Hi Magnus,

Hi List,

Thanks for your assessment!

> Since "proper" wikidata lists would be powered by SPARQL, which is much more expressive, it will be difficult to wrap it into a flowchart-like interface, without overloading it with options, which in turn makes it harder to use.

Yes, my goal would be not graphically wrap the whole SPARQL; like you, I noticed it would be too overloaded. In any new interface, I would also only support a subset – but a useful one (specifically, useful for querying to generate Wikipedia lists, at least for now).

For example, one of my current drafts allows querying in this very limited way: Prop:Value AND (Prop:Value OR Prop:Value) AND… – so
- only one Type (Query:Value, which also should work for Qualifiers, though),
- one first level Operator (AND),
- one second level Operator (OR).

So I aim for:

1. Finding out which instructions are most useful in practice, to see what might be included in such a subset (possibly like: "In almost all queries, I use the ____-Operator, but I never understood what _____ was for".)

and, which is why I asked about wqd,

2. What did work well about the using the graphical interface of wdq? (possible things: How scary/friendly is it compared to SPARQL? How hard is finding the needed instructions compared to SPARQL etc.)

Kind Regards,

Jan

2016-10-20 13:55 GMT+02:00 Magnus Manske <magnusmanske@googlemail.com>:

Hi Jan,

as the author of wdq and its query builder, I recommend against using it as a model.

The wdq query builder does work, to some degree, because the instruction set of wdq is very limited, and predictable. Since "proper" wikidata lists would be powered by SPARQL, which is much more expressive, it will be difficult to wrap it into a flowchart-like interface, without overloading it with options, which in turn makes it harder to use.

Personally, I would let people just paste SPARQL into the list definitions, and let them construct and test the queries elsewhere. query.wikidata.org already has nice features, such as CTRL-space replacing of free text by Wikidata entities, searchable examples, etc. Combine that with a place where people can get help with query building, and IMHO it would serve the community well.

There also was a natural-language-to-SPARQL tool somewhere, but I can't find the URL...

This is not to say that we shouldn't have, at some point down the road, a query-building interface that is tailored to our needs!

My two Eurocent,
Magnus

On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 12:30 PM Jan Dittrich <jan.dittrich@wikimedia.de> wrote:
Hello everyone,

I continue to work on creating an interface that allows easy querying of Wikidata for generating lists for wikipedia (and, possibly, beyond).

An existing, interface based query builder is http://wdq.wmflabs.org/

If you use (or have used it) it would be interested in hearing about the advantages or disadvantages you perceived in regards to the functions of wqd and their interface.

Kind Regards,
Jan

PS: In my experience, examples ("I tried to…") or context ("because I wanted to…") can greatly easy understanding, so if giving them makes sense for you, don't hesitate to include them.

--
Jan Dittrich
UX Design/ User Research

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30 219 158 26-0
http://wikimedia.de

Imagine a world, in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That‘s our commitment.

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.

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Jan Dittrich

UX Design/ User Research

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30 219 158 26-0
http://wikimedia.de

Imagine a world, in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That‘s our commitment.

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.