New Enhancements for Semantics in MarkLogic 8.0-4
Posted by Matt Allen on 30 November 2015 03:00 PM |
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MarkLogic 8.0-4 Now AvailableThis type of release is not usually something I would write a blog post about—and technically, MarkLogic 8.0-4 is but another in the sequence of maintenance releases that round out the enormous leaps and bounds we made with the release of MarkLogic 8 last February. But we decided to pack a few extra things we’re really excited about that make it more than just an ordinary maintenance release. There were a few key themes in MarkLogic 8 that we focused on such as improving the developer experience and making it possible to build more powerful, smarter applications (see those themes here). This release includes enhancements and new features that focus on those same themes. Here are some things to keep your eye on in 8.0-4:
I encourage you to download MarkLogic 8.0-4 or read more about these features in the release notes. Continuing Improvements for SemanticsWe built a very strong semantics foundation in MarkLogic 7, and the initial MarkLogic 8 release added major enhancements to make semantics more powerful with the addition of semantic inference, and easier to use with the capability to handle the most up to date SPARQL query standards. MarkLogic 8.0-4 continues with the same trajectory, with a particular focus on improving the APIs. Stephen Buxton, our Senior Director of Product Management, told me:
These enhancements mean that developers have Java APIs that are easy to use (and may already be using), and they make it easy to integrate MarkLogic with third-party semantics tools provided by companies like Smartlogic, Cambridge Semantics, and Pool Party. We also extended the APIs to include unique MarkLogic capabilities such as the ability to do SPARQL queries combined with contextual queries (e.g. full-text, geospatial, ranges, and/or bitemporal). I remember when we first released MarkLogic 8, Broadridge’s head of architecture said, “Early testing has determined that MarkLogic 8 will be a game changer for us as well as the market as a whole.” MarkLogic 8.0-4 continues to deliver on that. Semantics Now Integrated With SamplestackSemantics can be an abstract topic to grasp at first, so in addition to adding new features, we also worked on providing a new way for developers to see how semantics works in practice. With MarkLogic 8, we released a sample application, aptly named “Samplestack,”. Samplestack: An end-to-end three tiered sample application demonstrating how to implement a reference architecture with sample code. The Samplestack 1.1 release now shows off one of the many ways in which semantics can be implemented in a working application. When users search in the Samplestack app, they can now navigate to related content easier by clicking on related tags that are suggested based on semantics. Without semantics, users may get stuck if their search does not return an exact match for what they typed in the search box or returns a random list of seemingly unrelated things (just recall some past Google searches that ended in frustration). Semantics solves this problem by providing related tags that users can click on that are generated based on semantic relationships between tags the user selected and other words that users may not have known or even thought about. How It Applies to UsersI talked to Kasey Alderete, the Product Manager who handles Samplestack development, and she explained it like this…
Samplestack demonstrates how semantics can be woven into the user experience of an app with sophisticated tagging
How This Works Under the CoversIf you’re a developer, now you’re probably wondering how this functionality is built using MarkLogic. Kasey added…
Here is a triple from Kasey’s example: <http://dbpedia.org/resource/Category:JSON> <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#broader> <http://dbpedia.org/resource/Category:JavaScript> So that’s it! Developers can see now all of these parts working together in a full MarkLogic application. It’s freely available on GitHub and it only takes about 30 minutes to setup (and that includes getting a fresh download). For more details on MarkLogic 8.0-4, refer to the release notes in our docs. New Enhancements for Semantics in MarkLogic 8.0-4 from MarkLogic. | |