Facet navigation
To give users access to the information used in the cases of the RNA-project, we often make use of facet navigation. This type of search allows the user to navigate an information space by progressively selecting desired facet values of information objects.
The benefits of facet navigation are:
- Fast and easy drill down in information sets by selecting or filtering metadata attributes
- User can build up a complex query intuitively, because metadata relationships are visible.
For facet navigation the RNA-project makes use of Spectacle, an open source product which development and maintenance is administered and guided by RNA-partner Aduna.
Topics we work on in this product group:
- Spectacle - semi-automatic generation through SDI (see below)
- Facet search combined with free text search
- Facet determination - multi key determination with use of facet navigation
SDI - site developers interfaces
The starting point of the RNA-project is that it website developers should be able to quickly and easily create website components to which they can apply RNA solutions.
RDF frameworks are complex, however. For instance, building a web page that retrieves its data from the RDF framework requires a great amount of time and specialist expertise, aspects which web developers often lack.
For this reason, the RNA-project uses tools that enable web developers to create web pages based on the RDF framework in short time and without the need for specialist knowledge. We refere to these tools as site developers interface (SDI).
Wednesday, June 20, 2007