exponential-decay / the-format-registry

A mirror of the PRONOM file format registry in Linked Open Data format. The Format Registry is a linked (open) data file format repository. The work is the result of a four-day hack during November 2013. Its goal is to influence the rapid development of further format registries and linked open data initiatives within the digital preservation community.

The Format Registry [dot] org

the-fr.org

Welcome to The Format Registry: A linked data file format registry.

The work is the result of a four-day hack during November 2013. Its goal is to challenge the status quo, to influence the rapid development of further format registries and other linked open data initiatives within the digital preservation community.

The focus of this project will be on the data and the augmenting of what is currently available.

There will be blogs and discussions on the architecture of this site on my primary host @ exponentialdecay.co.uk

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Source code

GitHub: exponential-decay/the-format-registry

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Disclaimer

While this notice is up the persistence of the links cannot be guaranteed. There are mechanisms still to be built which will provide guarantee. At present the application reads the data from source, and maps it, but cannot guarantee 'subject' mapping. Thus far the work has focused on export, vocabulary, and link redirection.

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Data features...

File formats: http://the-fr.org/id/file-format/{no}

      e.g. http://the-fr.org/id/file-format/8

Definitions: http://the-fr.org/def/format-registry/{Class}

      e.g. http://the-fr.org/def/format-registry/FileFormat

Properties: http://the-fr.org/prop/format-registry/{property}

      e.g. http://the-fr.org/prop/format-registry/puid

Alt. formats: http://the-fr.org/data/file-format/{no}.(rdf | json | ttl | tsv | html)

      e.g. http://the-fr.org/data/file-format/8.rdf

      e.g. http://the-fr.org/data/file-format/8.json

N.B. Predicate data is not currently handled via .htaccess please use the SPARQL endpoint.

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API: Documentation

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SPARQL Endpoint

http://the-fr.org/public/sparql/endpoint.php

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Sample queries

List raster image formats: Query

   select distinct ?s ?label where 
   { 
      ?s <http://the-fr.org/prop/format-registry/formatType> <http://the-fr.org/def/format-registry/RasterImage> . 
      ?s <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label> ?label . 
   } 
   limit 200

Count the number of raster image formats: Query

   select (count(?s) as ?rastercount) where 
   { 
      ?s <http://the-fr.org/prop/format-registry/formatType> <http://the-fr.org/def/format-registry/RasterImage> . 
      ?s <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label> ?label . 
   } 
   limit 250

List of properties used across the database: Query

   select distinct ?p where 
   { 
      ?s ?p ?o .
   } 
   limit 200

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N-Triples

The .NT files are a product of the mapping process, atm: DOWNLOAD FROM SOURCE => MAP TO .NT => LOAD INTO TRIPLESTORE. They might be useful in their own right to some. Currently unzipped.

Format triples: tfr-format-triples.nt

Format ontology triples: tfr-ontology-triples.nt

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Legal

This site is brought to you by aggregating numerous other resources. If those sources appear on this site, they are listed below.

• PRONOM data is licensed under the Open Government Licence (OGL): http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/

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Product of:

exponentialdecay.co.uk

@beet_keeper

the-format-registry's Issues

Broken links to file-format on front page

Visiting http://the-fr.org/, there is a link to http://the-fr.org/id/file-format/8 on the front page. This link do not work, and only give this error: "No results... potentially invalid uri: /data-response-handler.php". Tested with https instead of http, but same error.

Predicates and Classes not handled via HTTP redirect

Whereas a format resource can be hacked to retrieve data via extension, e.g.:

http://the-fr.org/data/file-format/8.rdf
base: http://the-fr.org/id/file-format/8

The other URIS can't: http://the-fr.org/def/format-registry/FileFormat

Not handling sets of format-types, e.g. fmt/303

fmt/303 in PRONOM is: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/fmt/303

And listed as: Image (Raster), Image (Vector), Text (Structured)

How many examples are there? And is it actually correct to say this about a format?

There is no resilience when creating triples

If triple building stalls we have to rebuild from scratch. This is time-consuming, and doesn't help developer efficacy.

Translate LoC FDDs from Wikidata to fr-org links

Table on Wikidata here.

Example URL to construct: http://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000501.shtml

PHP markdown not handling URL with parenthesis e.g. _(programming) in DBPedia link

[<xsl:value-of select="rdfs:seeAlso/@rdf:resource"/>](<xsl:value-of select="rdfs:seeAlso/@rdf:resource"/>)

Link we want to return: http://dbpedia.org/page/Magic_number_(programming)

Can find it is correct via SPARQL: describe http://the-fr.org/prop/format-registry/hasPRONOMBinaryMagic

n.b. not handling underscores either!

Is anyone using this resource?

I haven't been keeping the site up to date. There was some suggestion the API had been used somewhere. It's probably time to take it offline and archive this repo.

I'll likely sunset it by the end of March if there are no responses.

SPARQL link in pages needs some refinement

Doesn't seem to be working at present...

Should we use seeAlso or create a predicate for LoCFDD or Wikidata?

I will hedge my bets and use seeAlso for both, but there seems to be a pattern out there of having specific properties. This has the benefit of being easy to find, but is yet another property. As a developer or user of the service I might only want a property if I also wanted to describe the resource type, e.g. what the LoC service offers and what users should consider when looking up those links.