[Wikidata-l] Querying Arbitrary Wikibase Installations

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Derric Atzrott

7 Nov 2014 7 Nov '14

4:58 p.m.

Hello all, I'm thinking of setting up an installation of Wikibase here at my work to allow folks to store data about things that they work on. Pretty regularly I am tasked with the creation of databases and interfaces for those databases and I suspect that doing this will save me time, make things easier for all of my users, and plus we get revision control for free. I know how to use the Wikidata API to query for information on an individual Wikidata item, but if I want to perform the equivalent of a SELECT statement on a number of Wikidata items (for example to get a list of all items with a particular Instance Of value), how would I go about that? So far it's looking like I am going to need to install the Wikibase Query Engine and the Ask library? https://github.com/wmde/Ask Any help would be appreciated, it looks like Wikibase documentation for reusers is not terribly great yet. After I set things up I'm happy to write a post on my website and create a page on Mediawiki.org to serve as a walkthrough for future users. Thank you, Derric Atzrott Computer Specialist Alizee Pathology

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Jeroen De Dauw

7 Nov 7 Nov

5:27 p.m.

Hey Derric, There is no stable release of the Wikibase Query functionality yet, and even in the development branch, the feature set is far short of what I guess you want to use. One thing that is not entirely clear to me is if you want to query data from Wikidata.org, or from your own Wikibase Repository instance. In any case, have you considered Semantic MediaWiki for your use case? http://semantic-mediawiki.org/

...

Any help would be appreciated, it looks like Wikibase documentation for

reusers is not terribly great yet. Indeed. We have essentially no user documentation on the features of the software that is not specific to Wikidata.org. Then again, we also do not have stable releases or usable release notes for our main applications (Wikibase Repository and Wikibase Client) suitable for third party users. I hope we can improve these things in the near future, though one has to hold into account that third party users are not amongst the first priorities of the main developer of the Wikibase software, the Wikidata team. Cheers -- Jeroen De Dauw - http://www.bn2vs.com Software craftsmanship advocate Evil software architect at Wikimedia Germany ~=[,,_,,]:3

Derric Atzrott

6:02 p.m.

...

There is no stable release of the Wikibase Query functionality yet, and even in the development branch, the feature set is far short of what I guess you want to use.

If I can make a simple query on a single property to narrow down the list of items to something useful, I can use the Wikidata API plus processing within my own software to query things further. That with a healthy amount of caching so that performance isn't awful, should mean that I require only minimal functionality. I just need to be able to do something like: SELECT `qid` FROM Wikibase WHERE `Instance Of` = 'Elephant'; Using that list and the Wikibase API, I can do processing on my own of the returned data and take it from there.

...

One thing that is not entirely clear to me is if you want to query data from Wikidata.org, or from your own Wikibase Repository instance.

My own Wikibase Repository instance. I believe that I can use https://wdq.wmflabs.org/ plus the API to query from Wikidata if I need to.

...

In any case, have you considered Semantic MediaWiki for your use case? http://semantic-mediawiki.org/

Yes. I believe that Wikibase fits the use requirements a little bit better.

...

Any help would be appreciated, it looks like Wikibase documentation for reusers is not terribly great yet.

Indeed. We have essentially no user documentation on the features of the software that is not specific to Wikidata.org. Then again, we also do not have stable releases or usable release notes for our main applications (Wikibase Repository and Wikibase Client) suitable for third party users. I hope we can improve these things in the near future, though one has to hold into account that third party users are not amongst the first priorities of the main developer of the Wikibase software, the Wikidata team.

Certainly! I wasn't expecting there to be much out there and I completely understand that the priorities of the team are with Wikidata and not with Third Party reuse. If I can figure out how to get everything installed and running, I'd be more than happy to write up a how-to so that other third party reusers will have an easier time in the future. Thank you, Derric Atzrott

Lydia Pintscher

6:07 p.m.

Hi Derric, What you are asking for simply is still in development or has not started yet. Please see https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Development_plan for the development plan. Also CC yourself to https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52385 and https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=65626 if you want to be kept up-to-date on those specific features. More answers inline. On Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 7:02 PM, Derric Atzrott <datzrott(a)alizeepathology.com> wrote:

...

There is no stable release of the Wikibase Query functionality yet, and even in the development branch, the feature set is far short of what I guess you want to use.

That is not possible until simple query functionality is finished.

...

One thing that is not entirely clear to me is if you want to query data from Wikidata.org, or from your own Wikibase Repository instance.

My own Wikibase Repository instance. I believe that I can use https://wdq.wmflabs.org/ plus the API to query from Wikidata if I need to.

In any case, have you considered Semantic MediaWiki for your use case? http://semantic-mediawiki.org/

Yes. I believe that Wikibase fits the use requirements a little bit better.

Any help would be appreciated, it looks like Wikibase documentation for reusers is not terribly great yet.

http://wikiba.se and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikibase is what we have. We're in the process of cleaning those up. Cheers Lydia -- Lydia Pintscher - http://about.me/lydia.pintscher Product Manager 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 27/681/51985.

Derric Atzrott

6:24 p.m.

...

What you are asking for simply is still in development or has not started yet. Please see https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Development_plan for the development plan. Also CC yourself to https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52385 and https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=65626 if you want to be kept up-to-date on those specific features.

I've added myself to the CC list for both of those bugs.

...

I just need to be able to do something like: SELECT `qid` FROM Wikibase WHERE `Instance Of` = 'Elephant'; Using that list and the Wikibase API, I can do processing on my own of the returned data and take it from there.

That is not possible until simple query functionality is finished.

I knew complex queries were not done yet, but I though simple might be. Its of no worry though. I can run a nightly job to iterate through all of the items to build an index of them that is good enough for what I need. Though, that does take some of the excitement out of it, even still I think Wikibase would be better than the sort of adhoc system we have now.

...

If I can figure out how to get everything installed and running, I'd be more than happy to write up a how-to so that other third party reusers will have an easier time in the future.

http://wikiba.se and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikibase is what we have. We're in the process of cleaning those up.

Awesome. Thank you for your help. If I run into any problems I'll ask here. Thank you, Derric Atzrott

Jeroen De Dauw

7:17 p.m.

Hey,

...

I just need to be able to do something like: > > SELECT `qid` FROM Wikibase WHERE `Instance Of` = 'Elephant'; > > Using that list and the Wikibase API, I can do processing on my own of

the

returned data and take it from there.

That is not possible until simple query functionality is finished.

While the MediaWiki extension that will expose this, Wikibase Query, has no releases yet, the component it is based on, Wikibase QueryEngine, does have a release already. And that release allows you to do the very basic query in your example. So if you are fine with specifying the query and getting the results in PHP land, you can already go ahead and use QueryEngine. Cheers -- Jeroen De Dauw - http://www.bn2vs.com Software craftsmanship advocate Evil software architect at Wikimedia Germany ~=[,,_,,]:3

Derric Atzrott

7:29 p.m.

...

That is not possible until simple query functionality is finished.

PHP land is actually exactly where I need it, so that will work just fine! That will definitely make things easier. No more cronjob to iterate over all of the items to find and cache the results to queries that might be useful to help answer more complex quries! Thank you, Derric Atzrott

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Derric Atzrott
Jeroen De Dauw
Lydia Pintscher