Maiana import and export

Revision as of 00:23, 16 November 2010

Maiana is a service to host, explore, and share topic maps. Maiana has been developed in Topic Maps Lab. Topic Maps Lab also hosts the service at the moment. Wandora is capable to export topic maps to Maiana, and to import topic maps from Maiana. Both features use an API of Maiana and require a personal API key.

Importing topic map from Maiana

A topic map is imported from Maiana to Wandora with a menu option File > Import > Import topic maps from Maiana.... Menu option opens an import dialog window. Window has three input fields. Write your personal API key to the API key field. You'll get your API key from your personal page at Maiana. If you know the owner and the identifier of the imported topic map, you can fill in other two fields and press Import button. Or, if you don't know topic map specific identifiers, you can press the Fetch list button and Wandora downloads a list of available topic maps from Maiana. Wandora views all available topic maps in selection list below input fields and you can select the topic maps you wish to import from Maiana. You can also select multiple topic maps and Wandora imports each selected topic map to separate layers.

Additional notes

Wandora's topic map model is not fully TMDM compatible and importing topic map from Maiana to Wandora may change the topic map slightly. These changes include

• In Wandora, a topic can carry only one occurrence per type and scope. If topic map contains multiple occurrences with same type and scope, only one of them is imported to Wandora.
• Wandora supports no URL resource occurrences. Wandora converts URL occurrences to topics and creates an association between URL resource topic and the original occurrence carrier.
• Wandora supports only one base name. If topic has more than one base name in Maiana, only one is imported to Wandora.
• In Wandora, a topic can carry only one variant name per scope. If topic map contains many variant names with identical scope, only one imports to Wandora.

Exporting topic map to Maiana

To export a topic from Wandora to Maiana you have several options:

• To export whole layer stack i.e. all topic map layers in Wandora, select menu option File > Export > Export topic map to Maiana...
• To export single topic map layer select menu option Export layer > Export topic map to Maiana... in context of the layer you wish to export with right mouse button.
• To export selected topics choose menu option Topics > Export > Export selection to Maiana... in context of the topic selection with right mouse button.

Choosing any of the export options described above opens a Maiana export dialog window. Window has an input field for your personal API key, for a name and for an identifier name (short name) of the topic map. Fields contain default names and you can edit them if you wish. Also, Wandora fills in the API key field if you have used your API key earlier for Maiana import or export. Wandora doesn't store your API key between use sessions.

Additional notes

Wandora accepts almost anything as a subject identifier or as a subject locator. They don't need to be even valid URIs. On the other hand, Maiana is much more stricter with subject identifiers and locators. If you try to export a topic map with invalid URIs to Maiana, the export fails.