ESciDoc Container Toc

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In eSciDoc hierarchical structures are build by means of container resources. A container resource refers to its members which are again containers or items. The set of references is represented as structural map (struct-map) inside the representation of a container resource. Additionally a container may contain a table of content (TOC) which contains an ordered selection of members. The TOC does not allow the grouping of members. It contains only direct members of the container resource. Grouping of direct members is not necessary; a hierarchical structure is build by container resources wich are linked as members.

The only reason to provide more than one TOC for a container resource would be to have different selections of the container resource members. It is assumed that there is no use case for different selections of members of one single container.

This assumption is probably out-dated by know. The ViRR use cases show that various types ("physical", "logical") may be provided --Inga 23:16, 15 March 2008 (CET)
Yes indeed, it is out-dated. For me it's not clear if there is a "physical" and a "logical" TOC or one single TOC should be transformed into a METS with a "physical" and a "logical" structMap, in the ViRR use case. Frank 10:46, 17 March 2008 (CET)

TOC Representation based on RSS 1.0[edit]

A TOC consists of a RSS items element which is "an RDF table of contents" [1] containing an ordered list of member resources. The items element contains an RDF sequence (rdf:Seq) with RDF list items (rdf:li). A list item refers to a member resource by the RDF resource attribute. 

<rss:items>
	<rdf:Seq>
		<rdf:li rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/ir/item/escidoc:234"/>
		<rdf:li rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/ir/container/:111"/>
	</rdf:Seq>
</rss:items>

toc-view[edit]

If the toc-view of a container resource is requested, a RSS channel is generated for delivery. The channel's about attribute is set to the container's URL; title and description are set to the container's title and description. The link element of the channel contains the URL of the requested toc-view. Further the content of the container's TOC is added (rss:items) and a RSS item for each TOC entry is added.

An item element contains information about the referred member (rdf:about attribute). An item contains at least title, description and URL of the member resource as rss:title, rss:description and rss:link. Additionally all DC entries from the triple store pertaining to the referred member are added. 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rdf:RDF 
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" 
    xmlns:rss="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/" 
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">

  <rss:channel rdf:about="http://localhost:8080/ir/container/escidoc:123">
    <rss:title>The containers title</rss:title>
    <rss:link>http://localhost:8080/ir/container/escidoc:123/resources/toc-view</rss:link>
    <rss:description>A selected list of the members of the container.</rss:description>

    <!--
      From RDF Site Summary (RSS) 1.0 (http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec#s5.3.5)
  
      5.3.5 <items>
      An RDF table of contents, associating the document's items [5.5] 
      with this particular RSS channel. Each item's rdf:resource {item_uri}
      must be the same as the associated item element's rdf:about {item_uri}.

      An RDF Seq (sequence) is used to contain all the items rather than an 
      RDF Bag to denote item order for rendering and reconstruction. 
    -->
    <rss:items>
      <rdf:Seq>
        <rdf:li rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/ir/item/escidoc:234"/>
        <rdf:li rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/ir/container/:111"/>
      </rdf:Seq>
    </rss:items>
		
    <rss:item rdf:about="http://localhost:8080/ir/item/escidoc:234">
      <rss:title>Title of the refered resource</rss:title>
      <rss:link>http://localhost:8080/ir/item/escidoc:234</rss:link>
      <rss:description>Description from the refered resource</rss:description>
      <!-- All dc metadata entries from triplestore. -->
      <dc:title>Title from DC</dc:title>
      <dc:identifier>Identifier from DC</dc:identifier>
    </rss:item>

    <rss:item rdf:about="http://localhost:8080/ir/container/escidoc:111">
      <!-- ... -->
    </rss:item>

  </rss:channel>
</rdf:RDF>

Questions & Discussion[edit]

