TabLinker is experimental software for converting manually annotated Microsoft Excel workbooks to the RDF Data Cube vocabulary. It is used in the context of the Data2Semantics project to investigate the use of Linked Data for humanities research (Dutch census dataproduced by DANS).

TabLinker was designed for converting Excel or CSV files to RDF (triplification, RDF-izing) that have a complex layout and cannot be handled by fully automatic csv2rdf scripts.

A presentation about Linked Census Data, including TabLinker is available from SlideShare.

Please consult the Github page for the latest release information.

Using TabLinker

TabLinker takes annotated Excel files (found using the srcMask option in the config.ini file) and converts them to RDF. This RDF is serialized to the target folder specified using the targetFolder option in config.ini.

Annotations in the Excel file should be done using the built-in style functionality of Excel (you can specify these by hand). TabLinker currently recognises seven styles:

  • TabLink Title - The cell containing the title of a sheet
  • TabLink Data - A cell that contains data, e.g. a number for the population size
  • TabLink ColHeader - Used for the headers of columns
  • TabLink RowHeader - Used for row headers
  • TabLink HierarchicalRowHeader - Used for multi-column row headers with subsumption/taxonomic relations between the values of the columns
  • TabLink Property - Typically used for the header cells directly above RowHeader or HierarchicalRowHeader cells, cell values are the properties that relate Data cells to RowHeader and HierarchicalRowHeader cells.
  • TabLink Label - Used for cells that contain a label for one of the HierarchicalRowHeader cells.

An eight style, TabLink Metadata, is currently ignored (See #3).

An example of such an annotated Excel file is provided in the input directory. There are ways to import the styles defined in that file into your own Excel files.

Tip: If your table contains totals for HierarchicalRowHeader cell values, use a non-TabLink style to mark the cells between the level to which the total belongs, and the cell that contains the name of the total. Have a look at the example annotated Excel file to see how this is done (up to row 428).

Once you’re all set, start the TabLinker by cd-ing to the src folder, and running:

python tablinker.py

Requirements

TabLinker was developed under the following environment: