the decode() method.
/* Invoke encode(...); */
pt.ua.bioinformatics.api.PrefixFactory.encode("http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/Item");                                

Item Factory

The item factory is a utility class for Item transformation tasks, such as getting an identifier from the full individual item label.

Retrieves the identifier token from a given item (both full URI or encoded string).
/* Invoke getTokenFromItem...); */
pt.ua.bioinformatics.api.ItemFactory.getTokenFromItem("http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/omim_143100");                                

Read access

To access all triples in COEUS Semantic Storage, you can combine subjects, objects or predicates wildcards to iteratively get data. The wildcards' usage is highlighted in the following table.

ElementDescriptionSample
subjectThe existing or matching subject.coeus:uniprot_P51582
predicateThe existing or matching predicate.coeus:isAssociatedTo
objectThe existing or matching object.obj
formatThe output format.csv

Some data output examples are:

Delete access

To delete triples in COEUS Semantic Storage, you must combine the subject, predicate and object wildcard to iteratively remove the data. The delete API URL structure is:

  • ../api/<API key>/delete/<subject>/<predicate>/<object>
ElementDescriptionSample
API keyValue for the seed access API key (defined in config.js).coeus
subjectThe existing subject.coeus:uniprot_P51582
predicateThe existing predicate.coeus:isAssociatedTo
objectThe existing object.coeus:go_GO:0033593

Some examples are:

  • ../api/api_key/delete/coeus:uniprot_Q13428/dc:title/Q13428
  • ../api/api_key/delete/coeus:uniprot_P51587/coeus:isAssociatedTo/coeus:go_GO:0033593

Write access

COEUS write API provides a simple URL to add new triples to a seed's knowledge base. This enables also writing sets of triples by being invoked recursively. The write API URL structure is:

  • ../api/<API key>/write/<subject>/<predicate>/<object>
ElementDescriptionSample
API keyValue for the seed access API key (defined in config.js).coeus
subjectThe subject to write.coeus:uniprot_P51582
predicateThe predicate to write.coeus:isAssociatedTo
objectThe object to write.coeus:go_GO:0033593

Some examples are:

  • ../api/api_key/write/coeus:uniprot_Q13428/dc:title/Q13428
  • ../api/api_key/write/coeus:uniprot_P51587/coeus:isAssociatedTo/coeus:go_GO:0033593

Update Access

COEUS update API provides a straightforward URL to update exiting triples in the knowledge base. The main difference between the delete or write API calls is the adding of the new object separated by a comma:

  • ../api/<API key>/update/<subject>/<predicate>/<old_object>,<new_object>
ElementDescriptionSample
API keyValue for the seed access API key (defined in config.js).coeus
subjectThe existing subject.coeus:uniprot_P51582
predicateThe existing predicate.coeus:isAssociatedTo
old_object,new_objectCombination of the existing object (old_object) and the new one (new_object).coeus:go_GO:0033593, coeus:pdb_1N0W

Some examples include:

  • ../api/api_key/update/coeus:uniprot_Q13428/dc:title/BRCA2_HUMAN,TCOF_HUMAN
  • ../api/api_key/update/coeus:uniprot_P51587/coeus:isAssociatedTo/coeus:go_GO:0033593,coeus:pdb_1N0W

For XSD types just append the datatype (xsd:int, xsd:string,..) at the start of the literal:

  • ../api/api_key/update/coeus:resource_BBC/dc:creator/xsd:string:pdrlps,xsd:string:uavr

The write/delete/update REST API returns a JSON object with the server response. The status field of that object contains a numeric value with the write operation output.

100
All OK, triples written/deleted/updated to knowledge base.
200
Error adding/deleting/updating triples to knowledge base (check exception output).
201
Invalid subject.
202
Invalid predicate.
203
Invalid object.
403
Forbidden access, invalid API key.

All data collected in a COEUS instance can be accessed through a SPARQL endpoint and taking advantage of SPARQL's advanced querying features.

The endpoint default location is at /sparql.

