Home > Javascript integration

Javascript integration and parameters reference

NPM

npm i sparnatural

Constructor

Sparnatural is inserted as custom HTML element named spar-natural (note the dash), with specific attributes. It looks like so:

  <spar-natural 
    src="sparnatural-config.ttl"
    endpoint="https://dbpedia.org/sparql"
    lang="en"
    defaultLang="en"
    limit="1000"
    debug="true"
  />

HTML attributes reference

Attribute Description Default Mandatory/Optional
src Provides the configuration that specifies the classes and properties to be displayed, and how they are mapped to SPARQL. This can be either the URL of a SHACL or OWL file, in Turtle or RDF/XML. Example : sparnatural-config.ttl. Another option is to provide a serialized JSON obj as a string. For example: JSON.stringify(configAsJsonObj). It is possible to pass multiple URLs be separating them with a whitespace, e.g. sparnatural-config.ttl statistics.ttl undefined Mandatory
endpoint The URL of a SPARQL endpoint that will be used as the default service for the datasource queries provided in the configuration. If not specified, each datasource should indicate explicitely a SPARQL endpoint. Note that this URL can use the default-graph-uri parameter to restrict the query to a specified named graph, as per SPARQL protocol specification, e.g. http://ex.com/sparql?default-graph-uri=http%3A%2F%2Fencoded-named-graph-uri. This can also contain multiple endpoint URLs in combination with the catalog attribute (see “querying multiple endpoints”) undefined Mandatory except for advanced use-cases.
catalog (unstable) The catalog of endpoints, if you pass multiple endpoints. This is advanced configuration. (see “querying multiple endpoints”) none Optional
defaultLang Dataset default language. A language in which the dataset always provides labels/titles that can be used as default if a label in the user language is not present. en Recommended
debug If set to true, Sparnatural will log JSON and SPARQL queries on the console, as they are generated. false Optional
distinct Whether the DISTINCT keyword should be inserted to the generated SPARQL query. true Optional
lang User language preference. The language code to use to display labels of classes and properties from the configuration file, and to query for values in lists and search fields. en Recommended
limit A number that will be used to add a LIMIT keyword in the generated SPARQL queries. If set to an empty string or a negative number, no LIMIT keyword is inserted. -1 Optional
maxDepth Maximum depth of the constructed query (number of inner ‘Where’ clauses). 4 Optional
localCacheDataTtl (beta) The time that the dropdown lists will be stored in cache on the client, if the server has allowed it in its response headers, that is if Cache-Control: no-cache header is returned in the response, no cache will happen, whatever the value of this field. The server can return Cache-Control: public for lists to be properly cached. 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 Optional
maxOr Maximum number of different values that can be selected for a given property criteria. For example how many country can be chosen on the list widget 3 Optional
prefixes (unstable) A set of prefixes in the form foaf: http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/ skos:http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core# to be added to the output SPARQL query. This is applied in the expand method. none  
queryLang The language used as a parameters to datasources, to e.g. populate dropdown lists with labels of this language. same value as lang Recommended
submitButton Whether Sparnatural should display a submit button to allow the user to execute the query. A click on the submit button will trigger a submit event. In case it is not provided, it is the page responsibility to either execute the query automatically at each update in the queryUpdated event or provide its own way to submit the query. true Optional
typePredicate The type predicate to use to generate the type criteria. Defaults to rdf:type, but could be changed to e.g. <http://www.wikidata.org/prop/direct/P31>+ for Wikidata integration, or <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#subClassOf>+ to query OWL-style models. rdf:type Optional

Sparnatural events

Then the HTML page needs to listen to specific events triggered by Sparnatural, notably queryUpdated and submit :

const sparnatural = document.querySelector("spar-natural");
 
// triggered as soon there is a modification in the query
sparnatural.addEventListener("queryUpdated", (event) => {
  // do something with the query
});

// triggered when submit button is called
sparnatural.addEventListener("submit", (event) => {
    // so something
});

// triggered when reset button is clicked
sparnatural.addEventListener("reset", (event) => {
  // do something
});

See below for the complete reference of the available events.

