Zentity v2.0
Overview
Oscar Naim
Sr. Research Program Manager
Microsoft External Research
Zentity 101
• What’s Zentity?
– Research Output Repository Platform
– Hybrid store (triples + relational)
• Key Features
– Semantically rich functionality
– Data agnostic
– Support for extensibility and interoperability
• Key Scenario
– Repository for all scholarly related byproducts of the
research life cycle
Overview
Client
Applications
Search
Desktop Tools
Zentity
Platform
Interop
Syndication
• A platform for building
services and tools for
research output
repositories
• Papers, Videos,
Presentations, Lectures,
References, Data, Code,
etc.
• Relationships between
stored entities
Overview
• Aims to provide necessary building blocks, tools,
and services for creating and managing an
organization’s repository ecosystem around
research content.
• Built on top of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and
the ADO .NET Entity Framework and LINQ.
Key Features
• Core data model with extensibility, which can be used to
create custom data models, even for domains other than
Scholarly Communications
• Built-in Scholarly Works data model with predefined resources
• Extensive Search similar to Advanced Query Syntax (AQS)
• Pluggable Authentication and Authorization Security API
• Basic Web-based User Interface to browse and manage
resources with reusable custom controls (Scholarly Works only)
• RSS/ATOM, OAI-PMH, AtomPub, SWORD Services for exposing
resource information
• Extensive help with code samples extend the platform by
developers
Data Model
Module
Resource Type
Navigation
Property
Zentity.ScholarlyWorks
Scalar Property
Zentity.Core
Data Models
Association
Inheritance
Additional Features
• Change history management for tracking changes to
resource metadata and relationships
• Various ASP .NET custom controls such as
ResourceProperties, ResourceListView, TagCloud, etc.
• Import/ export BibTex for managing citations
• Prevent duplicates using the Similarity Match API
• RDFS parser provides functionality to construct an RDF
Graph from RDF XML
• OAI-PMH to expose metadata to external search engine
crawlers
• OAI-ORE support for Resource Maps in RDF/XML
• AtomPub implementation for supporting deposits to
repository
Hybrid Approach
Triple stores
-Evolution friendly
-Poor performance
-No need to model everything in advance
-Semantic interpretation at the application level
Relational schema
-Evolution not so easy
-Great opportunities for optimization
-Model everything in advance
Zentity Platform
-Maintain a balance
-Try to model the frequently used entities in our app domain
-Try to capture the frequently used relationships
-Allow for extensibility (Relationships, Properties)
Key Design Decisions
• Focus on “Resources”
• Surface “Relationships” as first-class entities through
our API
• Model few relationships explicitly for performance
reasons (e.g. “contains”, “author”, etc.) for our
Scholarly Communications data model
• Model key entities explicitly for our Scholarly
Communications model
• Expose the same functionality to arbitrary data
models
Architecture Goals
• Create a platform for
building “research
output” repositories
• An ecosystem of
services and tools
• Build an easy-to-install
collection of basic
services and tools
• Extensibility
3rd-party services,
tools,
applications,
Zentity SDK
Zentity services,
Web site,
interoperability
Zentity Platform
(based on the Entity Framework +
semantic data model)
SQL Server 2008, Entity Framework, .NET
4.0, LINQ
Zentity v2.0 – What’s in it?
CodePlex
One-hour
Evaluation
Zentity SDK
.NET 4.0 Upgrade
Zentity Services
• Source code release
• Target MS-PL or BSD/Apache 2.0
• Full test pass/bug fixes
• Up and running in 1 hour
• SQL “AdventureWorks” equivalent experience
• Available on a Windows client (i.e. Windows 7)
• Visually compelling sample applications
• Dynamic sample data sets that demonstrate value/prop
• Well documented
• ADO .NET Data Services enhancements
• ODATA compliant
• Provide services layer
• Enable 3-tier applications (backend, middle ware, client)
• Enterprise ready
Open Data Protocol
Zentity v2.0 – Architecture
Zentity Client Applications
Visual Explorer
Zentity Console
(PowerShell)
Web UI
Pivot Viewer
(Scholarly Works)
Zentity Services
RSS, Atom
AtomPub, OAI PMH,
SWORD
OAI ORE
Data
Service
Pivot
Collection
Service
Zentity Server
Core
Data Model
Scholarly Works
My Custom
Data Model
Introduction to Pivot
Zentity Pivot Viewer
Zentity Pivot Viewer
Zentity Visual Explorer
Zentity v2.0 - Pivot Collection Service
Incremental Collection Updates
Update
Collection
Define
Collection
Consume
Collection
Generate
Collection
Publish
Collection
Metadata
Data
Model
Images
Pivot Collection
Graph of Relationships
PDF file
contains
is representation of
Lecture on
7/9/2010
PowerPoint
presentation
authored by
organized by
presented by
Oscar
Open Repositories 2010
Graph of Relationships
Project Goals
Project Libra
Integration
Adoption
“Enterprise”
ready
CodePlex Release
• Community involvement
• ISVs + Third parties
• MSR Repository
• University of New
Mexico
• Seattle Art Museum
• Universidad de La Salle
and Tadeo Lozano
(Colombia)
• Queen Margaret
University, University of
Edinburgh
• UK ESRC
• Pharma (e.g. Novartis,
J&J)
• UCLA, University of
Southampton
• Semantic annotations
• Active Text
• Visual Summaries
Zentity v2.0 – What’s next?
•
•
•
•
RIC Integration
SQL Semantic Engine Integration
Academic Search Integration
Azure Integration
Data
Acquisition &
Modeling
Collaboration
Analysis
Zentity
Research Output Repository Platform
A platform for building services and tools for research
output repositories:
• Papers, Videos, Presentations, Lectures, References,
Data, Code, etc.
• Relationships between stored entities
Goals
• Support the MSR publishing and dissemination
platform for all researcher outputs
• Enable a tools and services ecosystem for
“research output” repositories on MS technologies
Execution
• Built on SQL Server 2008 + Entity Framework +
LINQ + .NET 4.0
• Use of standard community protocols
(e.g. SWORD, OAI-ORE, etc)
• Zentity v2.0 Technical Preview available soon!
Disseminate
& Share
Archiving