Query to get specific object data, in this case retrieves all predicates and objects for the individual created from UniProt's P51587 entry.
PREFIX coeus: <http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/>

SELECT ?p ?o {coeus:uniprot_P51587 ?p ?o}                                

SPARQL Federation

With the SPARQL endpoint online, querying multiple distributed COEUS instances is a straightforward process. Moreover, additional knowledge bases with public SPARQL endpoints can also be put into the mix, providing an holistic perspective over a distributed knowledge network.

Query to retrieve data from multiple COEUS seeds and external knowledge bases.
PREFIX coeus: <http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/>
PREFIX dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX diseasome: <http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/diseasome/resource/diseasome/>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX coeus: <http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/>

SELECT ?pdb ?mesh
WHERE{
    {
        SERVICE <http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/diseasome/sparql>
        {
                <http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/diseasome/resource/genes/BRCA2> rdfs:label ?label
        }
    }
    {
        SERVICE <http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/sparql>
        {
                _:gene dc:title ?label.
                _:gene coeus:isAssociatedTo ?uniprot
        }
    }
    {
        SERVICE <http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/sparql>
        {
                ?uniprot coeus:isAssociatedTo ?pdb.
                ?pdb coeus:hasConcept coeus:concept_PDB
        }
    }
}
}                                

Test it here

COEUS publishes all data through LinkedData patterns & guidelines by default. With pubby included in all COEUS seeds, data is easily available to external appications.
Using the ../resource/* pattern, you can access object data in the web or RDF browsers.

Data Access

Easily perform SPARQL queries to your COEUS-generated endpoint with this new library.
Check the documentation and the library at ../assets/js/coeus.sparql.js.

Changes on Seed

COEUS Write/Update/Delete API can be easily accessed in Javascript.
Check the documentation and sample at ../assets/js/coeus.api.js.

COEUS has now the capability to share your data in the Nanopublication format. With this new plugin you can transform your integrated data in this prominent format by following the next steps:

  1. Go to the Nanopublication Section on the Dashboard.
  2. Select the concept root and related data that will generate the nanopublications.
  3. Fill out the provenance and additional information about the nanopublications.
  4. Start to Build nanopublications.
  5. When finished you can view the concept data items according to the nanopublication format.

Download tutorial

Visit website
December 9-12, 2013 Edinburgh, United Kingdom

In this tutorial/hands-on session, we will guide you through the process of creating your own custom COEUS knowledge base. You will learn how to:

  1. Create a new COEUS instance
  2. From GitHub download to web deployment
  3. Integrate data from heterogeneous *omics sources into your COEUS knowledge base
  4. Create your mashup merging multiple datasets
  5. Explore COEUS API to access aggregated data
  6. Build new rich web information systems using the API
  7. Access knowledge federation through the SPARQL and LinkedData interfaces

Download tutorial

In this first tutorial we will build a semantic knowledge base aggregating data from multiple sources. The tutorial configuration and datasets are provided on the default COEUS package. These include two examples: 1) COEUS News Aggregator (newsaggregator) and 2) COEUS Protein Integrator (proteinator).
In the first example COEUS aggregates data from multiple news sources, which are available in RSS/XML format, making it fairly easy to load and process. Moreover, the majority of online news outlets provides access to all the news through a RSS feed.
For the second example, COEUS loads imports data from multiple protein-related resources, creating our targeted proteomics knowledge base. Protein entries are created for resources from UniProt, PDB, Prosite and InterPro. UniProt entries are also associated with Gene Ontology terms and HGNC genes.
Since most of the tasks are very similar for both problems, this tutorial adequatly highlights the places where the options differ from the news aggregtor to the proteinator. To create these applications, we will proceed as follows:

  1. Setup local Java project
  2. Create COEUS' seed setup (the connectors and selectors
  3. Update COEUS' configuration files
  4. Launch the build engine
  5. Publish the default web application
  6. Access the collected data

To launch our new seed we start by downloading the COEUS package from GitHub or checking out the source code into a local installation. Further information regarding what's included in COEUS' package can be seen in the downloads section of this documentation.
For simplicity purposes, COEUS is provided as a NetBeans web project ready to be open. Hence, we just open the folder on our local NetBeans installation and setup the correct library references and select the instance server. By default, the new COEUS seed will run on a /coeus/ application path, but we can easily change it in the project properties.
To finish our initial COEUS setup, we just need to create a new database and database user to be used as the triplestore backend by Jena. In this case, we will create a new database called coeus, and a new user also called demo (with password demo) with enough permissions to read and write in the database.

