SRQL - Simple Registry Query Language

As XPath is too techie, and Adql unforgiving and still evolving, I'd like to suggest a user-facing query language called SRQL. It's a forgiving, google-ish little language, where the user can rarely input a syntactically incorrect query.

I've implemented a standalone java library that converts SRQL to XQuery. It'd be straightforward to extend this to target other query languages. - srql.tgz: zip of sources, tests, docs and executable jarfile.

SRQL is used as the query language in VOExplorer, a resource browser for the vo.

All text matching is case insensitive. So if you enter 'John', it will match resources containing 'John','john','JOhN', etc.

All matching is done by substring. So if you enter 'sol' it will match resources containing 'sol','solar', 'insole', etc.

SRQL query	Searches For
`galaxy`	resources containing `galaxy` in any of title, shortName, identifier, content/description and content/subject fields
`radio galaxy`	resources containing `radio` or `galaxy` in any of title, ... fields
`radio or galaxy`	resources containing `radio` or `galaxy` in any of title, ... fields
`radio and galaxy`	resources containing `radio` and `galaxy` in any of title, ... fields
`"radio galaxy"`	resources containing the phrase `"radio galaxy"` in any of title, ...fields
`not "radio galaxy"`	resources that do not contain the phrase `"radio galaxy"` in any of title, ... fields
`not (radio galaxy)`	resources that do not contain `radio` or `galaxy` in any of title, ... fields
`pulsar and not (radio galaxy)`	resources that contain `pulsar` that do not contain `radio` or `galaxy` in any of title, ... fields
specifying the target of a query
`name = first`	resources that contain `first` in just the title or shortname fields
`name = (first wfcam)`	resources that contain =first or `wfcam` in just the title or shortname fields
`shortname = expr`	resources that match _expr in just the shortname field
`title = expr`	resources that match _expr in just the title field
`title = first or shortname = wfcam`	resources that contain `first` in just the title field, or that contain `wfcam` in just the shortname field
`subject = expr`	resources that match _expr in just the content/subject field
`description = expr`	resources that match _expr in just the content/description field
`id = expr`	resources that match _expr in just the identifier field
`any = expr`	resources that match _expr in any field
`default =_expr`	resources that match expr in just the shortname fields
`curation = expr`	resources that match _expr anywhere in the curation fields (creator, publisher, contributor, etc)
`type = expr`	resources that match _expr in just the xsi:type or content/type fields
`waveband = expr`	resources that match _expr in just the coverage/spectral/waveband field
`level = expr`	resources that match _expr in just the _content/contentLevel field
`col = expr`	resources that match _expr in a column name
`ucd = expr`	resources that match _expr in a column ucd
Inline XPath query - denoted by backquotes (Optional, assumes XQuery backend). Could implement pass-thru sql in same way
type = cone and `cs:capability/cs:maxSR > 90`	resources that are of type `cone` where the xpath `cs:capability/cs:maxSR > 90` evaluates to `true` (i.e. catalog services where the maximum search radius is larger than 90 degrees)

targetted and untargetted expressions can be mixed in the same query.

Examples.

abell and ucd=pos_eq_ra_main and waveband=(not uv)

Performance

Using a more targetted search like name = first will be faster than just first, while any = first takes much longer.

-- NoelWinstanley - 09 Mar 2007

srql.tgz: zip of sources, tests, docs and jarfile.

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tgz	srql.tgz	manage	86.5 K	12 Mar 2007 - 13:46	NoelWinstanley	zip of sources, tests, docs and jarfile.

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