Getting Started
The application can be invoked by directing any of the popular web browsers (Internet Explorer,
Firefox, Safari, or Opera) to the web address:
http://www.sheaflight.com/browser.
In order to run the browser application, it is necessary to download and install the Microsoft
Silverlight 2 plug-in which is freely available from the Microsoft Silverlight
site. If the plug-in has not been previously installed, the following installation screen
will be displayed.
Clicking on the “Install Microsoft Silverlight” button will cause the plug-in to be downloaded
and installed on your computer. Please refer to the Silverlight documentation for issues
regarding supported platforms, etc. It is not currently possible to run Sheaflight on Linux
systems, although this may be viable when version 2 of Moonlight is released for Mono.
After the successful installation of the Silverlight 2 plug-in, a screen similar to the
following will be displayed:
General Features
The layout of the browser can be thought of as a grid which is split into a number of
functionally different regions as described below:
The header displays the browser logo and title, and is composed of an address bar and a
toolbar.
The address bar can be used to type in the (URI) address of a Linked Data resource. After
entering an address, either pressing the enter key or clicking the request button
will cause
the application to attempt to retrieve the data from the specified address. Additionally, the
recent button 
can be used to select an address from a list of recently entered addresses as shown below:
The toolbar displays buttons which provide access to generalised program functionality. The
help button 
can be used to display the online help via the Sheaflight website. The Import/Export button
can be used to save and retrieve both user settings and the resources displayed and held in
memory.
NB. At the time of writing, the Import/Export functionality is under development and
incomplete. Its functionality may be extended in the near future to allow centralised
storage of settings and resources via registration with the website.
Body
The body is split between a side pane (which allows access to user-specific settings), and
a main pain (offering specific views of the data held in memory). The width of each pane
can be proportionally adjusted by dragging the splitter control which divides them.
The side pane contains the favourites and history tabs, whilst the main pane contains the
about, sheaf and resources tabs. The functionality of each of the tabs is discussed in
greater detail in the documentation that follows this section.
The footer displays relevant status information about the current state of the application.
It consists of a indicator light and message text. The purpose of the indicator light is to
categorize the type of status message by colours which have the following meanings:
- Blue: Information
- Red: Failure
- Purple: Request in progress
- Green: Success
- Black: Unknown
- Orange: Warning
Tabs
The Sheaflight user interface makes extensive use of tab controls to switch between
alternate views, and these are described in further detail below:
Favourites
The favourites tab provides a mechanism for saving commonly used resource addresses. It
displays a hierarchical ‘tree’ view of items which can be used to request a particular
resource address without the need to remember and manually type in the full URI of a
resource in the address bar.
The display consists of two types of item:
- Resource: denoted by an address
icon.
- Folder: denoted by a collapse
,
or expand 
icon.
To request a particular resource, simply click on the address icon next to the label that
describes the favourites item. Folders can also be collapsed or expanded by clicking on the
appropriate folder icon.
The favourites tab also contains a tool bar as shown below:
The buttons on the left of the toolbar control the
deleting 
,
editing 
, and
adding 
,
of items to the tree. The buttons on the right of the toolbar control the sort order (
ascending 
, or
descending 
),
and the label sort button 
which does the actual sorting. At the moment drag ‘n drop editing is not supported, though
this feature may be introduced in the near future. Favourites items are automatically saved
to isolated storage upon normal program termination.
The history tab automatically maintains a list of which URI addresses have been requested.
It is similar to the recent items list in the header, but provides a more detailed description
of each item.
Each item in the list displays the following details:
- Count
- Date
- Time
- Label
- Address
The history tab also contains a toolbar as shown below:
The toolbar contains buttons which can be used to sort the items including, the sort order
(ascending , or
descending ),
count 
,
label ,
address ,
and date/time stamp 
.
When an item from the list is selected, (by clicking on it), the corresponding address for
the item is displayed in the address bar of the header. Clicking on the request
button will attempt to retrieve the data for the selected item. History items are also
automatically saved to isolated storage upon normal program termination.
About
The main purpose of the about tab is to display general information about the browser along
with specific version information of its component parts.
The University of Manchester logo contains hyperlinks to email the author and visit the
University website. There is an also an email button on the toolbar.
Sheaf
The sheaf tab is displayed after each successful resource request has been completed and
appears similar to the figure below:
The tab contains a selector control and a search control separated by a splitter which
allows them to be proportionally resized:
- Selector: Depicts all resource items currently held in memory, and allows them to
be selected. For further details on how to use the selector control please see
Selector Controls.
- Search: Is used to locate terms within the labels of the resources, and is
composed of the following controls:
- Search bar: used to enter the term to search for.
- Toolbar: used to sort the items found.
- ListBox: lists the items found.
NB. Highlighting an item that has been rendered causes the Resource tab to be displayed.
Resource
The Resource tab is responsible for displaying information about a particular resource, and
is itself composed of two further tabs:
Facets
The facets tab displays the facets associated with a particular resource, and is shown in
the following figure:
The tab is composed of 3 main controls separated by splitters which allow them to be
proportionally resized:
- Subjects: Displays a ListBox of subject items corresponding to the currently
highlighted facet. The list items may be sorted using the controls on the toolbar.
- Facets: A selector control depicting facet items for the currently selected
resource, allowing them to be selected. Highlighting an item causes the Objects and
Subjects lists to be rebuilt. For further details on how to use the selector control
please see Selector Controls.
- Objects: Displays a ListBox of object items corresponding to the currently
highlighted facet. The list items may be sorted using the controls on the toolbar.
Nodes
The nodes tab displays the nodes associated with a particular resource, and is shown in
the following figure:
The tab is composed of 3 main controls separated by splitters which allow them to be
proportionally resized:
- Inward: Displays a ListBox of link items corresponding to the currently highlighted
node. Each link item represents an incoming node and facet (to the highlighted node).
The list items may be sorted using the controls on the toolbar.
- Facets: A selector control depicting node items for the currently selected resource,
and allowing them to be selected. Highlighting an item causes the Inward and Outward
lists to be rebuilt. For further details on how to use the selector control please see
Selector Controls.
- Outward: Displays a ListBox of link items corresponding to the currently
highlighted node. Each link item represents an outgoing node and facet (to the
highlighted node). The list items may be sorted using the controls on the toolbar.
Selector Controls
The selector controls are used by the sheaf, facets, and nodes tabs to highlight and select
items (elements), as shown below:
The selector control is itself composed of the following controls:
- ComboBox: A dropdown list of items that can be used to highlight a particular item.
- Toolbar: Used to sort the ComboBox items by count ,
label , or
address , in either
ascending or
descending
sort order.
- Treemap: An interactive space-constrained visualisation that can also be used to highlight a particular item.
- Selection Button: Used to allow further actions to be performed for the highlighted item. Possible actions are:
- Browse: Invokes the browser with the address of the item.
- Display: Selects and displays the resource indicated in the item.
- Render: Renders the resource indicated in the item.
- View: Shows the literal text of the item in a viewer control.