Knowledge Graph Documentation
ℹī¸ This is the new documentation of the EBRAINS KG. It's going to be extended continuously.
If you find any issues / have any comment, please contact kg@ebrains.eu to give us your feedback!

Basics

These are some basic queries to get started with the syntax of the query api.

Minimal payload

Request

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://core.kg.ebrains.eu/vocab/query/",
    "propertyName": {
      "@id": "propertyName",
      "@type": "@id"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "type": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/core/DatasetVersion"
  },
  "structure": [
    {
      "path": "@id"
    }
  ]
}

Response

Expected: 200

{
  "data": [
    {
      "@id": "foo bar"
    },
    ...
  ],
  "message": null,
  "error": null,
  "startTime": 1644935130702,
  "durationInMs": 36,
  "transactionId": null,
  "total": 1245,
  "size": 20,
  "from": 0
}

Reducing arrays to objects for single values

When only a single field (at a specific level in the tree) is requested Structure can be defined as an object instead of an array of objects

Request

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://core.kg.ebrains.eu/vocab/query/",
    "propertyName": {
      "@id": "propertyName",
      "@type": "@id"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "type": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/core/DatasetVersion"
  },
  "structure": {
    "path": "@id"
  }
}

Specifying a non existing field

Request

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://core.kg.ebrains.eu/vocab/query/",
    "propertyName": {
      "@id": "propertyName",
      "@type": "@id"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "type": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/core/DatasetVersion"
  },
  "structure": {
    "path": "non_existing_field"
  }
}

Response

Expected: 200

{
  "data": [
    {
      "non_existing_field": null
    },
    ...
  ],
  "message": null,
  "error": null,
  "startTime": 1644935130702,
  "durationInMs": 36,
  "transactionId": null,
  "total": 1245,
  "size": 20,
  "from": 0
}

Renaming a property to a custom name

Request

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://core.kg.ebrains.eu/vocab/query/",
    "propertyName": {
      "@id": "propertyName",
      "@type": "@id"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "type": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/core/DatasetVersion"
  },
  "structure": [
    {
      "propertyName": "foo",
      "path": "@id"
    },
    {
      "propertyName": "bar",
      "path": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/vocab/fullName"
    }
  ]
}

Response

Expected: 200

{
  "data": [
    {
      "foo": "foo value",
      "bar": "bar value"
    },
    ...
  ],
  "message": null,
  "error": null,
  "startTime": 1644937956881,
  "durationInMs": 29,
  "transactionId": null,
  "total": 1245,
  "size": 20,
  "from": 0
}

Semantic properties

You should aim for semantically correct defined properties - even if you're renaming them. To do so, you can specify the property name in a compact IRI format

Request

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://core.kg.ebrains.eu/vocab/query/",
    "query": "https://schema.foo.bar/myQuery/",
    "propertyName": {
      "@id": "propertyName",
      "@type": "@id"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "type": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/core/DatasetVersion"
  },
  "structure": [
    {
      "propertyName": "query:foo",
      "path": "@id"
    },
    {
      "propertyName": "query:bar",
      "path": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/vocab/fullName"
    }
  ]
}

Response

Expected: 200

{
  "data": [
    {
      "https://schema.foo.bar/myQuery/foo": "foo value",
      "https://schema.foo.bar/myQuery/bar": "bar value"
    },
    ...
  ],
  "message": null,
  "error": null,
  "startTime": 1644937956881,
  "durationInMs": 29,
  "transactionId": null,
  "total": 1245,
  "size": 20,
  "from": 0
}
A query with a semantically correct propertyName (either compact or expanded IRI) will lead to a full IRI representation in the response

Simplify a response with "responseVocab"

By adding a "responseVocab" to the meta section of the query, the extra complexity of the full IRI representation (see above) can be removed

Request

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://core.kg.ebrains.eu/vocab/query/",
    "query": "https://schema.foo.bar/myQuery/",
    "propertyName": {
      "@id": "propertyName",
      "@type": "@id"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "type": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/core/DatasetVersion",
    "responseVocab": "https://schema.foo.bar/myQuery/"
  },
  "structure": [
    {
      "propertyName": "query:foo",
      "path": "@id"
    },
    {
      "propertyName": "query:bar",
      "path": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/vocab/fullName"
    }
  ]
}

Response

Expected: 200

{
  "data": [
    {
      "@context": {
        "@vocab": "https://schema.foo.bar/myQuery/"
      },
      "bar": "bar value",
      "foo": "foo value"
    },
    ...
  ],
  "message": null,
  "error": null,
  "startTime": 1644938488274,
  "durationInMs": 29,
  "transactionId": null,
  "total": 1245,
  "size": 20,
  "from": 0
}
A simplified response structure by the application of a responseContext. Please note the "@context" inside of the response object which makes it again a fully valid JSON-LD whilst still allowing to process it in a simple way with any JSON processor

Ensuring order of properties

If you are not familiar with linked data in general, this might feel odd to you: If an instance links to multiple other objects (e.g. a Dataset pointing to its authors), in a graph database, the way they are ordered is not ensured by default. This is because the array of links becomes actual graph edges which do not keep the state between themselves. In many cases, this is not a problem since most of the time, the order within the specified links doesn't matter. Sometimes it is crucial though since the order carries implicit meaning. A perfect example for this is the mentioned "author" list where it is important if a contributor is first or last author.

The query API by default therefore doesn't maintain the order of insertion when returning items. However, it allows you to explicitly request the order by specifying the "ensureOrder" property to true:

Request

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://core.kg.ebrains.eu/vocab/query/",
    "path": {
      "@id": "path",
      "@type": "@id"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "type": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/core/DatasetVersion"
  },
  "structure": {
    "path": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/vocab/custodian",
    "ensureOrder": true,
    "structure": {
      "path": "@id"
    }
  }
}

Response

Expected: 200

{
    "data": [
        {
            "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/vocab/custodian": [
                {
                    "@id": "https://kg.ebrains.eu/api/instances/a7745fd1-f4b7-4118-a88b-7f57758c836e"
                },
            ...
            ]
        },
        ...
    ],
    "message": null,
    "error": null,
    "startTime": 1645024403178,
    "durationInMs": 29,
    "transactionId": null,
    "total": 144,
    "size": 20,
    "from": 0
}
This open source software code was developed in part or in whole in the Human Brain Project, funded from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under Specific Grant Agreements No. 720270, No. 785907 and No. 945539 (Human Brain Project SGA1, SGA2 and SGA3).
Co-funded by the European Union