The new improvement did away with the need for OSF to interact with the triple store, thus removing the complexity because special handling was no longer needed. All of the default Ubuntu packages could now be used like system administrators usually do, and this greatly simplified the installation and deployment of an Open Semantic Framework.
Another shortcoming of the Open Database Connectivity platform was that it was restricting the amount of various triple stores that could be used for running the Open Semantic Framework. Actually, Virtuoso could only be used with the Open Semantic Framework instance.
The new version of OSF created numerous opportunities. Virtuoso Open Source is still shipped as the default triple store for the Open Semantic Framework. However, all triple stores with the following features could be used in place of Virtuoso in the Open Semantic Framework:
• Features a SPARQL HTTP endpoint.
• Supports SPARQL Update 1.1 and SPARQL 1.1.
• Supports SPARQL1.1 Query results JSON Format
• Supports update queries of SPARQL that can be communicated to the SPARQL HTTP endpoint.
• Supports SPARQL 1.1 Graph Store HTTP protocol through an HTTP endpoint.
Now that the SPARQL HTTP endpoint of the triple store needs to be enabled with updated rights of SPARQL, it’s essential to ensure that the triple store’s SPARQL HTTP endpoint is only available to the Open Semantic Framework web services. You can do this through the configuration of your proxy or firewall, in such a way that only traffic emanating from the Open Semantic Framework web services processes, or local traffic, can reach the endpoint. The SPARQL endpoint that should be accessible externally is the Open Semantic Framework’s SPARQL endpoint, which limits any potentially damaging SPARQL queries by adding an extra authentication layer over the triple store’s endpoint.
OSF version 3.4 was designed with a new deployment capability for CentOS versions 6 and 7. OSF users had requested this feature for a long time and were excited when it was finally implemented. In addition to this, OSF version 3.4 also brought with it a couple of minor upgrades to some of the web service endpoints. This meant that the new version supported CentOS 6, CentOS 7, and Ubuntu 14.04.
With the new version, Open Semantic Framework is much more developed than it was a couple of years ago. The framework is now considerably more stable, and is employed in various types of projects, and is used for all sorts of purposes you can think of.
Since its launch in 2009, the Open Semantic Framework has undergone a lot of improvements that have greatly simplified its maintenance and deployment. The latest Open Semantic Framework version allows other triple stores existing in the market to be used in place of Virtuoso Open Source.