Customizing the seed configuration is the most cumbersome task for COEUS deployment. The seed configuration defines the internal knowledge base structure, the application model, the external resources being loaded and how the heterogeneous data are integrated. To simplify this task, the use of Protege is advised.
A sample seed configuration file is provided for each scenario. These scenarios are further detailed next.

News Aggregator
Setup file located in src/java/newsaggregator/setup.rdf
Protein Integrator
Setup file located in src/java/proteinator/setup.rdf

News aggregator

The first step is to define how our news integration model will map to COEUS' ontology. COEUS' ontology revolves a tree-based structure, Entity-Concept-Item, which will be used to organize our data collection in the knowledge base. For this scenario, we want to have a set of news organized according to their original source (an RSS/XML feed). We will use four sports journals: the international Reuters sports section, the british BBC sports section, the spanish Marca journal and the portuguese A Bola journal. For this matter, we will have the following structure:

  • News (Entity)
    • Reuters (Concept) <-> Reuters (Resource)
    • BBC (Concept) <-> BBC (Resource)
    • Marca (Concept) <-> Marca (Resource)
    • A Bola (Concept) <-> A Bola (Resource)
Each of the news' entries will be read and translated into a new Item individual, associated with the original source. Next, we detail some samples for the RDF describing the entities, concepts, resource connectors and selectors to integrate these data in a new COEUS seed.
These examples can be found in the COEUS package.

We start with a new Entity, News, that will aggregate the news outlet concepts.
<owl:NamedIndividual rdf:about="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/entity_News">
    <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/Entity"/>
    <rdfs:label rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">entity_news</rdfs:label>
    <dc:title rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">News</dc:title>
    <rdfs:comment rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">News entity for COEUS News Aggregator</rdfs:comment>
    <isIncludedIn rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/seed_coeusna"/>
</owl:NamedIndividual>
Next, we add the concept individuals for each of the news outlet we want to integrate. Only two of the four required concepts are shown next.
<owl:NamedIndividual rdf:about="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/concept_Reuters">
    <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/Concept"/>
    <rdfs:label rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">concept_reuters</rdfs:label>
    <dc:title rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">Reuters</dc:title>
    <hasEntity rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/entity_News"/>
    <isExtendedBy rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_Reuters"/>
    <hasResource rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_Reuters"/>
</owl:NamedIndividual>
       
<owl:NamedIndividual rdf:about="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/concept_BBC">
    <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/Concept"/>
    <rdfs:label rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">concept_bbc</rdfs:label>
    <dc:title rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">BBC</dc:title>
    <hasEntity rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/entity_News"/>
    <hasResource rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_BBC"/>
    <isExtendedBy rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_BBC"/>
</owl:NamedIndividual>
Each concept can have one or more resource connectors associated with (whether directly or through extensions). In the following example, we detail the resource connector (resource_BBC) and the associated selectors (targeted xml_BBC_id, xml_BBC_title, and the generic xml_description). to integrate data for the BBC concept.
<owl:NamedIndividual rdf:about="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_BBC">
    <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/Resource"/>
    <rdfs:label rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">resource_bbc</rdfs:label>
    <query rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">//item</query>
    <order rdf:datatype="&xsd;integer">1</order>
    <dc:title rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">BBC</dc:title>
    <rdfs:comment rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">Resource loader for BBC XML feeds.</rdfs:comment>
    <method rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">cache</method>
    <endpoint rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/sport/0/rss.xml</endpoint>
    <dc:publisher rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">xml</dc:publisher>
    <extends rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/concept_BBC"/>
    <isResourceOf rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/concept_BBC"/>
    <hasKey rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/xml_BBC_id"/>
    <loadsFrom rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/xml_BBC_id"/>
    <loadsFrom rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/xml_BBC_title"/>
    <loadsFrom rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/xml_description"/>
    <loadsFrom rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/xml_link"/>
    <loadsFrom rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/xml_date"/>
</owl:NamedIndividual>

