9. Ontosaurus

Ontosaurus is a Web-based KB browser that offers a convenient way to view the contents of PowerLoom knowledge bases from a standard Web browser. Whenever a user searches for an object or clicks on a hyperlink, Ontosaurus dynamically generates HTML pages describing the requested object and related information. The description will itself contain links to other relevant objects which the user can click on to quickly "surf" through a knowledge base.

Similar to the PowerLoom GUI (see section PowerLoom GUI), Ontosaurus relies on a PowerLoom server that can handle HTTP requests. For this reason, it is currently only supported in the Java version of PowerLoom or in Lisp version that supports a Web server such as AServe or Portable AServe (e.g., Allegro CL).

To use Ontosaurus, do the following. Start PowerLoom in Java or a qualifying Lisp version. Once PowerLoom is up and running, issue the following command:

PL-USER |= (start-ontosaurus)

Loading required system webtools
Loading required system ontosaurus

PL-USER |= 

The command also accepts a :port option to make the server listen to a different port. Once the Ontosaurus server is running, go to your Web browser and enter the following URL: http://localhost:9090/ploom/ontosaurus/ Substitute a fully qualified host name and different port if necessary. Ontosaurus comes with a short online help page and is otherwise self-explanatory.

Alternatively, the PowerLoom Web Archive available in

powerloom-x.y.z/native/java/lib/ploom.war

can be deployed in an Apache Tomcat server by copying it into the server installation’s ‘webapps’ directory. Ontosaurus can then connect to it at the above URL at the server port used by Tomcat.

This document was generated by Hans Chalupsky on January 6, 2023 using texi2html 1.82.