Beacon metadata as linked data (JSON-LD)

[M-casado]

Summary

Addition of @context to Beacon's JSON files to transform them into RDF-compliant linked data.

Description

After seeing the Beacon v2's JSON Schema models and its examples , it seems apparent that the addition of Linked Data to the JSON documents is the next logical step.

While doing something similar for the FEGA-metadata model (still in dev.), I thought of the benefit that Beacon's model would gain with the addition of @context. For the properties that the FEGA model and Beacon overlap entirely (e.g., cohort), I was drafting this context already, so you can quickly see already how the context can be added with the addition of one single line to the JSON files. This can be done by referencing the @context already present in the FEGA metadata schemas (e.g., cohort).

Visual example

1. Grab one of the JSON examples from Beacon v2: cohorts-MAX-example.json

2. Paste the JSON content into the JSON-LD Playground as input.

3. Observe how, in the absence of context, the input is a plain JSON, with no expanded @ids or IRIs.
   

4. Now add, at the root level @context pointing towards the FEGA-model schema of the same entity (cohorts) and observe how immediately the context allows for the JSON file, without further modification, to be expanded.

I would recommend to play around in the JSON Playground, and to add an @id to the root of the JSON. Either that, or the handy solution I got with aliases: "id": "@id" in the common-definitions. I added this alias to comply with Beacon's root property id. Of course, this only works if the @id is an IRI, but that can easily be done with adding a prefix to the ID (e.g., from "id": "cohort0001" to "id": "ega:cohort0001"). The moment you do this, you can visualize properly the RDF triplets in the "Table" format.

Additional notes

The @context I created so far in the FEGA model is lacking, as it doesn't deepen into all the entities in the Beacon model. If such context was created by Beacon v2, it would be great for us too: we would just have to add a reference to Beacon's context, rather than creating it myself.

[costero-e]

Thank you for starting the discussion @M-casado. I would say this is important for beacon but would need the community to review all the schemas and would take its time. Anyway, let's see what the people say.

[M-casado]

Sure, as mentioned over email, it's something that, by design, is innocuous to a JSON model. Given that it shouldn't break anything, and just adds information, the community may be more motivated to include it.