<owl:NamedIndividual rdf:about="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/xml_BBC_id">
    <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/XML"/>
    <rdfs:label rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">xml_bbc_id</rdfs:label>
    <dc:title rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">BBC identifier</dc:title>
    <regex rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">[0-9]{5,}</regex>
    <property rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">dc:identifier</property>
    <query rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">guid</query>
    <loadsFor rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_BBC"/>
    <isKeyOf rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_BBC"/>
</owl:NamedIndividual>

<owl:NamedIndividual rdf:about="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/xml_BBC_title">
    <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/XML"/>
    <rdfs:label rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">xml_bbc_title</rdfs:label>
    <dc:title rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">BBC entry title</dc:title>
    <property rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">dc:title</property>
    <query rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">title</query>
    <loadsFor rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_BBC"/>
</owl:NamedIndividual>

<owl:NamedIndividual rdf:about="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/xml_description">
    <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/XML"/>
    <rdfs:label rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">xml_description</rdfs:label>
    <property rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">dc:description</property>
    <query rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">description</query>
    <dc:title rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">entry description</dc:title>
    <loadsFor rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_ABola"/>
    <loadsFor rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_BBC"/>
    <loadsFor rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_Marca"/>
    <loadsFor rdf:resource="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/resource_Reuters"/>
</owl:NamedIndividual>

With similar models defined for all the resources that will be integrated, we are now ready to configure our seed and get it ready for deployment.

With the project code and the database setup in place, we can customize the configuration for each of the components provided in COEUS' package. We need to provide custom configurations for:

  • COEUS
    • Seed ontology
    • Seed integration setup
    • Seed configuration
    • Seed web settings
  • Jena
  • Joseki
  • Pubby

COEUS

Seed ontology

In spite of Semantic Web's "reuse instead of rewrite" motto, in more complex scenarios we must create our own ontologies to deal with all the specificities of the new systems we are developing. This is not needed for these tutorials, where we will reuse existing ontologies such as Dublin Core or the Resource Description Framework Schema. Furthermore, COEUS ontology includes a broad number of object and data properties to further enhance our data integration efforts.
For now, we will stick to using COEUS' ontology, available at http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/ontology/.

Seed integration setup

The seed integration setup file was configured previously in Protege, defining the internal seed structure, the external resources to load, and the set of connectors and selectors for each integrated concept.
As mentioned, the setup files for each example are as follows.

News Aggregator
Setup file located in src/java/newsaggregator/setup.rdf
Protein Integrator
Setup file located in src/java/proteinator/setup.rdf

Seed configuration

The seed configuration file, src/config.js, stores the main application properties, setting these definitios for usage during the entire seed workflow.

This example details the seed configuration file used for the news aggregator sample.
{
    "config": {
        "name": "coeus.NA",
        "description": "COEUS News Aggregator",
        "keyprefix":"coeus",
        "version": "1.0a",
        "ontology": "http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/ontology/",
        "setup": "newsaggregator/setup.rdf",
        "sdb":"newsaggregator/sdb.ttl",
        "predicates":"newsaggregator/predicates.csv",
        "built": false,
        "debug": true,
        "environment": "production"
    },
    "prefixes" : {
        "coeus": "http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/",
        "owl2xml":"http://www.w3.org/2006/12/owl2-xml#",
        "xsd": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#",
        "rdfs": "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#",
        "owl": "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#",
        "rdf": "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#",
        "dc": "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/",
    }
}

The COEUS package includes two sample configuration files, each for its tutorial.

