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Parsing instructions for the import of tabular data

This doc describes the parsing/import instructions used in the google sheet tables meant to be imported to inkVisitor DDB1, which conforms to DDM (=DISSINET DATA MODEL).

The instructions were mostly improvised in the conversations between DZ and TH, they changed a lot during the development of the inkVisitor data model and parsing. E.g. the system and terminology probably are far from ideal.  Sorry for that. :) 

Prerequisites

It is helpful to understand the issues around properties, metaproperties and 2nd order metaproperties.

Basics

The first four rows of the google sheet table (designated for parsing+import to inkVisitor DDB1) form the parsing header.

The fifth row contains a header row with column labels.

Each other following row represents one main entity, e.g. "Person" or "Location".

The foundational part of import instructions parsing instruction keywords (e.g. discard, inside, ...), sitting in the 4th row. 

The four rows are:

  1. comment- anything can be here, it is for humans, mostly used for the definition of the "special" instruction
  2. target object  - for parameters of relational instructions, (e.g. "id"), signals target to which this column is supposed to hooked
  3. type -  for parameters of relational instructions (e.g. "R0002"),  for the first part of the property type-value pairs, i.e.  dog has "color" (type)  "brown" (value)
  4. parsing keyword  (e.g. "reference_part") - primary information on what to do with the column data
  5. the label /name of the column

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Generally, there are three types of instructions

  • simple, they do not need other parameters (e.g. inside, discard)
  • relational,  they specify relational data and need other parameters (e.g. propvalue, relation)
  • special,  they are specified in natural language in the comment row

Here are all possible keywords:

simple inside, discard, hooked-inside
relational relation, reference_part, propvalue, proptype, proptype_2nd, propvalue_2nd, hooked-relation, hooked-propvalue
special special

All columns in the table meant for parsing and import should have an instruction header!

Meaning of the parsing instruction keywords

Simple

inside the content in the column is meant to be directly inside the entity objects, e.g. for columns like "label" or "note", that target entity need to have such attribute specified by the data model
discard the content in the column is just ignored
hooked-inside the content in the column is meant to be inside of some "embedded object", which is always defined by the preceding special column

Relational


 description param1 type param2 target object the cell can contain
relation for making DDM "Relation" name of the relational type (e.g. "Classification", "Identification") can be empty but usually contains "id" as a signal that this entity is connected to the main entity a concept legacyId, e.g. C3166 (defendant deposition)
reference_part for making DDM references to resources resource ID (e.g. R0002) can be empty but usually contains "id" as a signal that this entity is connected to the main entity string of the pages, e.g. "v216", which is transformed into Value object 
propvalue for making metaproperty, where the type is A. fixed for whole column  OR B. defined by main entity field with proptype instruction a concept, which defines the type, e.g. C0316 (occupation) empty OR name of the column with proptype entity legacyId, or string which is transformed into Value object
proptype for making metaproperty, where the type can differ
empty or can contain "id" the C entity
proptype_2nd for making 2nd metaproperty, where the type can differ
name of the propvalue column, to which this 2nd order property is hooked
propvalue_2nd for making 2nd metaproperty, where the type is A. fixed for whole column  OR B. defined by main entity field with proptype instruction a concept, which defines type, e.g. C0316 (occupation) name of the propvalue column, to which this 2nd order property is hooked entity legacyId, or string which is transformed to Value object
hooked-relation as relation, but it is controlled from special instruction as relation can be empty, but usually contains the name of the column, which has special instructions
hooked-propvalue as propvalue, but it is controlled from special instruction as propvalue can be empty, but usually contains the name of the column, which has special instructions

Special

special Conforms to the particular parsing function, which is fully custom and based on the instructions.



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