Editor Data Items and Unique Identifiers (URIs/@ids)

Modified on Wed, 8 Apr at 10:48 PM

This support document explains how Data Items are created using the Schema App Editor. Every Data Item created in Schema App's system uses a Uniform Resource Identifiers, also known as URIs or @ids. URIs are a critical to creating connected schema markup.

After reading this article, users will understand what Editor Data Items are and the role of data item URIs in creating and deploying Editor markup.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Definitions
- What is a Data Item?
- What is a URI? Is a URI the same thing as an @id?
FAQs and Use Cases of URIs
Video: URIs and the Schema App Editor

Editor Data Items

This section outlines what an Editor Data Item is, in the context of other kinds of Data Items that can be created by Schema App's tools.

What is a Data Item?

A Data Item is a specific instance of a Class or Type. For example, Schema App is a specific instance of an Organization type. Another way to think about a data item is that it is a bundle of information about a specific Thing or concept. The bundle of information consists of a Schema.org type and properties. The properties define attributes of the Thing and any relationships the entity has to other data items.

We use several synonyms for "data item" including "entity". "resource", "node", or "thing". The Editor, the Highlighter, and External Entity Linking are all used to create data items for your Enterprise Knowledge Graph.

What is an Editor Data Item?

An Editor Data Item is an entity manually created using the Schema App Editor. In contrast, the Highlighter will generate data items at scale, while Entity Linking will identify and create data items at scale.

What does it mean for an Editor Data Item to have a "home"?

Typically, an Editor Data Item will have one associated "home" or specific URL it deploys to. For example, the homepage of https://www.schemaapp.com/ is the entity home for the Schema App Organization Data Item.

When creating an Editor Data Item users will be prompted to input a URL. This will be the URL where the markup deploys. The URL will also form the basis for the data item's URI or Uniform Resource Identifier.

Uniform Resoruce Identifiers (URIs, @ids)

All data items created by Schema App have Uniform Resource Identifiers or URIs. They are a critical to creating connected schema markup.

What is a URI?

A URI is a string of characters used to unique identify a resource on the web. A URI means we have a consistent way to identify resources across different systems (e.g. Google's Knowledge Graph, your Organization's Knowledge Graph, etc). All data items generated by Schema App have a URI so that they can be easily referenced across your knowledge graph.

What is an @id?

The @id value is specific to JSON-LD, the language Schema App uses to express Schema Markup. It is a more specific kind of unique resource identifier (URI). Schema App uses the terms URI and @id synonymously because our markup is always represented as linked JSON data.

FAQs and Use Cases of URIs

This section describes how URIs are used in the Schema App toolset and answers common questions about URIs, URLs, and Data Items.

Why are URIs necessary? How are they used?

URIs are important for several reasons:

A URI allows you to reference or point to a data item.
This is necessary for creating a connected knowledge graph.
The Editor tool uses URIs to understand what WebPage our system needs to send markup to.
This is necessary for successful deployment
The Editor tool uses URIs to understand hierarchy of nested data items
This is necessary for accurate nesting.

What is the difference between a URI and a URL?

A URI, or Unique Resource Identifier, is a unique string of characters that identifies a resource on the Internet. URIs identify the resource by name, location, or both. If you are identifying a location on the Internet, your URI is, by definition, a URL (Uniform Resource Locator).

For example, https://www.schemaapp.com/ is a URI because it is a unique string of characters identifying a resource on the Internet. The type of URI is also URL because it identifies the location that this resource exists on the Internet, or its web address. If a URI does not point users towards to a location where the data is found, it cannot be considered a URL.

How are URIs used to merge markup?

When two different data items share the exact same URI, our system will interpret those data items as being the exact thing. Sometimes this is helpful (i.e. when we're multityping something) but it causes markup to be malformed.

This support article describes how to use @IDs to merge Editor markup with markup from other sources.

How are URIs used to define the hierarchy of nested Schema Markup?

Ideally, each page will have one primary entity, or "Thing" that page is about. If you have lots of very nested markup, sometimes the tool can get confused about which data item is the primary or first one. A common solution to this problem is to remove the anchor from the URI of the data item you consider to be the primary entity.

Why are my URIs referencing some http://schemaapp.com/db/ value?

All data items created in Schema App must have a URI. The tool will try to generate a URI for you based on the URL you specify in your Project Settings. If you do not have a URL defined in your project settings, the tool will generate URIs for you based your Account ID. Your Account ID will always start with http://schemaapp.com/db/.

Video: URIs and the Schema App Editor

This training video describes how to create data items using the Schema App Editor. It describes URIs and their relevance to authoring schema markup.