News Aggregator
Configuration file located in src/java/newsaggregator/config.js
Protein Integrator
Configuration file located in src/java/proteinator/config.js
COEUS' configuration properties are listed and detailed next, with values examplifying the protein integration scenario. All properties are mandatory.

Property Description Sample
config.name The seed default name. proteinator
config.description A sample seed description. COEUS Protein Data Aggregator (Proteinator)
config.keyprefix The default prefix to be used throughout the seed knowledge base. Should be set to the seed ontology prefix. coeus
config.version The application version. 1.0a
config.ontology Valid URI for the base seed ontology location. http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/ontology/
config.setup Seed setup file location (relative to project base). proteinator/setup.rdf
config.sdb Jena SDB configuration file base location (relative to project base). This filename will be prepended to the working environment. proteinator/sdb.ttl
config.predicates Predicates file location (relative to project base). The predicates file is a unique text-file including the list of all the predicates to use in the COEUS seed (one per line). proteinator/predicates.csv
config.apikey String set for defining the valid API keys for client applications. API keys are basic strings, delimited by |. API keys are used in services with write access to the knowledge base to prevent abuse.
Using * in this property will validate all values.
coeus|sdjkfhs8374
config.built Defines if the seed has been built or not (must be set to built once the knowledge base has been populated). true
config.debug Defines if the debugging mode is on. With debug true the application output is more verbose. true
config.environment Sets the environment variable. Appended to the SDB configuration file location (with _). This allows for multiple environment settings, for production, testing... production
prefixes Defines the list of ontology prefixes being used in the seed. See above

Web settings

Web application settings are Tomcat-wide settings for our server. The complex definitions are already configured, to launch a new seed we just need to customize the application description and the location of the Joseki and Pubby libraries.
The following table details the properties that can be configured.

Property Description Sample
<description> Application description for Tomcat server. COEUS: Semantic Web Application Framework
<display-name> Application name for Tomcat server. COEUS
<servlet> org.joseki.rdfserver.config Joseki configuration file location (relative to server base). proteinator/joseki.ttl
<context-param> config-file Pubby configuration file location (relative to source base). classes/proteinator/pubby.ttl

Jena

With COEUS we use Jena internally for the knowledge base and triplestore management. By default, we use a MySQL triplestore with the SDB connection from Jena. This implies that we have to configure the connection string settings for the SDB database location.
For this tutorial, we will continue using the database we have previously setup.
For each scenario, the Jena sample configuration files are organized as follows:
News Aggregator
SDB configuration file located in src/java/newsaggregator/sdb_production.ttl
Protein Integrator
SDB configuration file located in src/java/proteinator/sdb_production.ttl
Note: Further information regarding Jena's configuration can be found in the original package documentation.

Joseki

The Joseki library is used to provide the SPARQL endpoint feature for COEUS. Joseki configuration is similar to Jena's, hence, we need to setup the database connection string to access our COEUS demo database.
For each scenario, the Joseki sample configuration files are organized as follows:
News Aggregator
SDB configuration file located in src/java/newsaggregator/joseki.ttl
Protein Integrator
SDB configuration file located in src/java/proteinator/joseki.ttl
Note: Further information regarding Joseki's configuration can be found in the original package documentation.

Pubby

To deliver collected data through a LinkedData interface COEUS uses the Pubby library. Pubby connects to any available SPARQL endpoint and enables accessing the data with RDF browsers or through regular web pages. Like Jena and Joseki, Pubby uses a .ttl configuration file to store the SPARQL endpoint connection data.
For each scenario, the Pubby sample configuration files are organized as follows:
News Aggregator
SDB configuration file located in src/java/newsaggregator/pubby.ttl
Protein Integrator
SDB configuration file located in src/java/proteinator/pubby.ttl
Note: Further information regarding Pubby's configuration can be found in the original package documentation.

