Building Glossaries
Katalogue’s glossary feature is in its simplest form a flat list of terms (words), i.e. a vocabulary. Terms in the glossary can also be organized hierarchically, effectively forming a taxonomy, and set in relation to each other to enable building out complete ontologies. Users never have to select what kind of glossary to build in Katalogue. The GUI adapts intuitively, exposing relevant functionality as the glossary grows in complexity.
Vocabulary, Taxonomy, and Ontology
Section titled “Vocabulary, Taxonomy, and Ontology”Vocabulary, taxonomy, and ontology represent increasing levels of structure and semantic complexity in knowledge organization. A vocabulary defines a list of terms, a taxonomy imposes a hierarchical (parent/child) structure on those terms, and an ontology enables complex, relational modeling of domains with inference rules. They are often used together to structure, classify, and understand data.
Key Differences and Components
Section titled “Key Differences and Components”- Vocabulary: A list of preferred terms to ensure consistent usage in a domain.
- Taxonomy: A classification system organized hierarchically (a tree structure), such as “Product -> Vehicle -> Car”. It uses “broader” or “narrower” relationships.
- Ontology: A complex knowledge model that defines classes, subclasses, properties, and relationships between entities. It supports logic, inference, and complex, non-hierarchical links (a graph structure).
Comparison Table
Section titled “Comparison Table”| Feature | Vocabulary | Taxonomy | Ontology |
|---|---|---|---|
| Structure | Flat list | Hierarchy (Tree) | Network (Graph) |
| Relationship | None/Weak | Parent-Child (Is-a) | Complex/Arbitrary |
| Purpose | Definition | Categorization | Reasoning/Inference |
| Complexity | Low | Medium | High |
Usage Scenario Examples
Section titled “Usage Scenario Examples”- Vocabulary: Creating a standard, consistent set of technical terms for a document.
- Taxonomy: Organizing website navigation or an e-commerce product catalog.
- Ontology: Modeling complex relationships, such as how “Employee” relates to “Project,” “Skills,” and “Department” in a database to infer knowledge.
Creating a Glossary
Section titled “Creating a Glossary”TODO
Business Term Types
Section titled “Business Term Types”Business term types are labels that can be assigned to business terms within a glossary. They allow you to classify and distinguish between different kinds of terms — for example, separating concepts like Chapter, Section or Information Area within the same glossary. The main use case is probably to use this together with hierarchies, to give business terms in the same hierarchial level a specific label.
Each business term type belongs to a specific glossary and has a name, an optional alternative code identifier (intended for programmatic use), and an optional description. One type per glossary can be marked as the default, meaning it will be pre-selected when a new business term is created in that glossary. Business terms without a selected business term type will fall back to a generic “business term” as business term type.
Business term types are managed by admin users from the glossary settings. Admin users will be able to access them under a Business Term Type tab. Once types are defined, they appear as a dropdown when adding or editing a business term.