WebProtegeReleaseNotes

WebProtege Release Notes

WebProtege 0.5 Beta Series

Beta Build 500 - May 13, 2011

• Compatible with Protege 3.4.6 (for the external server mode), GWT 2.2.0, Java 1.6

New functionality

• Restriction editing is supported in the Restriction Portlet. The portlet has support for auto-complete for entity names.

• Users can now sign in with their OpenID account, such as Google, Yahoo, AOL, Flickr, etc. The first time a user login signs in with the OpenID, she will be prompted to associate it with a WebProtege account. For subsequent sign ins, the user can use the OpenId. The associated OpenId accounts can be edited in the Options menu -> Edit profile.

• It is now possible to watch a class or a branch in the class tree, similar to the Watch functionality available in wikis. The Watched Entities portlet will display the changes that occurred in the watched entities and branches.

• The users may opt to be noti

• Users may now change their password from the Options -> Change password menu in the top right corner of the display.

• Users with adequate access rights can create new users from the Options menu -> Add new user.

• The password can be reset and sent by email if the user clicks on the Forgot password link in the Login panel.

UI Layout Enhancements

• WebProtege stores the user interface configuration in a XML file that can be manually edited to change the layout of tabs and portlets.

• Added support for building domain specific knowledge acquisition forms. Forms are similar to the ones in the Protege 3.x series in which a property in the ontology is associated to a widget that can display and edit the values of the property. Available property widgets: text field, text area, combo box, grid, etc. See documentation.

• New property form widgets:
  • Instance check box
  • Instance radio button
  • Instance combo-box
  • Class select widget
  • Property select widget

• It is now possible to create your own tabs, add portlets to them, and set a controlling portlet for the tab. The controlling portlet sets the selection for the rest of the portlets in a tab. For example, in the Classes tab, the class tree portlet is the controlling portlet.

• It is possible to change the controlling portlet of an existing or new tab dynamically at run time by using the configure icon in the title bar of a portlet.

• You may save the layout from the Ontology toolbar using the Save icon (right-most icon). This feature is still under development.

Other enhancements and bug fixes

• Better support for linking terms from BioPortal ontologies with the BioPortal Reference Portlet:
  • Added support for composite search: each search term will be expanded
  • Added support for searching on synonyms and on other property values
  • The search results presentation has been enhanced. It shows the preferred term, show whether the search term was found in preferred term, synonym or id, and the matched content.

• TO BE CONTINUED

WebProtege 0.5 Alpha Series

Build 300 - August 15, 2009

• Various fixes and enhancements

Build 200 - August 15, 2009

Critical Changes (please read)

• Upgraded to GWT 1.7.
• We made some changes to the directory structure and Eclipse setup to conform to GWT 1.7. If you are installing WebProtege, please re-read the Administrator's Guide for updated instructions. Developers should look at the Developer's Guide - the setup for compiling and running WebProtege has been greatly simplified thanks to the Google Plugin for Eclipse.
• WebProtege now runs in "local mode" by default. Local mode means that WebProtege will load ontologies from a standalone instance of Protege in your Servlet container. WebProtege can also be configured to run in "external server mode" by setting a property value in the protege.properties file in the <your-servlet-container>/webprotege directory. External server mode means that WebProtege will load ontologies from a Protege server running outside of your Servlet container. The following additional configurations options can be set in protege.properties:

  # Defaults to false; change to true to run WebProtege in external server mode
  load.ontologies.from.protege.server=true
  
  # Use to specify an alternative location for the metaproject if running in local mode
  local.metaproject.path=/tmp/metaproject.pprj
  
  # Hostname of the Protege server if WebProtege is running in external server mode; can also contain a port number
  server.hostname=localhost
  
  # Username that WebProtege uses to connect to the Protege server if running in external server mode
  webprotege.user=webprotege
  
  # Password that WebProtege uses to connect to the Protege server if running in external server mode
  webprotege.password=webprotege
  
  # Automatic save interval for ontologies if running in local mode (we recommend the database back-end instead of file mode)
  server.save.interval.sec=120
  

  Values of properties listed above should be changed to match your custom WebProtege installation.

• Project configurations are now saved in the <your-servlet-container>/webprotege/projectConfigurations folder. The XML configuration files contain user interface layout information (tabs to display, number of columns in a tab, portlets to display in a tab, portlet properties, etc.). The default configuration file is "configuration.xml". New configuration files are automatically generated if a user saves the layout for a particular project. Configurations are stored per user, per project.
• Users can now open multiple ontologies in WebProtege. Each ontology is displayed in a separate tab.

Other Changes

• Search is now implemented, including the ability to jump to the location in the class tree of a selected search result (this functionality is not yet available for the properties tree). The search text field is located in the top toolbar.
• Added more support for editing; users with write permission on a particular project are now able to:
  • Create and delete classes in the Classes tab
  • Create and delete properties in the Properties tab
  • Edit string property values in the Properties portlet
  • Edit the domain and range of properties in the Properties tab
• New portlet is available; the BioPortal Search portlet allows users to search for terms in the BioPortal repository and import the terms as references in WebProtege ontologies.
• New portlet is available; the PropertyFieldPortlet allows form-based editing of property values. The portlet can be configured to use different widget types for different properties (analogous to slot widgets in Protege standalone). Available widgets for editing include:
  
  
  • textfield
  • textarea
  • HTML pane
  • instance grid (similar to the InstanceTable in Protege standalone)
  • external reference
  • multifield
  • combo-box; not working yet... :)
  .
  The layout of the form has to be done manually (for now) in the XML configuration file. An example is available in the "configuration_example_property_field_portlet.xml" included in the standard distribution.
• The Properties tab now shows different icons for the different property types.
• The Class Tree in the ClassTreePortlet can now be configured to only show a subtree in the ontology. The root class can be configured in the configuration XML file of the project, by setting the topClass portlet property to the full name of a class. Please see the example configuration file for exact syntax: "configuration_example_property_field_portlet.xml".
• Web links are now opened in a new browser window.
• Better logging in the Servlet container and Protege server logs if something goes wrong.
• If running in external server mode, WebProtege will cleanly handle situations in which the Protege server becomes unavailable.
• RPC calls are now available for creating/deleting classes and setting property values.
• Support for multiple change events. Portlets can register listeners for class and property creation, deletion, and for property value changed.

Build 103 - August 1, 2009

If running in external server mode, WebProtege is now compatible with the Protege 3.4.1 release.

Build 102 - April 3, 2009

If running in external server mode, WebProtege is now compatible with the Protege 3.4 release.

Build 101 - October 26, 2008

Initial 0.5 alpha release