With all the files configuration set up in COEUS we are now ready to start importing data into our own knowledge base. This is an automated process and to do this we simply need to execute a single Java method.
The main process will boot the system and, if the application is not build, load the data into the knowledge base.
The application startup/loading process works as follows:

  1. Load application configuration from config.js
  2. Seed is not built
    1. Connect to SDB Storage
    2. Start API
    3. Load seed predicates
    4. Start build process and import data
    Seed is built
    1. Connect to SDB Storage
    2. Start API
    3. Load seed predicates
  3. Deploy seed

To start the build process, we need to open the Run class in the pt.ua.bioinformatics.coeus.common package.
// Start build process            
Boot.start();
In alternative, we can load each resource individually (enabling multithreaded import operations) using the SingleImport method.
// Import single resource (threaded) example
SingleImport single = new SingleImport("resource_go");
Thread t = new Thread(single);
t.start();

Once data are completely loaded in the seed, we just need to update the application settings and deploy the seed in Tomcat server.
To set the application to server mode, the following config.js configuration properties must be changed:

config.built
Must be changed to true. The application is already built.
config.debug
Can be changed to false. With the debug mode on the server output will be much more verbose.

With these changes, the application is ready for deployment.

Warning: Beware that you need to update your Jena, Joseki and Pubby connection settings if you are changing the working environment to a distinct production server.

With our COEUS seed online we can use any of the API methods to access integrated data.
Next, we have two quick SPARQL queries to obtain the data from the seeds configured in both tutorial scenarios.

The following query lists complete info for all the news in the News Aggregator seed.
PREFIX coeus:   <http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/>
PREFIX rdf:  <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX diseasecard:   <http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/diseasecard/resource/>
PREFIX dc:   <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>

SELECT ?item ?title ?description {
?item a coeus:Item .
?item dc:title ?title .
?item dc:description ?description .
?item dc:date ?date
}
The following query lists complete info for all the news in the News Aggregator seed.
PREFIX coeus:   <http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/resource/>
PREFIX rdf:  <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX diseasecard:   <http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/diseasecard/resource/>
PREFIX dc:   <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>

SELECT ?item ?title ?description {
?item a coeus:Item .
?item dc:title ?title .
?item dc:description ?description .
?item dc:date ?date
}

Download COEUS

Or you can fork the latest stable version from GitHub.

Despite COEUS' complexity, you can start your new seed with just a few external tools.

  • Latest Java Version
  • NetBeans IDE 7.0+ (or your preferred development environment)
  • Apache Tomcat 6+ with manager web application, installed by default on context path "/manager".
    • To enable access you must either add a username/password combination to your tomcat-users.xml file on the Tomcat application server: <user name="your_name" password="your_password" roles="manager-gui,manager-script" />
    • It is also recommended that you check the write permissions of the tomcat webapps folder.
  • MySQL 5+ with root access or other user with similar permissions (CREATE DATABASE, TABLES,..).
  • Semantic Web technologies skills (not downloadable)

COEUS' code is organised in a traditional Maven Java Web application file structure.

  • pom.xml: maven configuration file with the libraries dependencies
  • src/main: Java source code and configuration files
    • resources: configuration files and examples
    • java: location for main Java source
    • webapp: web application source code
      • assets: location for CSS (css), Javascript (js) and image (img) files
      • javadoc: COEUS and libraries generated Javadoc documentation
      • META-INF: context information for Tomcat deployment
      • ontology: COEUS' ontology documentation
      • WEB-INF: location for web application configuration file
        • templates: location for pubby templates

COEUS follows a "Semantic Web in a box" approach. This means that all the required components to kickstart a new application are available by default in the COEUS package.

Jena
Java framework for building Semantic Web applications.
Joseki
SPARQL server. It provides REST-style SPARQL HTTP Update, SPARQL Query, and SPARQL Update using the SPARQL protocol over HTTP.
Pubby
A Linked Data Frontend for SPARQL Endpoints.
JsonPath
Java DSL for reading and testing JSON documents.
OpenCSV
A simple CSV parser library for Java.
MySQL Connector
JDBC driver for MySQL.
SQL Server
Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server.
Stripes
Stripes is a presentation framework for building web applications using the latest Java technologies.
Apache velocity
Java-based template engine.
Bootstrap
Sleek, intuitive, and powerful front-end framework for faster and easier web development..
SPARQL.js
JavaScript library to query remote SPARQL endpoints.

