Hi Joe, any plans for a Linked Data and/or OData API?  This is becoming a significant requirement in some of our projects in the UK, and generally helpful towards a joined up semantic web. I've noticed that other CMS are starting to do this (e.g. see http://www.odata.org/producers).

I've not thought this through in detail in relation to a mojoPortal database, though I think it would only be relevant for certain modules (e.g. blogs, image galleries, calendars). There would need to be some configurability (at feature instance level I guess) about whether/how to expose. Plus possibly some additional RDFizing / OData factories (and I realize this might not be easy with your support for multiple DB platforms).

cheers,

Update: there's an OData "series of samples that show you how to write a custom Data Service Provider for ADO.NET Data Services or WCF Data Services."  http://www.odata.org/developers/odata-sdk suggesting perhaps this would be OK for all mojoPortal database platforms.

Hi Joe

Regarding end goals, well it would allow structured and semi-structured content from a mojoPortal site to become part of the semantic web, rather than stand-alone web sites. This is already possible to a limited extent using RSS feeds, but OData would make this much more powerful (and Linked Data even more so, allegedly!).  I can imagine this might be useful in producing "mesh-up" applications for web and mobile that could draw in data from relevant mojo databases (especially the more structured content from event calendars, blogs, forums).

But like much of the semantic web (and the web as a whole) I expect uses will emerge that we might not be able to anticipate up front.

There's another factor though, that this will become a required "box tick" for a CMS. Increasingly in the UK and Europe, and I imagine soon in the US, public service information needs to be exposed as Open Data in one way or another, and so a CMS that is used by any public sector organization or project will need to tick this box. In fact by baking it into the CMS you could be helping solve what might otherwise be a major headache, and also promoting mojoPortal as a powerful CMS.

So overall I think this would be a strategically important direction for the product, but I do appreciate it is not a simple task.

If we get a chance to look into this more in a project where we use mojoPortal, we'll certainly try to contribute.