Towards an XML Corpora Exposition as LOD with the Lightweight Xquery-Based Framework SynopsX

Various approaches have been proposed to publish XML/TEI scholarly editions or XML/EAD finding aids on line, but no standard XML software with a ready to use web application has yet emerged. As a possible next step after the XML mark-up of an edition or of an inventory, online publications are still a difficult issue for many projects in Digital humanities. Among available frameworks (like eXist or baseX) there is no ready to use web application to easily expose XML scholarly corpora as Linked Open Data (LOD).

Initiated by the Digital humanities network of ENS Lyon (Atelier des Humanités Numériques de l’ENS de Lyon), SynopsX is a lightweight framework which goal is to easily publish and expose XML scholarly corpora. It’s a full XQuery web application built with the native XML database BaseX. Involving different partners from various institutions the project is developed as a free and open source software under GNU, and is hosted on GitHub (https://github.com/synopsx). Three principles have guided the conception of the software: collaboration, mutualization and genericization. Thus, we decided to put together all the publication problems and needs we could encounter in our very various Digital Humanities corpora (disciplines, approaches, institutions) to specify the needs of a generic web application.

SynopsX has been conceived as a scalable and easily customizable solution for XML publication of XML files (TEI, EAD, OAI, etc.). The software brings a templating system for various renderings of XML resources according to predefined or customized mappings from XML data to various output formats. SynopsX use the BaseX implementation of Adam Retter’s proposed specifications for RESTXQ. Because it allows full control on the URL scheme to build real REST applications, it could be used to expose XML corpora as Linked Open Data.

This poster will present the needs of LOD for XML corpora publication. It will explain the different strategies that could be used and how we’re planning to use a RESTXQ controller with views and models to propose a tool that allows the contents exposition as LOD through a restful API.