News Aggregator

Sample setup for integrating data from RSS/XML news feeds.
Configuration files available on src/main/resources/newsaggregator.

Proteinator

Sample setup from multiple proteomics sources. Starting with a list of protein entries (in CSV), loads data for genes from HGNC and protein mappings to Gene Ontology, InterPro, PROSITE and PDB from UniProt's database.
This example highlights how we can combine data from multiple heterogeneous resource using a single COEUS seed configuration.
Configuration files available on src/main/resources/proteinator.

Tester

Sample setup to test all different connection sources (CSV, XML, JSON, RDF, TTL, SQL and SPARQL).
Configuration files available on src/main/resources/tester.

COEUS is an ongoing open-source project at the University of Aveiro's bioinformatics group.
If you are looking for support to launch your own system, please contact us.

Private/commercial collaborations are also possible through BMD Software. Support agreements are made on a per-project perspective. For a tentative budget, feel free to contact us.

COEUS: "Semantic Web in a box" for biomedical applications
Pedro Lopes & José Luís Oliveira
DOI: 10.1186/2041-1480-3-11
Notice: Please use this reference when citing COEUS in your work.

Get Whitepaper

Visit website
December 9-12, 2013 Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Intro

Since 2008, the SWAT4LS Workshop (http://www.swat4ls.org) has provided a platform for the presentation and discussion of the benefits and limits of applying web-based information systems and semantic technologies in the domains of health care and life sciences. The next edition of SWAT4LS will be held in Edinburgh, UK, December 9-12, 2013, preceded by tutorials and followed by hackathon / model-a-thin. All information can be found at http://www.swat4ls.org/workshops/edinburgh2013/.

The COEUS Platform

On the tutorial day, the COEUS - Semantic Web Application Framework will be presented. This platform targets the quick creation of new biomedical applications. The framework combines the latest Semantic Web technologies with Rapid Application Development ideals to provide, in a single package, the required tools and algorithms to build a new semantic web information system from scratch.

In this tutorial/hands-on session, we will guide you through the process of creating your own custom COEUS knowledge base. You will learn how to:

  1. Create a new COEUS instance
  2. From GitHub download to web deployment
  3. Integrate data from heterogeneous *omics sources into your COEUS knowledge base
  4. Create your mashup merging multiple datasets
  5. Explore COEUS API to access aggregated data
  6. Build new rich web information systems using the API
  7. Access knowledge federation through the SPARQL and LinkedData interfaces
Further information regarding this tutorial is available online at http://www.swat4ls.org/workshops/edinburgh2013/scientific-programme/

Visit website
December 9th, 2011 London, United Kingdom

COEUS: A Semantic Web Application Framework
Pedro Lopes & José Luís Oliveira
DOI: 10.1145/2166896.2166915

Visit website
October 28th, 2011 Glasgow, Scotland

A semantic web application framework for health systems interoperability
Pedro Lopes & José Luís Oliveira
DOI: 10.1145/2064747.2064768

Visit website
September 7 - 9, 2011 Graz, Austria

Towards knowledge federation in biomedical applications
Pedro Lopes & José Luís Oliveira
DOI: 10.1145/2063518.2063530

Creative Commons License
COEUS by University of Aveiro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/.

You are free:

  • to Remix: to adapt the work
  • to make commercial use of the work

Under the following conditions:

  • Attribution: You must attribute the work wether through an acknowledgement/disclaimer visible in your web page or through the provided Powered by COEUS code.

If you wish to spread the word about COEUS, feel free to add the following code snippet to your website. Place it at the end of your body tag, along with all the other scripts. It will create an almost invisible link to COEUS' web page.

<script src="http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/coeus/assets/js/coeus.powered.js" type="text/javascript"></script>