Skip to main content

XTriples Documentation

Introduction​

LINCS XTriples is a browser-embedded tool that converts TEI into CIDOC-CRM RDF directly from TEI .xml files. No prior programming experience is required to use the tool itself, provided the TEI document complies with LINCS XTriples prerequisites (as outlined below). If specific formats – such as TEI – are the first step towards making research data accessible, taking the extra step to ensure it is interoperable seems often daunting. Thanks to LINCS XTriples, users can skip intermediate modeling steps and directly transform their TEI into RDF data, ready for use within LINCS or any preferred triplestore.

LINCS XTriples TEI to RDF conversion process

Using LINCS XTriples​

A template-driven tool​

There are two ways to create TEI documents that the tool can transform into RDF:

  1. For those new to TEI and XSLTs, create or adapt a TEI document from LEAF-Writer: Inside LEAF-Writer, users can directly select an entity template to create your TEI (records about people, places, organisations, or events) or LEAF-Writer's Letter and Poem templates with entity-matched references to people.
  2. For those familiar with both TEI and XSLTs, create LINCS XTriples compliant TEI: If you have experience running eXtensible Stylesheet Transformations (XSLTs), transform your existing files to match LEAF-Writer's entity templates.

Currently, LINCS XTriples transforms placeographies and personographies, letters, and poems into CIDOC-CRM RDF. XTriples is designed to work with LEAF-Writer template files. If you are new to TEI encoding and to linked data, this is the tool set for you. No need to master CIDOC-CRM, XSLT, RDF, or any other syntax other than TEI itself. We have designed LINCS XTriples so that users need only be working with LEAF-Writer templates (or, for more advanced users, need to convert their TEI to match the element structure in LEAF-Writer templates). For reference and as examples, you'll find the TEI documents which were used to develop the transformation templates here.

When you upload your TEI documents into LINCS XTriples, it converts TEI .xml files using an XSLT transformation that expects the LEAF-Writer entity templates for people, places, letters, and poems. Applied to the TEI .xml documents via the tool, this XSLT transformation will convert any input data (compatible with the templates) into RDF, while using a CIDOC-CRM structure for improved cultural data interoperability (based on LINCS Application Profiles).

Create or adapt a TEI file from LEAF-Writer files​

LEAF-Writer is an XML & RDF online editor of the Linked Editorial Academic Framework (LEAF) virtual research environment. Through our teams' partnership, LEAF-Writer provides users with template files to create TEI documents compliant with LINCS XTriples XSLT transformation stylesheets.

Once users have filled in their template in LEAF-Writer, they can download their TEI and upload it to LINCS XTriples.

In LINCS XTriples:

  1. Click upload and select the entity type that corresponds to your template file type (e.g., select "Placeography reconciled in LEAF-Writer" from the dropdown menu if you are transforming place records created in LEAF-Writer).
  2. Choose the serialization (RDF/XML or TTL) that you would like your output to be in. Both output options are CIDOC-CRM representations of your TEI data.
  3. Click download and save the output on your own computer.
  4. Optionally, reach out to LINCS and discuss whether your transformed data is a good fit for LINCS.

User-created LINCS XTriples compliant TEI​

LINCS XTriples can process any TEI 'ography files that conform to the entity templates available in LEAF-Writer. If you have experience writing XSLTs, you can transform your TEI to match the LINCS templates in LEAF-Writer. LINCS offers XSLTs that you can modify and run to transform your project's TEI structure into the compliant format defined by the templates. If your TEI does not contain URIs, load your transformed files into LEAF-Writer for entity matching, and follow the steps in Create or adapt a TEI input from LEAF-Writer files.

Template overview: how to adapt and customize​

The following section outlines which TEI elements and attributes LINCS XTriples uses to create an RDF output, and how to add these TEI elements, attributes, and values in LEAF-Writer. The sections below examine each LEAF-Writer template and list the entities handled by LINCS XTriples, explaining the editorial choices made by our team.

Person template: converting personographies​

Personal Name​

LINCS XTriples pulls the canonical authority record URI from the @ref value of the first child <persName> inside <person>. In LEAF-Writer click on the Find Person icon to have LEAF-Writer match the person's name against authority records on the Web. Select the authority URI that matches the person for whom you are creating a TEI record.

If you are editing your TEI in another editor, add a @ref attribute to <persName> and paste the authority URI for your person into the @source value. Add a @type="standard" attribute and value pair to the <persName>.

Occupation​

The LINCS CIDOC CRM representation of occupation draws on the <occupation> @source value. We recommend using the occupation URI from the LINCS Occupation Vocabulary, but you may use URIs from other vocabularies (for example, the Art & Architecture Thesaurus occupations vocabulary).

In LEAF-Writer, right click on Preferred Occupation Term in the template and select Edit Tag. Choose the @source attribute, and paste in the occupation URI then click OK to save your changes. If you are editing your TEI in another editor, add a @source attribute to <occupation> and paste the occupation URI into the @source value.

Gender​

The LINCS XTriples CIDOC CRM representation of gender draws on the <sex> @source value in the LINCS person template. You can use a gender URI from the LINCS Identity Vocabulary or more detailed vocabularies like Homosaurus.

In LEAF-Writer, right click on sex in the template and select Edit Tag to cut and paste the gender URI into the @source value. The LEAF-Writer templates will eventually be updated to reflect the latest TEI encoding guidelines for sex and gender.

If you are editing your TEI in another editor, add a @source attribute to <sex> and paste the gender URI into the @source value.

Nationality​

LINCS XTriples does not currently process the <nationality> element.