  • we have discovered a new use case (coming up from VIRR project, for more info please check VIRR Pages) for table of contents (the TOC for e.g. scanned books should contain the whole structure of a container i.e. there is one single TOC for the whole top-level container e.g. book)
Isn't the requirement of an "deep-level TOC" for the top-level container an indicator that a digitized book should be better represented as an individual item? I'm not sure if the same requirement would be true for other kinds of containers as well. In addition, the idea of a "deep-level TOC" sounds to me like container sub-structure is no longer used as the main browse entry, but the toc is. Keeping toc and container structure in sync could create a massive overhead (see alternatives provided below) and I would recommend to avoid these dependencies at this point in time --Inga 23:00, 15 March 2008 (CET)
I realy agree with that concern about container sub-structure. This should certainly be discussed once more. Frank 10:52, 17 March 2008 (CET)
  • we would probably need to remove the TOC datastream from Containers (as it is valid for a single level only) and count with a separate "TOC object"
  • we would probably need to reconsider current TOC as being treated as "user-readable structural map" of a container (actually the RSS channel is very good idea for this)
What is meant with "user-reabable"? --Inga 23:00, 15 March 2008 (CET)
  • in case we create separate TOC objects that can be related to a container, we should also provide a utility to "generate initial TOC" based on the Container structure (starting from a specific container node and traversing through all other nodes). The utility in fact can generate (RSS lists as depicted already with the toc-view? METS document?).
  • syncronization of TOC objects with the Container structure
    • alternative: generated TOC is not automatically in sync with the real structure of the container. Utility for validating the TOC structure based on the container structure can be provided. The modification of a container is not automatically changing/invalidating the TOC.
    • alternative: generated TOC is always in sync with the real structure of the container. Modification of a container validates related TOC objects (is not modifying them but marks them as invalid). Users who are then responsible for TOC object editing should re-generate the TOC object by using a system utility.
    • alternative: generated TOC is always in sync with the real structure of the container. Modification of a container validates related TOC objects, removes nodes no longer existing in the container structure and adds nodes new in the container structure. Users who are then responsible for TOC object editing may manually remove TOC object node(s) if they do want some object nodes NOT to appear in the Toc after the automatical generation.
  • another requirement coming up from the same project: we need to establish "logical" order of elements in the container (in addition to the "structural" grouping. The logical order should depict something like book with book pages (both sides of a page in case the page is printed only one-sided and on the back side there are some remarks, comments):
    • previous object
    • current object
      • current object-recto
      • current object-verso
    • next object
      • next object-recto
      • next object-verson

In a real example, this would mean that the logical order is the "labeling" (in the example marked with bold), and the physical order is the "numbered order as understood by a machine" (in the example marked with italic) e.g. :

Example 1:

  • Book (top level node, no labeling, no numbering yet)
    • Book Chapter I - 1
    • Book Chapter II - 2
      • Page A - 2.1
      • Page B - 2.2
      • Page B-1 - 2.3
    • Book Chapter III -3

Note: user requirement when navigating is to be able to directly go to page "B-1", or to list pages A through C.

Example 2:

  • Encyclopedia (top level node, no labeling, no numbering yet)
    • Part A-M - 1
    • Part N-T - 2
    • Part U-Z - 3

Note: user requirement when navigating is to be able to directly go to part "A-M" (to list parts A through Z would be to my understanding too ambitious, but listing parts A-M through N-T can be requirement)

Example 3a:

  • Architectural drawings collection of N.N. (top level node, no labeling, no numbering yet)
      • Drawing XII - 1.1 - foreface - recto
      • Drawing XII - 1.2 - backface - verso

Example 3b:

  • Architectural drawings collection of N.N. (top level node, no labeling, no numbering yet)
      • Drawing XII - 1 - (image of foreface, image of backface)


Note: example 3 (a, b) is here not very well thought trough: as we are not yet certain if both foreface and backface would be considered as separate objects like depicted above or as separate components of a same object.

Whether we do it in a container or we try to depict it with the TOC object only - it is something we need to clarify.

  • TOC objects - to be considered as a possibility to have more than one TOC object for a container? What happens with TOC (html), TOC(rtf)? etc. Is this subject to the representation of the TOC only?


  • TOC of a container should support
    • possibility to give title and description to a member
    • to give members an order
    • grouping members
probably this is a very good reason to really distinguish between structural map (the container members on the 1st level) as internal part of the container and the TOC (which can comprise any level of container members) as object which can be related to a container --Natasa 16:50, 10 December 2007 (CET)
Did you mean members of members if you say comprise any level of container members? See the next point but one.
Yes, i saw all points mentioned - (see also the reasoning under Questions and Discussion on this page) the idea is that we can treat TOC objects as any other objects i.e. content items that are related to container objects via content relations isTOCFor, hasToc. The users should decide up to which level they would like to go when they create the TOC (we may only give them some utility methods for that). Thus we keep the structural map intact - and it really contains only the members on first level(items, containers). So my point was to really make strict difference between struct map and TOC. --Natasa 18:32, 10 December 2007 (CET)
  • I see multiple TOCs as different views on the members of a container. Different representations (html, rtf ...) are transformations of a main format (xml).
  • We should basically decide if the TOC of a container is about the container members or additionally about the members of all subcontainers. The latter one is very complex and doubles the object structure.

Telco 26.02.2008 discussion[edit]

ESciDoc_Developer_Telco_2008-02-26

References[edit]

  1. ↑ RDF Site Summary (RSS) 1.0. Retrieved on 2007-09-26.

Enhanced Scientific Documentation

Table of Contents

Virtueller Raum Reichsrecht

Central European Time

Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard

Really Simple Syndication

Resource Description Framework

Uniform Resource Locator

Dublin Core

Virtueller Raum Reichsrecht

Telephon Conference

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