The SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework builds a complete ecosystem around Semantic Web technologies to make health-related data FAIR. From an Excel-based SPHN Dataset, SPHN projects need to create an RDF schema, related SHACL rules for helping data validation, SPARQLs for data exploration and ideally a documentation to better visualize the schema. This requires SPHN projects to be able to understand and grasp the way Semantic Web technologies work and should be implemented, which can be a difficult and time-consuming task. To ease the learning curve, the DCC not only provides training on these topics but also has worked on building tools to automate the generation of some of the steps such as the automated generation of SHACL rules with the SHACLer based on a SPHN-compliant RDF schema.
Today, we take it one step further and present a tool that automates the whole process. The SPHN Schema Forge is a web service that significantly facilitates the work of SPHN projects to generate RDF schemas and related components (SHACL rules, SPARQL queries, pyLODE HTML visualization). It automatically creates the above cited elements by only taking as input an Excel file, compliant with the SPHN Dataset. It integrates the majority of tools developed at the DCC such as the brand new Dataset2RDF, the SHACLer, the SPARQLer and the SPHN Schema Visualization Tool.
With the SPHN Schema Forge, SPHN projects can now focus on building the semantics correctly and not have to worry about spending too much time learning about Semantic Web technologies.
The SPHN Schema Forge is accessible at: https://schemaforge.dcc.sib.swiss/
Its Documentation is available at: https://sphn-semantic-framework.readthedocs.io/en/latest/sphn_framework/schemaforge.html
In addition, to further enhance the comprehensiveness of the SPHN Schema Forge, the DCC newly releases the Dataset2RDF, a Python based tool that parses the SPHN Dataset into an RDF schema using semantic standards like RDF, RDFS, and OWL. The tool translates concepts and composedOfs into appropriate classes and properties, and represents meaning binding, value set binding, and cardinalities using OWL constructs. The Dataset2RDF is used by the DCC to translate the SPHN Dataset to the SPHN RDF Schema since the 2023.2 release. Additionally, the tool supports the parsing of a project-specific Dataset to generate a project-specific RDF schema, making it accessible to any SPHN project.
The Dataset2RDF was built to reduce the barrier for entry for users of the SPHN Semantic Interoperability Framework to translate their semantics into RDF in a consistent and streamlined manner.
The Dataset2RDF tool is accessible on GitLab via https://git.dcc.sib.swiss/sphn-semantic-framework/dataset2rdf and is available open-source under the GPLv3 license.
The Documentation on Dataset2RDF is available at https://sphn-semantic-framework.readthedocs.io/en/latest/sphn_framework/dataset2rdf.html