A typical integration in a web page looks like this :


const sparnatural = document.querySelector("spar-natural");

sparnatural.addEventListener("queryUpdated", (event) => {
  // expand query to replace identifiers with content of sparqlScript annotation
  console.log(event.detail.queryString);
  console.log(event.detail.queryJson);
  console.log(event.detail.querySparqlJs);
  queryString = sparnatural.expandSparql(event.detail.queryString);
  // set query on YasQE
  yasqe.setValue(queryString);

  // save JSON query
  document.getElementById('query-json').value = JSON.stringify(event.detail.queryJson);
});

sparnatural.addEventListener("submit", (event) => {
  // enable loader on button
  sparnatural.disablePlayBtn() ; 
  // trigger the query from YasQE
  yasqe.query();
});

sparnatural.addEventListener("reset", (event) => {
  yasqe.setValue("");
});

“queryUpdated” event

The queryUpdated event is triggered everytime the query is modified. The event detail contains :

  • The SPARQL string in queryString
  • The JSON Sparnatural structure in queryJson
  • The (SPARQL.js format)[https://github.com/RubenVerborgh/SPARQL.js/] structure in querySparqlJs
sparnatural.addEventListener("queryUpdated", (event) => {
  console.log(event.detail.queryString);
  console.log(event.detail.queryJson);
  console.log(event.detail.querySparqlJs);
});

“submit” event

The submit event is triggered when the submit button is clicked.

In typical integrations, the state of the submit button can be updated upon submit. The submit button can be “not loading and active”, “loading” or “disabled”. The functions to update the state of the button are:

  • sparnatural.disablePlayBtn()
  • sparnatural.enablePlayBtn()

disablePlayBtn() should be called on submit event and enablePlayBtn() when the query has returned. In a typical integration with YasGUI this looks like this:


const sparnatural = document.querySelector("spar-natural");

sparnatural.addEventListener("queryUpdated", (event) => {
  queryString = sparnatural.expandSparql(event.detail.queryString);
  yasqe.setValue(queryString);
});

sparnatural.addEventListener("submit", (event) => {
  // disable the button and show a spinning loader
  sparnatural.disablePlayBtn() ; 
  // trigger the query from YasQE
  yasqe.query();
});

const yasqe = new Yasqe(document.getElementById("yasqe"));
const yasr = new Yasr(document.getElementById("yasr"));

yasqe.on("queryResponse", function(_yasqe, response, duration) {
  // print the responses in YASR
  yasr.setResponse(response, duration);
  // re-enable play button in Sparnatural
  sparnatural.enablePlayBtn() ;
}); 

“reset” event

The submit event is triggered when the reset button is clicked. It can be used to empty or reset other part of the page, typically YasQE. A typical integration is the following:

sparnatural.addEventListener("reset", (event) => {
  yasqe.setValue("");
});

“init” event

The init event is triggered when Sparnatural has finished reading its configuration. Listen to this event to pass additionnal JSON customization with sparnatural.customization = { ... } (see below).

sparnatural.addEventListener("init", (event) => {
  console.log("Sparnatural is initialized");
  // sparnatural.customization = { ... }
});

Sparnatural element API

The table below summarizes the various functions that can be called on the Sparnatural element.

Function Description Parameters
sparnatural.enablePlayBtn() Removes the loading from the play button once a query has finished executing. none
sparnatural.disablePlayBtn() Disables the play button once a query has started its execution. none
sparnatural.loadQuery(query) Loads a query structure in Sparnatural. Query structure as documented in the query JSON format
sparnatural.expandSparql(sparqlString) Expands a SPARQL query string according to the configuration, in particular the sparqlString annotations, as documented in the OWL-based configuration A SPARQL query string string
sparnatural.clear() Clears the Sparnatural editor, as if the reset button was clicked. none
sparnatural.executeSparql(query:string, callback: (data: any) => void, errorCallback?:(error: any) => void) Executes the provided SPARQL query, using configured endpoint or multiple endpoints from the catalog, and using the configured headers. 1/ The SPARQL query string 2/ the callback when execution succeeds 3/ the callback on error

Sparnatural bindings

Starting from 9.1, releases of Sparnatural include a sparnatural-bindings.js Javascript file that can be used to facilitate the integration of the events and functions of Sparnatural in typical integration scenarios.

