Property name first vs data type first selection in builder

[laustke]

Hi,

I have a general question about the selection flow.

Is there a way to select or search properties directly (a “property-first” approach), or to show all properties without picking a datatype first?

Right now I have to choose a datatype (Text, Number, etc.) before I can see the actual properties. In practice I usually know the property I’m looking for (for example “year” on Vehicle), but I don’t know its datatype, so I end up guessing first just to find it.

Is there a setting or option to make it work in a property-first way?

Thanks.

[tfrancart]

Is there a way to select or search properties directly (a “property-first” approach), or to show all properties without picking a datatype first?

No there is not. However we may add this possibility in the future. The current flow is good when traversing the graph from entities to entities, but not really suitable, as you point out, to select a metadata to search on.

Also note that the entries you see (Text, Number, etc.) are the default ones, and it is possible to customise this in the SHACL configuration using sh:node - it is not a complete solution to this question, but it can improve things.

[laustke]

But defining a separate shape for each property just to get a better label feels quite tedious.

It would be much easier if this step offered a searchable list of properties directly, instead of the generic “related to” with datatype categories.

[tfrancart]

But defining a separate shape for each property just to get a better label feels quite tedious.

I know, but that's currently the price to pay to make the UI the most user-friendly.

It would be much easier if this step offered a searchable list of properties directly, instead of the generic “related to” with datatype categories.

Sure, feel free to submit a Pull Request ! ;-)