SemScape is a plugin that allows user interaction and queries over remote sparql endpoints.
In particular it allows visualization of sparql queries' results, interactive navigation of RDF graphs and reconstuction of semantic data landscapes. The functionalities of SemScape can be categorized essentially in discovery and navigation of linked data landscapes.
Discovery functions are based on the automatic extraction of a data map (typi- cally types and relations from a given endpoint).
Navigation functions are based on contextual menus that can be confi gured by users and data publishers: when right-selecting a node, the system uses at- tributes of the node (e.g. its type) to look into a query library for queries that can be applied to the node. E.g.: if the node is a protein, the system may fi nd queries for interacting proteins. In general for each resource simple queries such as all statements including the resource as object or subject are provided. Once a selection is performed, results are used to expand the graph, and provenance information is kept for each new element visualized (which in turns allow new contextual queries to the original endpoint). In particular, queries are written as parametric queries, and can be provided by data publisher as a package to which the user can subscribe. For instance a pathway resource provider may provide, together with an endpoint, a set of preconfi gured queries to drive user interaction on its knowledge base. The user can keep track of such preconfi gured packages and update them if newer versions are proposed by the data publisher. Together with the possibility to execute and visualize generic SPARQL queries, SemScape allow the possibility to extract and defi ne data landscapes, which are graphs visualizing the semantic links between data sets in a given context (e.g. Cancer). These graphs can be restructured using the visualization layouts provided by Cytoscape.
