ssnolib: Library for the simple standard name ontology SSNO

A Python library to work with the SSNO ontology. It provides Python classes for the ontology classes and facilitates the creation of JSON-LD files. JSON-LD files are both human- and machine-readable and most importantly machine-actionable. The library can be integrated in you data (conversion) pipelines.

NOTE: The version of the library corresponds to the version of the ontology it supports. Hence, 1.3.0.1 refers to the ontology version 1.3.0 and the last part (.1) is the patch version of this library.

Quickstart

Programmatically

With ssnolib you can create Standard Names and their tables quickly and easily. You can find Jupyter Lab Notebooks explaining working with Standard names here or Standard Name Tables here.

Graphically (locally run Web App)

A user interface implemented with flask is available to create and edit Standard Name Tables.

To install the web app, run the following command:

pip install ssnolib[app]

To start the GUI, run the following command:

ssnolib --app

This will start a local development server with the default port 5000 and the local host IP: https://127.0.0.1:5000/ (see image below).

Note: The web app is work in progress! Some errors might not be caught correctly. Also, you should not expose this web app to the public. However, feel free to use it locally in your project. I am happy to receive feedback or contributions to enhance the web interface! Thanks!

Example Codes

The code below gives a quick insight using the sSNOlib classes:

import ssnolib
from ssnolib.dcat import Distribution

distribution = Distribution(
    title='XML Table',
    download_URL='https://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-standard-names/current/src/cf-standard-name-table.xml',
    media_type='application/xml'
)
snt = ssnolib.StandardNameTable(title='CF Standard Name Table (latest version)',
                                distribution=distribution)
print(snt.model_dump_jsonld())

The last line dumps the object to a JSON-LD string:

{
    "@context": {
        "owl": "https://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#",
        "rdfs": "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#",
        "dcat": "http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#",
        "dcterms": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/",
        "prov": "http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#",
        "ssno": "https://matthiasprobst.github.io/ssno#"
    },
    "@type": "ssno:StandardNameTable",
    "@id": "_:Ncbf5f941ea5447aa9ce212a2bb8d0be2",
    "dcterms:title": "CF Standard Name Table (latest version)",
    "dcat:distribution": [
        {
            "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
            "@id": "_:Nce83c15ff61640e68ba4468ebf016787",
            "dcterms:title": "XML Table",
            "dcat:downloadURL": "https://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-standard-names/current/src/cf-standard-name-table.xml",
            "dcat:mediaType": "https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/xml"
        }
    ]
}

Installation

pip install ssnolib

Extras

To be able to work with the local web app (using flask):

pip install ssnolib[app]

To be able to read standard name tables in XML format (e.g. the cfconvetions.org standard name table), you need to add the xml extra:

pip installssnolib[xml]

To be able to read standard name table from YAML files, you need to add the yaml extra:

pip install ssnolib[yaml]

Documentation

A complete documentation is still under development. However, the docstrings of the classes and methods should be sufficient to get started. Also have a look at the Tutorial Notebook or following class diagram and the examples below.

Examples

Describe a Standard Name Table, e.g. the one from cfconventions.org:

import ssnolib
from ssnolib.dcat import Distribution

# Create a distribution object (downloadable XML file containing the standard name table)
distribution = Distribution(title='XML Table',
                            downloadURL='https://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-standard-names/current/src/cf-standard-name-table.xml',
                            mediaType='application/xml')

# Create a standard name table object
snt = ssnolib.StandardNameTable(title='CF Standard Name Table v79',
                                distribution=[distribution, ])

# To describe this standard name table, we can export the JSON-LD file:
with open('cf79.jsonld', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    f.write(snt.model_dump_jsonld())

The corresponding JSON-LD file looks like this (showing only 2 standard names for shortness):

{
    "@context": {
        "owl": "https://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#",
        "rdfs": "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#",
        "dcat": "http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#",
        "dcterms": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/",
        "prov": "http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#",
        "ssno": "https://matthiasprobst.github.io/ssno#"
    },
    "@type": "ssno:StandardNameTable",
    "@id": "_:N82e22ada2da9427fba343d0f978e98e9",
    "dcterms:title": "CF Standard Name Table v79",
    "dcat:distribution": [
        {
            "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
            "@id": "_:N8588e715cf1e4216ba142eea6f1b297d",
            "dcterms:title": "XML Table",
            "dcat:downloadURL": "https://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-standard-names/current/src/cf-standard-name-table.xml",
            "dcat:mediaType": "https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/xml"
        }
    ]
}

Standard name to JSON-LD

A standard name alone can be described like this:

import ssnolib

air_temp = ssnolib.StandardName(standardName='air_temperature',
                                canonicalUnits='K',
                                description='Air temperature is the bulk temperature of the air, not the surface (skin) temperature.')

# write to JSON-LD
with open('air_temperature.jsonld', 'w') as f:
    f.write(air_temp.model_dump_jsonld())

The corresponding JSON-LD file:

{
    "@context": {
        "owl": "https://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#",
        "rdfs": "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#",
        "skos": "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#",
        "ssno": "https://matthiasprobst.github.io/ssno#",
        "dcat": "http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#"
    },
    "@type": "ssno:StandardName",
    "@id": "_:Naaf73045ffbe415f9ad28cc3daacd3e6",
    "ssno:canonicalUnits": "http://qudt.org/vocab/unit/K",
    "ssno:standardName": "air_temperature",
    "ssno:description": "Air temperature is the bulk temperature of the air, not the surface (skin) temperature."
}

Qualifications

QUalification can modify standard names by adding phrases to existing standard names. A qualification defines valid phrases (valid values) to be used in front of or after a standard name. Since multiple qualifications can be defined. they may also lead or follow other qualifications. A qualification may also have a preposition like "at" for example.

The class StandardNameTable can generate a regex pattern from the qualification definitions.

And now?

You can now take the JSON-LD file and use it with your data (place it next to it, upload it to a server, etc.).

Contribution

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue or a pull request.