vsm-dictionary

Intro

VSM-sentences are built from terms (=words or phrases) that are linked to semantic identifiers (=unique IDs that represent a concept with a definition).

These terms+IDs are typically stored on various 'dictionary' servers that make them accessible through their own API.

vsm-dictionary provides a standardized interface for communicating with dictionary webservers, in order to support VSM-sentence-building tools. (Tools such as vsm-autocomplete, or more advanced components for searching, storing, and managing terms).

vsm-dictionary is also designed to handle multiple 'sub-dictionaries', as well as multiple synonyms per term.
And it supports the representation of stylized terms, e.g. with italic or superscript parts, like Ca²⁺, and more.

Overview

vsm-dictionary contains only:

• a full specification for the above interface (for search, creating terms, etc);
• a 'VsmDictionary' parent-class implementation, which provides VSM-specific and shared functionality that subclasses should use.

The real interface with a dictionary service is thus implemented by subclasses of VsmDictionary.

Currently there are at least two such implementations available:

• vsm-dictionary-local:
  a full implementation of a local (in-memory, serverless) VsmDictionary.
  • This module can be used as a fully functional placeholder that does not depend on a third-party term-server, while developing new tools that depend on a VsmDictionary.
  • Or it could provide mock terms+ids while running standalone demos of VSM-sentence building tools.
  • The many automated tests in VsmDictionaryLocal can give inspiration for testing future, webserver-linked subclasses.
• vsm-dictionary-remote-demo:
  a bare-minimum demo-implementation of a VsmDictionary that connects to a hypothetical server API.
  • This module only serves as inspiration for developing real interfaces to an online dictionary service.
  • Still, it includes a live demo that connects to a real server API.

How to implement a VsmDictionary subclass

Specification

• Any implementation of a VsmDictionary (which communicates with a particular dictionary-webservice) must follow the interface specified in  ----> Dictionary.spec.md <----- .
• VsmDictionary is the parent class that all implementations must 'extends' from.
• (Note: we simply use the name 'Dictionary' for VsmDictionary, in the spec & source code).

Installation with NPM for Node.js:

mkdir vsm-dictionary-newwwww
cd    vsm-dictionary-newwwww
npm init -y

npm install vsm-dictionary

Template for a subclass, as a Node.js module:

(See also VsmDictionaryLocal and VsmDictionaryRemoteDemo).

// Import the parent class.
const VsmDictionary = require('vsm-dictionary');

// Make subclass and export as Node.js module.
module.exports = class VsmDictionaryNewww extends VsmDictionary {

  constructor(options) {
    // Must call the parent constructor first.
    super(options);

    // ...

  }


  // Methods for Create, Read, Update, Delete of terms, subdictionary-info
  // objects, etc. (see spec).

  // ...
  // ...


  getEntryMatchesForString(str, options, cb) {
    var matches = [];

    // ...

    cb(null, { items: matches });
  }

}

(If the above code is placed in a file named 'VsmDictionaryNewww.js', it can already be used in another file 'test.js':

var Dict = require('./VsmDictionaryNewww.js');
var dict = new Dict();
console.dir(dict);
dict.getMatchesForString('42', {}, (err, res) => console.dir(res));

by running: node test.js).

Tests

Run npm test, which runs tests with Mocha.
Run npm run testw, which automatically reruns tests on any file change.

Demo

See vsm-dictionary-local and vsm-dictionary-remote-demo for interactive demos of at least the string-search functionality.

License

This project is licensed under the AGPL license - see LICENSE.md.