The Virtuoso Faceted Browser (FCT or /fct) is a powerful interface that presents Entity Descriptions through an HTML-based User Interface. A critical part of this engine is its unique ability to provide entity descriptions in situations where the size and nature of Entity Attributes are unpredictable and not scoped to a predictable subject-matter domain such as retail items, datasets, or others typically associated with Faceted Search interfaces.
Why is Customization Important?
Despite the power of this engine, users find greater value if they are able to re-skin its high-level UI to suit their specific tastes and goals.
The rest of this guide covers the process of aesthetically customizing this engine.
How is Customization Achieved?
Customization can be achieved by editing the /rdfdesc/description.vsp file and/or the default.css stylesheet. Note that the Commercial/Enterprise and Open Source versions of the Faceted Browser services that drive the /describe pages require somewhat different edits of the default.css stylesheet. Details for both are documented below.
Open Source Edition (VOS)
First, install the Faceted Browser VAD (fct_dav.vad) package from our Github Repo.
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Create a local copy of the repo with —
git clone https://github.com/OpenLinkSoftware/fct -
Make the VAD by running the 'build.sh` script, which is part of the repo
-
Install the VAD via Conductor or iSQL
Once installed, the /describe page can be customized in either of two ways:
- Edit the CSS located in
/DAV/VAD/fct/rdfdesc/styles/default.css, and then execute the following registry command (in either the command-line or browser-based iSQL), so the changes will take effect:SQL> registry_get ('fct_main_ss'); - Edit the
/DAV/VAD/fct/rdfdesc/description.vsppage and refresh — informed by this recent change-log to the public repo
Commercial or Enterprise Edition (VEE)
First, rebuild the Faceted Browser VAD (fct_dav.vad) package locally from the latest code in the github repo, and install the newly built VAD in your Virtuoso instance.
-
Create a local copy of the repo with —
git clone https://github.com/OpenLinkSoftware/fct -
Make the VAD by running the 'build.sh` script, which is part of the repo
-
Install the VAD via Conductor or iSQL
Once installed, the /describe page can be customized in either of two ways:
- Edit the CSS located in
/DAV/VAD/fct/css/default.css, ad then execute the following registry command (in either the command-line or browser-based iSQL), so the changes will take effect:SQL> registry_get ('fct_main_ss'); - Edit the
/DAV/VAD/fct/rdfdesc/description.vsppage, informed by entries in this change-log, and refresh.
For both Commercial and Open Source the /DAV/VAD/fct/images folder contains images used by these pages.