Study / describe / solve optinalities

[sjaakd]

There is not yet a thorough strategy for optionele in the code. For instance, if an optional parameter is absent, then still the surrounding tags will be present in the generated RDF-XML.

This also makes extension somewhat dubious. There are fields that are mandatory / recommended / optional according to the used application profile and according to the organisation. Somehow this must be indicated in the mapping (the .properties files).

[sjaakd]

A nice example here is address (geospatial)

# Address node (LOCN) (not required for GDN, but for others perhaps)
# nodes.addr.kind       = bnode
# nodes.addr.type       = locn:Address
# nodes.loc.props.address.predicate = locn:address
# nodes.loc.props.address.as        = node-ref
# nodes.loc.props.address.node      = addr

# nodes.addr.props.thoroughfare.predicate = locn:thoroughfare
# nodes.addr.props.thoroughfare.as        = literal
# nodes.addr.props.thoroughfare.json      = $..geospatial.fields[?(@.typeName=='geographicCoverage')].value[0].otherGeographicCoverage.value
# nodes.addr.props.postCode.predicate     = locn:postCode
# nodes.addr.props.postCode.as            = literal
# nodes.addr.props.postCode.json          = $..geospatial.fields[?(@.typeName=='geographicCoverage')].value[0].postalCode.value
# nodes.addr.props.postName.predicate     = locn:postName
# nodes.addr.props.postName.as            = literal
# nodes.addr.props.postName.json          = $..geospatial.fields[?(@.typeName=='geographicCoverage')].value[0].city.value
# nodes.addr.props.adminUnitL2.predicate  = locn:adminUnitL2
# nodes.addr.props.adminUnitL2.as         = literal
# nodes.addr.props.adminUnitL2.json       = $..geospatial.fields[?(@.typeName=='geographicCoverage')].value[0].state.value
# nodes.addr.props.adminUnitL1.predicate  = locn:adminUnitL1
# nodes.addr.props.adminUnitL1.as         = literal
# nodes.addr.props.adminUnitL1.json       = $..geospatial.fields[?(@.typeName=='geographicCoverage')].value[0].country.value

I noticed that if you remove the second block (after the enter) the output still contains an empty address tag. This is akin with the json-paths not yielding any result (optional). Ideally, you could mark the: nodes.log.props.address.optional=true or something like that. If on a lower level, required fields do not yield any result, the whole block is left out. Note: this can be tricky when for instance the whole address is optional, it does find a postcode but no postname (because they could be mutually exclusive, or one of them is optional, but the other one not). We have to define some rules to what constitutes to being optional on a particular level.

Food for thought.