Taxomap (Taxonomy Mapper) is a lightweight rails app that allows you to create custom taxonomies using a Neo4j graph database.
git clone the application then run bundle to install the dependencies
run rake neo4j:install[community-latest] to install the Neo4j graph DB
then rake neo4j:start to start the DB
launch the application using standard rails server command
Taxomap has 4 first class concepts:
- Concepts
- Instances
- Values
- Properties
Concepts are the primary containers for any distinct think of which you wish to make a note or record. They must themselves have a parent concept with the ultimate parent Concept being Concept itself. Direct children of Concept are Abstract Concept and Concrete Object
Instances are individual examples of the Concept type. E.g. Isaac Newton would be an
example of instance of the Concept type 'Academic' (we would first have to create this
concept type).
Properties are essentially Types of value that we would like be available on a
Concept instance when it is created. E.g. Isaac Newton would be an Instance of the
Person with the Property DOB and corresponding Value 04-01-1643
Values are to Properties as Instances are to Concepts. In that they are individual
datapoints of the given Property type.
Each Concept must have a parent Concept so that we create a heirarchy of Concept. Without this we aren't able to create a useful working Taxonomy which implies that there is some sort of heirarchy in our method of categorisation.
Each Concept can be created with any number of Properties e.g. a Book might have the Properties of 'Title', 'ISBN', 'Publiser' etc.
Each Concept can also have any number of links to other Concepts. This is the key feature which brings a richness to our datamodel. Linking Concepts properly is what will allow us to create queries that otherwise would not be possible with a typical RDBMS.
head to localhost:7474 to access the Neo4j viewer to see the graph model of your created concepts.