TemaTres 2.2 : Open Source Web Tool to manage formal representations of Knowledge

(Tribunal de Contas do Distrito Federal use case: TemaTres for Visual Vocabulary) 

TemaTres is an open source vocabulary server to manage and exploit vocabularies, thesauri, taxonomies and formal representations of knowledge. New version TemaTres 2.2  was released in October 2016.

People engaged in creating and managing formal representations of knowledge, or rather  Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS: vocabularies, thesaurus, glossaries, taxonomies, ontologies and other linguistics based formal representations) on the web need a dedicated management system that could save a lot of time and headache in the long term.

There is a number of Open Source web applications to create, manage, and publish KOS on the web that is worth considering in nonprofit or low-budget projects.

One of these open source software products is TemaTres - originally developed  in the Library and the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and  released under the GNU General Public License version 2.0 to manage formal representations of knowledge on the web.

The TemaTres website notes that running the server requires other open source tools: PHPMySql, and HTTP Web server.

The latest version - TemaTres 2.2 - offers a new configuration option not only to manage, publish, share vocabularies, but also to reuse them according to quality policies.

Here’s what has changed since the last release:

  • New export format in JSON to integrate glossaries and vocabularies in distributed content;
  • Can bulk create auto-gloss: search and replace terms found in notes and use wiki links to semantically enrich the vocabulary (auto-gloss) (see: Glossary of Agricultural Terms);
  • Export vocabularies in PDF format;
  • Massive task for free terms (change status, delete, associate with terms and more);
  • Utilities to export specific terms, facet or taxon in alphabetical or hierarchical format (for admins);
  • Facilities to reuse terms or change the structure of the vocabulary;
  • New capabilities to use notes as glossaries and as tools to semantically enrich the vocabulary (auto-gloss);
  • Update TiniMCE editor;
  • Fix minor bugs.

In addition to being free, TemaTres 2.2  can run on multiple platforms and it can be installed and used also by single user (Download TemaTres 2.2 - Gihub TemaTres - TemaTres Demo - TemaTres documentation).

How to manage many vocabularies with Tematres:

  • Copy /vocab directory (example: vocab2/) and change the prefix tables in db.tematres.php

How to enable SPARQL endpoint:

  • Login as admin and go to Menu à Administration à Configuration à Click in your vocabulary: Set as ENABLE SPARQL endpoint (by default is disable).

There are 421 known cases around the world using TemaTres. Among these it is worth noting TaDiRAH use case - the Taxonomy of Digital Research Activities in the Humanities developed by representatives from the European cyber-infrastructure DARIAH, and DiRT, a digital humanities tool directory.  TaDiRAH provides a model that may benefit other taxonomy efforts.

About TemaTres

Last but not least …

Did you know that VocBench – a collaborative web application for editing thesauri using SKOS-XL – has been used not only to develop AGROVOC but also to merge this latter with other two important thesauri in the Agriculture world - CABI, NALT - into the Global Agricultural Concept Scheme (GACS)?

The latest news about VochBench will be presented at the upcoming MTSR 2016: Metadata and Semantics Research Conference.