Sparnatural behavior customization

The behavior of Sparnatural can be further adjuested with the customization object : sparnatural.customization = { ... }. That call must be done within the init event listener, after Sparnatural has finished reading its initial specification file.

sparnatural.addEventListener("init", (event) => {
  console.log("Sparnatural is initialized");
  sparnatural.customization = { ... }
});

In particular this object allows to pass in functions to provide data to the different widgets. See the reference documentation below.

Sparnatural customization object reference

The customization object structure is outlined below. All items are optionnal.

{
  autocomplete: {
    dataProvider : {
      getAutocompleteSuggestions: function(
        domain:string,
        predicate:string,
        range:string,
        key:string,
        lang:string,
        defaultLang:string,
        typePredicate:string,
        callback:(items:{term:RDFTerm;label:string;group?:string}[]) => void,
        errorCallback?:(payload:any) => void
      )
    },
    // the maximum number of items to be proposed in the autocomplion list
    maxItems: number
  },
  list: {
    dataProvider : {
      getListContent: function(
        domain:string,
        predicate:string,
        range:string,
        lang:string,
        defaultLang:string,
        typePredicate:string,
        callback:(values:{literal:string}[]) => void
      ):void
    }
  },
  tree: {
    dataProvider : {
      getRoots: function(
        domain:string,
        predicate:string,
        range:string,
        lang:string,
        defaultLang:string,
        typePredicate:string,
        callback:(items:{term:RDFTerm;label:string;hasChildren:boolean;disabled:boolean}[]) => void,
        errorCallback?:(payload:any) => void
      ):void,

      getChildren: function(
        node:string,
        domain:string,
        predicate:string,
        range:string,
        lang:string,
        defaultLang:string,
        typePredicate:string,
        callback:(items:{term:RDFTerm;label:string;hasChildren:boolean;disabled:boolean}[]) => void,
        errorCallback?:(payload:any) => void
      ):void
    }
  },
  map: {
    // initial zoom level of the map, when opened
    // see https://leafletjs.com/reference.html#map-setview
    // typically, from 0 to ~ 12
    zoom : number,
    // initial center of the map, when opened
    // see https://leafletjs.com/reference.html#map-setview
    center : {
      lat:number,
      long:number
    }
  },
  headers: {
    "header name": "value"
  }
}

Note that the RDFTerm data structure referenced above is the following:

export class RDFTerm {
  type: string;
  value: string;
  "xml:lang"?: string;
  datatype?:string 
}

example of specifying a custom data provider function

sparnatural.addEventListener("init", (event) => {  
  sparnatural.customization = {
    autocomplete: {
      dataProvider: {
        getAutocompleteSuggestions: function(
        domain,
        predicate,
        range,
        key,
        lang,
        defaultLang,
        typePredicate,
        callback,
        errorCallback
      ) {
        // build the list of autocomplete items to show
        console.log("domain,predicate,range : "+domain+" "+predicate+" "+range);
        let items = [
          {
            term: {
              type:"IRI",
              value:"http://exemple.fr/1"
            },
            label: key+" : suggestion 1" 
          },
          {
            term: {
              type:"IRI",
              value:"http://exemple.fr/2"
            },
            label: key+" : suggestion 2" 
          }
        ];
        // call the callback function with the list of items
        callback(items);
      }
      }
    }
  };
});

headers configuration

To set the headers of requests made by Sparnatural, use the customization objet above, with the headers key. See this example:

sparnatural.addEventListener("init", (event) => {
  sparnatural.customization = {
    headers: { 
      "User-Agent" : "This is Sparnatural calling"
    }
  }
});