Semantify Hacks – Creating a your own RDF schema using Dapper

So last Thursday’s release of Semantify was a great success. Marshall Kirkpatrick from RWW  did a great job explaining a rather geeky product in an understandable fashion – thanks Marshall. As we go about semantifying the web, I wanted to point out something that may not be apparent immediately. Basically with Semantify, every Dapp becomes a valid RDF schema that is host on Dapper and can be used anywhere by you, even without Semantify.

Let’s see how using the good old MSN Search Results Dapp. If MSN would’ve deployed Semantify on their search results page (note the irony..), this is what Yaho’s semantic crawler would’ve seen. If you’ll look into the source code of this proxied page, you’ll notice the default RDF schema is defined by the Dapper “dapp-scheme” webservice. While you can choose to override this default schema by defining your own using the $namespace and $scheme variables in the Semantify code snippet, if you don’t, Dapper will use a schema created from your Dapp automatically. So now, building a Dapp means you also built your own RDF compatible schema, that you can use wherever by just pointing to the webservice:

http://www.dapper.net/websiteServices/dapp-scheme.php?dappName=MYDAPP

This may be useful for those people who would like to easily generate and use a schema focused around a particular subject where a wide-spread, all-encompassing standard has not emerged, or in cases where the currently available schemes are not good enough.

Finally, let me leave you with the following thought. Up to now, close to 50K APIs have been built using Dapper with hundreds of new ones every day. That means we have under our hands already some 50K schemes for tens of thousands of sites. Hopefully in the near future we’ll start commenting on what can be learned from this set.

Deki Wiki Incorporates Support for Dapper

Deki Wiki, pretty much the coolest wiki out there just released version 1.8.3 which incorporates support for Dapper. Effectively, this now means you can bring any content from the web into your wiki! The best way to understand its power is probably to check out Aaron’s screencast demonstrating the new Dapper extension.

The new release is getting lots of great attention all over the web: RWW, Social Glass, Computer World, Mashable, and more.

Thanks to Aaron, Steve, and the Deki Wiki team for bringing such excellent functionality to the open source wiki world.

If you build something cool using Deki Wiki and Dapper, please let us know (and if you’re in the Bay Area, come present it at DapperCamp).

The Dapper Developer Community

Today we’re happy to launch the Dapper Developer Community (DDC). The Dapper Developer Community is all about empowering you and enabling you to share with and inspire other users. We hope to foster a rich and vibrant community that you can leverage to make your life easier as a developer. We’re jump-starting the DDC with three important elements: the Dapper SDKs, the Dapper web services and the Dapper Transformer Library.

The Dapper SDKs are already being used by many of you to easily integrate with Dapper, and we’d like to encourage you to go ahead and give them a try, or even go and port the SDKs to a language of your choice. In the future, using the SDKs will allow you to enjoy improved functionality such as higher rate limits, faster performance etc.

The Dapper web services are sort of a must, if we don’t want to be considered “the shoemaker that walks barefoot.” But it also already provides important functionality. The first web service, already released, is the Dapp Search Web Service. It allows you to programmatically find Dapps, just as you would’ve done through the Dapper website user interface. With it, you can allow your users to search for Dapps without ever losing your site. The Dapp Search Web Service is the first in a series of web services that will be launched in the future.

Lastly, and most importantly, we’re making available the Dapper Transformer Library. If you’ve ever used a Dapp, you’ve seen on the Dapp’s page the list of ways by which you can use it, which we call transformers, such as RSS, Image Loop, Netvibes module, Google map and gadget, and several more. But not enough. Today we’re opening up the code behind these transformers and provide you with an API by which you can build your own transformers, and share them with fellow Dappers. If you’re into PHP, you’ll find the task of building a new transformer quite painless, and since we’re also releasing the code of our existing ones, you can go ahead and build on them. So if you always wanted to create an embeddable flash module for weather updates or get your bank quotes directly into a SQL database, you can build new transformers that will cater to your needs. We are, of course, available 24/7 to support you with any question you may have.