Application Profiles for the IDS Information Model

We evaluated the state-of-the-art of the IDS InformationModel. More specifically, we looked at the models and the mappings to their validations (SHACL files). We provide a live-demo at https://ids-ap.fokus.fraunhofer.de/.

We summarise the findings as follows:

• IDS-SHACL-SotA, in which we include the mappings from each model to its corresponding SHACL file. Here we provide information about local and external restrictions. Local restrictions refer to those specifically defined in the IDS project. External are those included in the IDS project from existing definitions in other ontologies and vocabularies, such as ODRL, TIME, SKOS, etc.

• IDS-SHACL-AdditionalEvaluation, in this section, we include information about SHACL shapes in the IDS infomodel, only referring to local (IDS) content. Also, we provide information about those models in the IDS infomodel without SHACL shapes, i.e., without validations.

• IDS-ExternalReferences-SotA, based on the IDS definitions, we look at the original definitions in the respective specifications, such as DCAT, DCTerms, etc.

• Hierarchical alignment between IDS infomodel and DCAT​ - Examples, we provide a graphical representation of the alignment between the definitions in the IDS infomodel and the DCAT specifications.

Moreover, we provide an example of a resource (a Connector Endpoint) and the corresponding validation in examples-SHACL-validations

What is an Application Profile?

The term application profile is defined as "a set of metadata elements, policies, and guidelines defined for a particular application" cf. Dublic Core Glossary. In practice, an application profile covers the following aspects:

• It clearly defines, which properties are mandatory and which ones are optional.
• The allowed cardinalities of properties.
• Defines clear controlled vocabularies, if applicable.
• Puts constraints to sub-properties, that are based on well-established ontologies.

There does exist a strict standard how to document application profiles, but it is highly recommended to apply a machine-readable and expressive specification language, such as SHACL.

Illustrative Examples in IDS

In the following the concepts of an application profile are illustrated in a non-normative way on a selection of Information Model properties.

Range Details

Application Profiles

The following specifications and established application profiles constitute the foundation of the IDS-AP.

DCAT

The W3C Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) is a well-established vocabulary for describing data catalogs. The overall objective is to improve the interoperability between data catalogs, enable federated search mechanisms, and (Open) Data on the Web. It is developed by the Dataset Exchange Working Group (DXWG). DCAT offers no guidelines about the format of the actual data, but focuses on metadata. The core of the specification consists of three main classes: catalog (dcat:Catalog), dataset (dcat:Dataset) and distribution (dcat:Distribution). One catalog comprises of several datasets and one dataset can include multiple distributions. A distribution represents the actual data. The basis for DCAT is the Dublin Core metadata vocabulary - a general standard for describing digital assets.

DCAT-AP

The DCAT Application Profile for data portals in Europe (DCAT-AP) is an extension of DCAT for describing public sector data. Its maintenance is led by the European Commission and is established as the standard for the publication of Open Data across Europe - for instance it is applied by the official portal for European Data. Correspondent to the definition of application profiles, DCAT-AP applies concrete guidelines for DCAT, including cardinalities, mandatory fields and controlled namespaces. In addition, it adds domain-specific metadata fields to increase the expressiveness. The popularity of DCAT-AP has led to the development of extension and derivates of DCAT-AP itself. DCAT-AP is a viable foundation for the development of an application profile for IDS. Especially the availability of extensive SHACL shapes support the consideration for IDS.

Further Profiles

The following application profiles are mostly extensions of DCAT-AP for specific countries or types of data. Some of them are not actively developed any more and are just listed for completeness.