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CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI

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Tim L edited this page May 23, 2013 · 24 revisions

What is first

  • Setting the CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI environment variable is essential because it provides the base for all URIs that csv2rdflod creates. See Conversion process phase: name for the "source-dataset-version" naming convention and how it is situated within CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI.
  • https://github.com/timrdf/csv2rdf4lod-automation/wiki/CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI# (this page) is the default value for CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI and should always be changed to your project's base URI.

What we will cover

When, why, and how to set CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI. In short:

  • When? Always.
  • Why? Because you're making Linked Data, and csv2rdf4lod needs to know where your URIs should live.
  • How? export or source.

Let's get to it!

Shell environment variable

CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI is a shell environment variable. It can be set using export on the command line:

export CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI="http://lofd.tw.rpi.edu"

The command above can also be placed in a file and source'd:

echo 'export CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI="http://lofd.tw.rpi.edu"' >> source-me.sh
source source-me.sh

See Script: source me.sh for more about preserving and maintaining the values of CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI or any of the other CSV2RDF4LOD environment variables. As described in Script: source me.sh, you can use the my-csv2rdf4lod-source-me.sh file, which is created for during installation, to change the value of any environment variable. Then, just source this file once at log in (e.g., in your ~/.bashrc).

Base URIs that have been used by different projects:

Used When Generating Enhancement Parameters

The value of the CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI shell environment variable is used when generating enhancement parameters, which appear in the conversion cockpit's manual/ directory. For example, manual/filers.csv.e1.params.ttl contains the value "http://lofd.tw.rpi.edu":

<http://lofd.tw.rpi.edu/source/datahub-io/dataset/corpwatch/version/2013-Apr-24/conversion/enhancement/1>
   a conversion:LayerDataset, void:Dataset;

   conversion:base_uri           "http://lofd.tw.rpi.edu"^^xsd:anyURI;
...

Once an enhancement parameters file is created, csv2rdf4lod-automation never modifies it again. If your conversion:base_uri is incorrect, you need to change it yourself. So, set CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI correctly from the onset of your project.

Needed by bin/cr-dataset-uri.sh

cr-dataset-uri.sh needs CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI to be set so that it can produce the dataset URI. If the variable is not set, it returns the URL of this wiki section.

Needed when publishing

CSV2RDF4LOD_BASE_URI is also needed when [publishing](Conversion process phase: publish), since it needs to create the URLs of dump files and assert provenance/metadata about the publishing process.

What is next

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