Wikispooks:Semantic Mediawiki

Semantic Mediawiki (SMW) is an extends the basic Mediawiki software by providing semantic definition and querying capabilities. This offers two main benefits to the site - (i) a richer set of ways to organise and use the information, (ii) the possibility to define site feeds to export the data in a predictable format, for others to build on.

Starting with SMW

Semantic Mediawiki may seem to present quite a steep learning curve for non-computer scientists, as it is a large piece of software and the idea of 'semantic data' may not be easily graspable. Robin has volunteered to (try to) answer any and all SMW queries and give to beginners help where needed. If you want to get to grips with the syntax, there is a lot of help online about this, and a useful guide to the syntax - which also gives an idea of the range of SMW - is the quick reference guide, available here. Note that you don't actually need to understand any syntax to get started - if you can fill in a form, then you can fill in semantic data!

Use on Wikispooks

Full article: Wikispooks:SMW Best Practice

SMW is installed on Wikispooks together with a bunch of associated extensions (Semantic Bundle). Towards the end of 2013, Wikispooks has been expanding its use of SMW. Policy and practices in this area are currently fluid a Wikispooks editors are gradually learning how to get the best out of the software, and simultaneously developing a framework for its use on the site. Some best practices are emerging:

Semantic Properties

Full article: WikiSpooks:Semantic Properties

A property is the basic type of semantic data. Wikispooks currently has 262 properties in use, each of which is documented using Template:Property.

Semantic Templates

Full article: WikiSpooks:Semantic Templates

If you can code ordinary Templates, then you should find it no trouble to code Semantic Templates. All the structure and syntax from ordinary Mediawiki applies. In addition there are a couple of parser functions to provide access to the semantic properties.

Semantic Forms

Full article: WikiSpooks:Semantic Forms

A form is just what it sounds like - a set of boxes and checkboxes to be filled in. The 'semantic' aspect is that each of these fields is tied to particular parameters in a template. Wikispooks currently has only a few semantic forms in use, because the first priority is defining the objects and templates.

Development

SMW has considerable potential to enhance the functionality of the site. Among other things, this will require some capable programming by editors up to speed on SMW who:

1. Define a core set of semantic objects for structuring the data, with their own sets of properties and interrelationships
2. Creating a set of semantic templates to present these objects and their interrelationships
3. Creating a set of semantic forms to present these objects and their interrelationships
4. Processing the existing content to fit it into these structures
5. Allowing for seamless creation of these structures on new pages by non-SMW aware users (i.e. through semantic forms)

Integrating with Mediawiki

Mediawiki's main organisational tools for arranging pages are the namespace and the category. The latter structure is more or less deprecated on Wikispooks, since SMW has proved that it is able to provide a superior user experience with not much more work than categories. There is a possibility of greatly expanding the use of namespaces to reflect the structure of objects defined (i.e. having separate namespaces for Person:, Event:, Book:, Nation: etc. Input is welcome about this on this talk page.

Semantic Mediawiki

Semantic Objects Semantic Templates SMW Best Practice Semantic Properties Semantic Forms SMW Known Issues