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Concept Validation

Steps

  1. We will create a Python program that validates a simple flat Concepts file.
  2. We will validate the file with a JSON schema file
  3. We will then be able to validate that a Concepts file has the three required fields
  4. We will then show how additional fields can be added to make the glossary into a full taxonomy

JSON Schema File

This schema file definds the fields and creates a defintion for each field.

The following fields are REQUIRED fields.

  1. conceptID
  2. prefLabel
  3. definition

The following fields are optional

  1. altLabel
  2. notes
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{
    "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
    "title": "Business Glossary for Financial Fraud Analysis",
    "description": "A schema for validating entries in a business glossary related to financial fraud analysis.",
    "type": "array",
    "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
            "conceptID": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "A unique identifier for the concept."
            },
            "prefLabel": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "The preferred label of the concept."
            },
            "altLabels": {
                "type": "array",
                "description": "A list of alternative labels for the concept.",
                "items": {
                    "type": "string"
                }
            },
            "definition": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "A clear and concise definition of the concept."
            },
            "notes": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "Additional notes regarding the concept."
            }
        },
        "required": ["conceptID", "prefLabel", "definition"],
        "additionalProperties": false
    }
}

Create a Conda Environment With Required Libraries

We will need two libraries:

  1. jsonschema
  2. argparse
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conda create -n "concepts" python=3
conda activate python
pip install jsonschema argparse

Running the Validate Command from the Command Line Shell

Our validation program takes two arguments:

  1. The first file is the file to validate.
  2. The second file is the schema file.

Example:

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python validate-concepts.py my-glossary.json concept-schema.json

Sample Response: 

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JSON data is valid.

Taxonomy Structure

We now add a few more fields to the simple flat-file of concents.

  1. All taxonomy elements are in a scheme
  2. A scheme has one and only-one top-level element
  3. Every concept can have zero or more narrower concepts

Sample Schema for Validating a Taxonomy JSON file:

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{
    "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
    "title": "Taxonomy Schema Concept File ",
    "description": "A schema for validating entries in a taxonomy of concepts in a scheme.",
    "type": "array",
    "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
            "conceptID": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "A unique identifier for the concept."
            },
            "prefLabel": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "The preferred label of the concept."
            },
            "altLabels": {
                "type": "array",
                "items": {
                    "type": "string"
                },
                "description": "A list of alternative labels for the concept."
            },
            "definition": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "A clear and concise definition of the concept."
            },
            "notes": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "Additional notes regarding the concept."
            },
            "inScheme": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "The name of the scheme the concept is part of."
            },
            "topConceptOf": {
                "type": "boolean",
                "description": "Indicates if the concept is the top concept of a scheme."
            },
            "narrower": {
                "type": "array",
                "items": {
                    "type": "string"
                },
                "description": "List of conceptIDs that are narrower concepts of this concept."
            }
        },
        "required": ["conceptID", "prefLabel", "definition"],
        "additionalProperties": false
    }
}

Sample Taxonomy file for Products:

Sample Food Taxonomy