Dataspace Connector UI

User interface for the Dataspace Connector.

The following illustration visualizes the interaction of the Dataspace Connector, the IDS Messaging Services, the Configuration Manager, and it’s GUI. All components have a defined API that allows individual components to be removed or replaced. The Dataspace Connector can be deployed standalone and can be connected to existing backend systems. Configuration Manager and GUI facilitate the operation and configuration of the connector. If desired, the Dataspace Connector may be replaced by another connector implementation, either integrating the IDS Messaging Services or not.

Requirements

• Install and start Dataspace Connector
• Install Node.js v.14

Installation

Use the package manager npm in root directory to install DataspaceConnector UI:

npm install --no-audit

Usage

Start Dataspace Connector UI

Use the package manager npm in root directory to start Dataspace Connector UI:

npm start

Access: localhost:8082

Change UI port

Change package.json in root directory:

"serve": "vue-cli-service serve --open --port [PORT]"

Change Dataspace Connector host & port

Change in src/backend/index.js:

let connectorUrl = "https://localhost:8080"

Change theme

You can change the main colors of the user interface in src/theme/default.js

Protect backend with Basic Auth

If you need to protect the website via Basic Auth, you can adjust the username and password via environment variables of the backend, simply by adjusting the src/backend/.env file or by setting the environment variables in your Docker environment. To activate the protection, you need to provide a username and a password, both with a length > 0. Otherwise (default behaviour), it is inactive.

BASIC_AUTH_USER=username
BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=password

Test backend

The UI backend provides an endpoint (http://[localhost:8083]/testdata) that can be used as backend connection (type: REST) in the DSC for testing purposes. This can process POST and GET requests.

Start with Docker

Build docker image:

sudo docker build -t dataspace-connector-ui .

Run docker image:

sudo docker-compose up

Access: localhost:8083

Change host/port & authentification of Dataspace Connector on docker start

Change in docker-compose.yml:

environment:
          - CONNECTOR_URL=https://localhost:8080
          - CONNECTOR_USER=testuser
          - CONNECTOR_PASSWORD=testpw

Add custom attributes to Resources

The Dataspace Connector allows to define additional attributes for each of its entities (see Dataspace Connector Documentation. If the additional fields are set for a Resource entity, this information can be used to provider further metadata, e.g. for registering these data at an IDS Metadata Broker (which must support these Metadata-fields too). The Dataspace Connector UI provides the functionality to define custom fields, which are shown in the frontend to define such additional information on a Resource level (see Screenshot below). By default the functionality is disabled and thus not shown in the UI.

You can define additional elements via three input options:

• text fields
• select boxes (e.g., a category)
• select boxes with according sub-select boxes (e.g., category with sub-categories)

Enable and adjust the configuration

To enable the feature, go to the backend folder src/backend/ and adjust .env file: USE_ONTOLOGY = true. In case you are deploying the frontend via Docker set environment variables accordingly. The processing of the feature takes place in ontologyLoader.js. A demo configuration is already given by the files src/backend/ontology.ttl and src/backend/ontology.config.json.

Adjust the ontology

You need to adjust the content of the file src/backend/ontology.ttl, which already provides some examples.

Select boxes

For select boxes, you have to define an owl:class element:

dsc:DataCategory 
    a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:label "Data category"@en ;
    rdfs:comment "Class of all data categories."@en .
                 
dsc:dataCategory 
    a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:domain ids:Resource ;
    rdfs:range dsc:DataCategory ;
    rdfs:label "Data category"@en .

If you want to define a select box with a sub-select box, in addition you need to add (do not forget to link the elements of the class to this sub-category (see below)):

dsc:DataSubcategory 
    a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:label "Data subcategory"@en ;
    rdfs:comment "Class of all data subcategories."@en .
                    
dsc:dataSubcategory 
    a owl:ObjectProperty ;
    rdfs:domain ids:Resource ;
    rdfs:range dsc:DataSubcategory ;
    rdfs:label "Data subcategory"@en .

To add categories to the root select box, simply add elements referring to the class:

cat:Infrastructure 
    a dsc:DataCategory ;
    rdfs:label "Infrastructure"@en .

To add elements for sub-select boxes, add them accordingly:

sub:RoadNetwork 
    a cat:Infrastructure ;
    rdf:type   dsc:DataSubcategory ;
    rdfs:label "Road Network"@en .

Text fields

For text fields, you have to define an owl:DatatypeProperty element:

dsc:dataModel 
    a owl:DatatypeProperty ;
    rdfs:domain ids:Resource ;
    rdfs:range rdfs:Literal ;
    rdfs:label "Data model"@en .

Customizing

In case you cannot stick to the given ontology, you may change the static variables for predicates and objects to identify the structure of the given ontology in ontologyLoader.js.

Adjust the configuration ontology.config.json

In order to map and display the additional fields, you need to adjust the configuration file. Each select box needs to be defined as object in select array, and text fields need to be defined as objects in text array.

{
  "select":[
    {...}, ..., {...}
  ],
  "text":[
    {...}, ..., {...}
  ]
}

Select box configuration

You need to define four properties on each object:

• "identifier": string: The identifier of the ontology class for a select box, e.g. http://w3id.org/dsc#DataCategory. This identifier is used to analyze the structure of your ttl file. Be aware that this identifier is overwritten within the process of parsing, as the expected key needs to be a parameter instead of a class. Thus, in this example http://w3id.org/dsc#dataCategory would be the key (notice the lower case d)
• "required": boolean: If it is required to select an option from the select box.
• "identifier_children": string: The identifier of the ontology class for a sub-select box, e.g. http://w3id.org/dsc#DataSubcategory. This field is not used for parsing. It is just used for the front-end to determine the correct key for the selected value.
• "required_children": boolean: If it is required to select an option from the sub-select box.

Text field configuration

You need to define two properties on each object:

• "identifier": string: The identifier of the ontology class for a text field, e.g. http://w3id.org/dsc#dataModel.
• "required": boolean: If it is required to enter text in the text field.

Development

Please read the development guide.

Contributing

Please read through our contributing guidelines.

Maintainer

This project is currently no longer maintained but looking for new maintainers.

Applications for maintainers shall be directed to the International Data Spaces Association.

This project was previously maintained by Fraunhofer FKIE and after that by sovity GmbH. Please do not approach former maintainers. If you have questions, plase open an issue / discussion for the community or approach the International Data Spaces Association.

Former Contributor and Maintainer

• Sebastian Opriel, sovity GmbH
• Bastian Wetljen, Fraunhofer FKIE
• Sebastian Opriel, sovity GmbH
• Melissa Das, sovity GmbH
• Philipp Reusch, sovity GmbH