Thanks for your feedback! There is already a ticket about adding a new data type allowing to link EntitySchemas from statements: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T214884
If we don't encounter any major technical issue, this could be done in the incoming weeks.

On Tue, 28 May 2019 at 19:18, James Heald <jpm.heald@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Léa,

Thanks to all the team for this.

I've proposed a property,

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Shape_Expression_for_class

To make this work, is it possible to have a Shape Expression as the
value of a statement on Wikidata (and the RDF dump, and WDQS) ?

Is there a timescale in which this should become possible ?

Thanks,

    James.




On 28/05/2019 17:04, Léa Lacroix wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> As previously announced, we just released shape expressions on Wikidata.
> You can for example have a look at E10, the shape for human
> <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/EntitySchema:E10>, or create a new
> EntitySchema <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:NewEntitySchema>.
>
> A few useful links:
>
>     - WikiProject ShEx
>     <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ShEx>
>     - introduction to ShEx <http://shex.io/shex-primer/>
>     - more details about the language <http://shex.io/shex-semantics/>
>     - More information about how to create a Schema
>     <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ShEx/How_to_get_started%3F>
>     - Phabricator tag: shape-expressions
>     <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/shape_expressions/>
>     - User script
>     <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Zvpunry/EntitySchemaHighlighter.js>
>     to highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the IDs into
>     links
>
> If you have any question or encounter issues, feel free to ping me. Cheers,
>
> Léa
>
> On Sun, 19 May 2019 at 15:32, Léa Lacroix <lea.lacroix@wikimedia.de> wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> After several months of development and testing together with the WikiProject
>> ShEx <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ShEx>, Shape
>> Expressions are about to be enabled on Wikidata.
>> *First of all, what are Shape Expressions?*
>>
>> ShEx (Q29377880) <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q29377880> is a concise,
>> formal modeling and validation language for RDF structures. Shape
>> Expressions can be used to define shapes within the RDF graph. In the case
>> of Wikidata, this would be sets of properties, qualifiers and references
>> that describe the domain being modeled.
>>
>> See also:
>>
>>     - a short video about ShEx
>>     <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR75KhEoRKg> made by community
>>     members during the Wikimedia hackathon 2019
>>     - introduction to ShEx <http://shex.io/shex-primer/>
>>     - more details about the language <http://shex.io/shex-semantics/>
>>
>> *What can it be used for?*
>>
>> On Wikidata, the main goal of Shape Expressions would be to describe what
>> the basic structure of an item would be. For example, for a human, we
>> probably want to have a date of birth, a place of birth, and many other
>> important statements. But we would also like to make sure that if a
>> statement with the property “children” exists, the value(s) of this
>> property should be humans as well. Schemas will describe in detail what is
>> expected in the structure of items, statements and values of these
>> statements.
>>
>> Once Schemas are created for various types of items, it is possible to
>> test some existing items against the Schema, and highlight possible errors
>> or lack of information. Subsets of the Wikidata graph can be tested to see
>> whether or not they conform to a specific shape through the use of
>> validation tools. Therefore, Schemas will be very useful to help the
>> editors improving the data quality. We imagine this to be especially useful
>> for wiki projects to more easily discuss and ensure the modeling of items
>> in their domain. In the spirit of Wikidata not restricting the world, Shape
>> Expressions are a tool to highlight, not prevent, errors.
>>
>> On top of this, one could imagine other uses of Schemas in the future, for
>> example building a tool that would suggest, when creating a new item, what
>> would be the basic structure for this item, and helping adding statements
>> or values. A bit like this existing tool, Cradle
>> <https://tools.wmflabs.org/wikidata-todo/cradle/#/>, that is currently
>> not based on ShEx.
>> *What is going to change on Wikidata?*
>>
>>     - A new extension will be added to Wikidata: EntitySchema
>>     <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:EntitySchema>, defining the
>>     Schema namespace and its behavior as well as special pages related to it.
>>     - A new entity type, EntitySchema, will be enabled to store Shape
>>     Expressions. Schemas will be identified with the letter E.
>>     - The Schemas will have multilingual labels, descriptions and aliases
>>     (quite similar to the termbox on Items), and the schema text one can fill
>>     with a syntax called ShEx Compact Syntax (ShExC)
>>     <http://shex.io/shex-semantics/#shexc>. You can see an example here
>>     <https://wikidata-shex.wmflabs.org/wiki/EntitySchema:E2>.
>>     - The external tool shex-simple
>>     <https://tools.wmflabs.org/shex-simple/wikidata/packages/shex-webapp/doc/shex-simple.html?schemaURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwikidata-shex.wmflabs.org%2Fwiki%2FSpecial%3AEntitySchemaText%2FE2>
>>     is directly linked from the Schema pages in order to check entities of your
>>     choice against the schema.
>>
>> *When is this happening?*
>>
>> Schemas will be enabled on on test.wikidata.org on May 21st and on
>> wikidata.org on May 28th. After this release, they will be integrated to
>> the regular maintenance just like the rest of Wikidata’s features.
>> *How can you help?*
>>
>>     - Before the release, you can try to edit or create Shape Expressions
>>     on our test system <https://wikidata-shex.wmflabs.org/wiki/Main_Page>
>>     - If you find any issue or feature you’d like to have, feel free to
>>     create a new task on Phabricator with the tag shape-expressions
>>     - Once Schemas are enabled, you can discuss about it on your favorite
>>     wikiprojects: for example, what types of items would you like to model?
>>     - You can also get more information about how to create a Schema
>>     <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ShEx/How_to_get_started%3F>
>>
>> *See also: *
>>
>>     - Main Phabricator board
>>     <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/shape_expressions/>
>>     - Technical documentation of the extension
>>     <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Extension:EntitySchema>
>>     - To enhance the interface, you can use this user script
>>     <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Zvpunry/EntitySchemaHighlighter.js>
>>     to highlight items and properties in the schema code and turn the IDs into
>>     links
>>
>> If you have any questions, feel free to reach me. Cheers,
>> --
>> Léa Lacroix
>> Project Manager Community Communication for Wikidata
>>
>> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
>> Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
>> 10963 Berlin
>> www.wikimedia.de
>>
>> Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
>>
>> Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg
>> unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt
>> für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
>>
>
>
>
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--
Léa Lacroix
Project Manager Community Communication for Wikidata

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
10963 Berlin
www.wikimedia.de

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.

Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.