Note on thesaurus usage
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Authors : Jean Christophe Desconnets (jcd@teledetection.fr) ; Stéphane Clerc (clerc@teledetection.fr ) Created : 12/10/2006 17:18:00 Modified at: 2/20/2008 1:42:00 PM Commentaires sur les modifications : relecture et reformatage du style pour la version 1.5 Translation : Kim Agrawal (kim@auromail.net) Modified at : 20/02/2008 13:42:00 Comments on English version : english screen shot entry
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Consulting thesauri by auto-completion
Consulting the thesauri by browsing the tree structure
A thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary consisting of a set of terms that represent concepts in a particular domain. These concepts are structured between themselves by semantic relationships: hierarchical links (generalization and specialization), synonymy, linked to, definition, etc.
Terms in a thesaurus can be used to index documents, and that is how they are used in MDweb. The search for documents thus becomes easier by the use of thesauri.
MDweb offers the use of thesauri for searching for metadata and also for entering metadata sheets. A thesaurus that is specific to the application can be used as well as reference thesauri imported into MDweb (for example, the Agrovoc and Gemet thesauri). During a search or while entering a sheet, the user may want to use keywords. Of course, he can enter keywords freely but to make this work easier, he can rely on the available thesauri to select the keyword(s). Two features help him do so: an auto-complete feature and another for browsing the thesaurus’s tree structure.
The auto-complete feature helps the user find the term he wants if he knows its first few letters. As soon as he starts typing in the keyword field (for searching or sheet entry), MDweb automatically displays all matching terms from all the available thesauri. This allows the user to quickly find a keyword without having to type it in fully.
For example, if the user type the letter ‘m’ in the text field, a list of terms starting with the letter ‘m’ will be displayed. As he continues typing, the list becomes more specific. See the example, above, with the term "marine ecosystem".
If the user cannot express precisely
the keyword that he wants to use, he can open a browsing window in the
thesauri, select a thesaurus and view its contents in its tree structure. This
window opens when the user clicks the 
icon1 beside the keyword entry field.
From a menu, the user selects the thesaurus he wants to consult2. Then he uses the auto-complete feature to select a term3 starting from which the thesaurus’s tree structure will be displayed4. (Because of their size, the reference thesauri cannot be displayed in their entirety; only the application’s thesaurus can be so displayed.) The user can then browse the tree structure. As he does so, the different relationships of the highlighted concept will be displayed on the right5. He can then select the concept that he wants to use6.
a) Metadata search
The auto-complete1 and browse2 features allow the thesauri to be consulted during multi-criteria searches for selecting the keywords to use as search terms.
b) Entering metadata sheets
The auto-complete1 and the browse2 features are also available during the entry of a metadata sheet for selecting the keywords relating to the sheet.
Contacts
IRD / ESPACE unit (US 140)
500, rue Jean François Breton, 34093 Montpellier Cedex 05, France
TEL : +33 (0)4 67 54 87 02
J.C Desconnets jcd@teledetection.fr
MDweb project site: www.mdweb-project.org
Onine demo: demo16.mdweb-project.org