This section describes some of the terms that will be used in the rest of the document.
BLOB: a binary large object, binary data on disk, in a db, etc...
Eclipse RCP: Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP), http://www.eclipse.org/, is an open source framework and tools platform designed for build software applications. Cyberintergrator is an RCP application.
MIME Type: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) used to identify a file or data type. All data in the Cyberintegrator are associated by MIME type and the system uses the MIME to determine an appropriate preview tool. For example, the MIME type image/jpeg tells the system to use an image viewer to display the data.
Perspective: An Eclipse RCP concept that defines a set of views associated together that allow the user to accomplish a focused task.
RDF: Resource Description Framework, http://www.w3.org/RDF/, allows the system to describe and store knowledge in a standard way. An RDF triple takes the form of: (Subject, Predicate, Object). For example, Charlie Brown has a dog name Snoopy. (Charlie Brown, hasDog, Snoopy)
Semantic Repository/Context: A semantic repository is a location where the meta data (RDF triples) and data blobs are stored.
Step: A step links specific input data, parameters to a tool and generates output data: step = (Input > Tool > output). Multiple steps linked together define a workflow.
Tool: A tool is program that is executed by the system. Tools take data as input and generate data as output and their execution can be influenced with parameters. For example saving an image as a jpeg image, takes as input a blob of pixels and generates a jpeg image. One of the parameters for the jpeg tool is the quantization parameter which controls the compression. Other tools include programs with a command line or API such as MATLAB.
Tupelo: Is a middleware library that provides an single application programming interface (API) that provides applications and web applications (webapps) a single way to communicate with the semantic repositories. Tupelo performs the same function for semantic repositories as JDBC does for databases.
View: An Eclipse RCP concept that defines a specific view into data; views are building blocks that will show a particular piece of information. Multiple views linked together define a specific perspective and provide the user interface for the application.
Workflow: a sequence of steps linked together.