You'll usually want to edit an Oedipus database by dropping certain categories, or by only keeping a specific subtree. Writing a full Web-based tool for editing a database is a sizable job, and one I haven't attempted yet. I may never work on such an editing tool, because I'm most interested in re-using dmoz.org's data, not in setting up a competing effort.

As a simple demo, I've written a character-based tool that resembles a Unix shell. You can walk around the tree of topics and subtopics, in much the same way that you'd walk around a file system's directory tree.

odpsh.py is only a demo. If you want to do complicated transformations or edits, you're much better off implementing them in Python, a programming language much more powerful than any shell.

Command List

cd topic

Change current topic to topic. You can use a leading '/' to start from the root of the tree, or use .. to move one level up, toward the root.

clear

Clear the ODP database, erasing all the topics and pages.

ls

List contents of the current topic.

mkeditor

Create a new editor within the current topic. You will be prompted for the editor's ID.

mkletterbar

Create a letterbar link. You will be prompted for the destination topic that is the target of the link.

mknewsgroup

Create a newsgroup within the current topic. You will be prompted for the newsgroup name.

mkpage

Create a new external page within the current topic. You will be prompted for the URL, a title, and a description.

mkrelated

Create a related topic link, used for 'See also' references). You will be prompted for the destination topic.

mksymbolic

Create a new symbolic link to another topic. You will be prompted for the destination topic, and the title of the link.

mktopic

Create a new subtopic within the current topic. You will be prompted for the topic's title.

mv

Move a subtopic to another topic. You will be prompted for the name of the topic to move, and its destination.

parse contentfile structurefile

Parse the two named XML files, adding their contents to the in-memory database.

pwd

Print current topic.

quit

Exit the ODP shell.

rdf contentfile structurefile

Generate two XML files containing the current database, writing them to the provided filenames.

rm topic

Delete a subtopic.

stats

Print statistics (# of subcategories, # of links) for current topic.

tree

Display tree of subcategories for current topic.

Example Transcript

[amk@mira ODP-0.04]$ python odpsh.py
ODP> mktopic
Title:CAD Software
ODP> mktopic 
Title:Books
ODP> ls

Subtopics:
CAD Software Books
ODP> cd CAD Software
ODP> mkpage
URL:http://www.memcap.com
Title:MEMCAP
Description (. to end):
Software for designing MEMS-based caps.
.
ODP> mktopic
Title:User Groups
ODP> ls
Pages:
	<ExternalPage http://www.memcap.com>

Subtopics:
User Groups
ODP> cd ..
ODP> mkeditor
Editor ID:amk1
ODP> rdf /tmp/content.xml /tmp/struct.xml
ODP> quit
[amk@mira ODP-0.04]$