A minimal openMINDS instance

openMINDS metadata instances are represented as JSON-LD documents (file extension: *.jsonld) and must comply with the openMINDS schema type they reference.

This page shows how a minimal openMINDS instance is constructed from a schema specification. The JSON-LD elements used here are introduced in the previous chapter.

Creating a minimal instance

Let us start with a simple Person instance, designed according to the Person schema.

If you inspect the schema, you will see that only the property preferredName is required. The property accepts a single value of type "string". All other properties are optional.

A minimal Person instance can therefore look like this:

• compact-1
• compact-2
• expanded

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://openminds.om-i.org/props/"
  },
  "@id": "_:pv-jeltz",
  "@type": "https://openminds.om-i.org/types/Person",
  "preferredName": "Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz"
}

{
  "@context": {
    "om": "https://openminds.om-i.org/props/"
  },
  "@id": "_:pv-jeltz",
  "@type": "https://openminds.om-i.org/types/Person",
  "om:preferredName": "Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz"
}

{
  "@id": "_:pv-jeltz",
  "@type": "https://openminds.om-i.org/types/Person",
  "https://openminds.om-i.org/props/preferredName": "Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz"
}

As explained in the previous page, the instance representations compact-1, compact-2, and expanded are equivalent and differ only in how property names are written.

In openMINDS, the compact-1 syntax using "@vocab" is typically preferred, as it provides a concise and consistent representation without requiring prefixed property names.

openMINDS namespaces

The IRIs used in "@type" and in the property namespace depend on the openMINDS version.

• v4.0+
• ≤ v3.0

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://openminds.om-i.org/props/"
  },
  "@id": "INSTANCE-IDENTIFIER",
  "@type": "https://openminds.om-i.org/types/SCHEMA-NAME",
  "PROPERTY-NAME": "PROPERTY-VALUE"
}

{
  "@context": {
    "@vocab": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/vocab/"
  },
  "@id": "INSTANCE-IDENTIFIER",
  "@type": "https://openminds.ebrains.eu/MODULE-NAME/SCHEMA-NAME",
  "PROPERTY-NAME": "PROPERTY-VALUE"
}

The applicable namespace pattern can be found in the corresponding schema specification for the openMINDS version you are using.

Note

In openMINDS v3.0 and earlier, schema type IRIs include MODULE-NAME as an additional path component. While modularization continues to be used for maintenance and schema dependency logic, it is no longer reflected in the namespace to simplify IRIs.

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The following chapter shows how individual openMINDS instances are connected and structured into a graph.