Importing a Vocabulary

If you have your vocabulary in a delimited text file (typically called comma-separated- or tab-separated-values file, and commonly generated from spreadsheet applications), then you may follow these steps to put it into the ORR.

Note

Direct upload of a delimited text file is not supported. The steps below basically consist in using the "Create Vocabulary" option and pasting the delimited text into a dialog box.

Once signed in, click the "Create Vocabulary" button in the main ORR page.

Vocabulary import owner IRI Enter the owner of the vocabulary (yourself, or a group that you are a member of), the short name of the vocabulary that will appear in the identifier for the vocabulary, and the desired visibility and status.

Note

You can alternatively enter your own IRI for the vocabulary if you are an advanced user (for example, you want the IRI to be in your own domain), but this is an unusual use case.

 

Complete the metadata in the "Metadata details" section. Starred items are required, and pop-up help describes all the metadata items when you mouse over the item's name. Note there are several tabs in this section, though only a few fields on the first tab must be completed.

Vocabulary import metadata entry

In the "Data" section, click on the +Term set button. You will be prompted for the name of your first set of terms in this vocabulary. Usually this will be the same as the local name of the ontology -- vocabtypes in the example -- but in camel case (vocabTypes).

Vocabulary import term set class

When you click OK, a tab will be created for this vocabulary.

Vocabulary import term set class tab

Vocabulary import import contents menu To import your vocabulary, click on the drop-down arrow and choose the option "Import CSV contents".

 

This produces the dialog box below.

Vocabulary import CSV content dialog

Click the Example button to see an example (or update any previously displayed example) depending on the selected separator and flag related with the unique identifiers for the terms. (Trailing spaces in cells are added for clarity in the CSV text examples.)

- Field separator

Indicate the field separator used in the contents inserted in the text area.

- Use first column for the unique identifiers? flag

  • If this flag is selected: Except for the first cell (which will be ignored) in the first row, the cells in the first row will determine the properties for the term set. The unique identifiers for the terms are determined by the values in the first column in the other rows, while the other columns define the associated property values.

    The CSV example in this case looks like the following:

           ,color   ,skos:definition  ,http://ex/someprop
    info   ,blue    ,info message     ,abc
    warn   ,yellow  ,warning message  ,some xy
    error  ,red     ,error message    ,value z
    
  • If this flag is unselected: In this case, all cells in the first row will determine the properties for the term set. The unique identifiers for the terms will be determined by a given prefix (by default, row_) and the row position. All columns in the rows after the header define the associated property values.

    The CSV example in this case looks like this:

    co2  ,latitude    ,longitude    ,altitude  ,airSpeed
    485  ,44.3799982  ,-73.2581033  ,59.28     ,0.119999997318
    485  ,44.3799978  ,-73.2581035  ,59.28     ,0.0399999991059
    486  ,44.3799953  ,-73.2581065  ,59.25     ,0.0399999991059
    500  ,44.3805034  ,-73.258855   ,48.65     ,0.0799999982119
    

Follow the instructions in the dialog box, and click on Import when you are ready to import your text. You will be prompted for a Confirmation, as you will be entirely replacing the existing set of terms. If you are following these instructions, so far there are no existing terms to replace. Click on OK to create the vocabulary data in preliminary form.

Vocabulary import preliminary vocabulary before upload

You can now review, further edit, and register your vocabulary. Please see the “Completing Vocabulary Registration" page for more details.