Well, there is a trade-off. If we have too few types then it is harder for clients to use the data and inconsistencies might slip in. But if we delay the approval of too many properties because we want more types then we risk unnecessarily slowing the growth of the database. It's all binary information ultimately. Datatypes just add some constraints that block certain binary sequences from being stored in certain areas. The list of properties that are awaiting specific datatypes are standard datatypes found in many databases, but it is just an artifact of history that we consider those datatypes to be standard. For example, you see that "number of floors" is awaiting the number datatype. That's nice because it will prevent someone from entering "abc" as the number of floors in the Burj Khalifa. But just constraining the information to be a number doesn't prevent someone from entering -10 as the number of floors. So should we add an additional datatype for positive integers? If we try to specify too many server-side constraints on the information then our efforts to be supremely responsible become irresponsible because, for example, we are just slowing the ability of Wikidata to provide better templates to less popular language Wikipedias.

---

Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:56:37 +0200

From: kozuch82@gmail.com
To: wikidata-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikidata-l] phase 2 live on the first 11 Wikipedias

Why are there so many properties waiting on http://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Property_proposal/Pending then???

2013/3/29 Michael Hale <hale.michael.jr@live.com>

It would be nice to never have to do any additional validation on the client, but in general I'm pretty sure it's impossible to specify server validation for every type in advance. Let's assume I want to upload gene sequences. I could go through the long process of waiting to get a new type approved and code added on the website just for the minor check of making sure this is a string of just As, Gs, Cs, and Ts, or I could just use generic strings and start right now.

---

Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:42:29 +0100

From: kozuch82@gmail.com
To: wikidata-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikidata-l] phase 2 live on the first 11 Wikipedias

> parse it into a date on the client-side.

this is exactly why I do not want to do. we should validate inputs, not (try to) parse outputs

2013/3/29 Michael Hale <hale.michael.jr@live.com>

It doesn't hinder the expansion of Wikidata because the current types are flexible. Added types will improve performance and simplify client access for some scenarios, but every scenario I can think of is possible with the currently available types. If you have data that you would like to enter, I suggest doing so and then you can switch some properties to the new types when they are added if you want. The three types currently supported for properties are lists of items, media, and strings. You can group different types together for a single property by creating a new item to hold them. Soon you will be able to add an extra property that can be used to differentiate values in a list, called a qualifier. Other types are coming, but for example, if you want to use a date now you can just use a string and then parse it into a date on the client-side.

---

Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:54:23 +0100
From: kozuch82@gmail.com
To: wikidata-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikidata-l] phase 2 live on the first 11 Wikipedias

Contrats! Anyways, I still miss various data types to be available for properties - unavailability of these greatly hinders the expansion of wikidata database. Any plans on how fast new (and comprehensive) data types will be introduced to wikidata.org?

2013/3/28 Daniel Kinzler <daniel.kinzler@wikimedia.de>

On 28.03.2013 11:24, Lydia Pintscher wrote:
>> In the announcement blog, {{#property:chief executive officer}} is not
>> ready, do you know the rough plan on this? maybe end of Q2?
>
> It should come soon. Hopefully already in the next deployment but no
> promises. We're currently figuring out the schedule for that with
> Easter complicating things a bit.

To give some idea in addition to what Lydia said:

I wrote the code for that just now, while on the train from Berlin. Now it needs
to be reviewed, tested, and, if all goes well, deployed. When that would be I'm
not sure, with people taking vacations over the holidays, but I'd speak of
weeks, not months. But it's quite a hunk of code, so delays are possible.

cheers,
daniel


--
Daniel Kinzler, Softwarearchitekt

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

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