Seven bug reports / feature requests for VocBench
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Joeli Takala
Feb 24, 2026, 5:30:57 AMFeb 24
to vocbench-user
Hi,
After a round of feedback for VocBench use at the National Library of Finland, here are our latest findings to report, in addition to the two I reported earlier based on my own findings. Sorry if these have been already reported before!
1. In SPARQL view, there is a checkbox option for "Fetch prefix from prefix.cc". If I navigate to the URL http://prefix.cc/skosxl, I only get the skosxl namespace as a suggestion, so there should be no ambiguity. If I check the option box "Fetch prefix from prefix.cc" in the VB SPARQL view, and type skosxl: in the SPARQL editor, I don't get a SPARQL prefix in the prefix section. Instead I have to copy paste the prefix myself from http://prefix.cc/skosxl. I suppose, in this case, the checkbox is not really false either, as it never claimed that something would AUTOMATICALLY fetch the prefix from prefix.cc - I had to do it myself. Should the option box just be removed instead, as it doesn't seem to do anything?
2. How to delete a RDF resource that's not in the hierarchy for a vocabulary? You can open a resource by opening a new nav tab in the right side concept view at the Data page for a vocabulary and typing the resource URI manually. You can then edit the properties of this resource, but deleting the resource is not possible. However, deprecating is a possibility from the upper right corner drop down menu. Should this menu also have an option for deleting the resource? This would also be a pretty useful feature for SKOS XL labels.
3. Furthermore, when opening a concept from hierarchy, you get three views to it as tabs in the bottom row of the resource information view - the ResView, TermView and Code. Turns out you could even edit and delete triples in the Code view! But for some reason, if you open a concept by typing the URL yourself (see the previous question), you don't get the Code view. Was the Code view left out for a reason in this case?
4. When editing the text of a long literal, e.g. a skos:scopeNote, VB displays the editable content in a fairly short view window with a tiny scroll bar. But the displayable content for a literal is given the vertical space it requires. Should the same general idea be applied to the edit view? Just give the literal the space it takes without a scroll bar. I attached a screen shot of a long scope note in edit mode and a similarly long scope note in the view mode:
5. At least some of the navigation bar sub-pages can be switched for the project when the user login session has expired. For example, this means the user can have the login session expired while in the DATA view, then switch to SPARQL view, spend a long time writing a query, and only get thrown out upon trying to execute the query. Could the login session timeout be checked when switching from Data to SPARQL view?
6. The login session expiration configuration parameter is not applied to the VocBench GUI. I changed the server.servlet.session.timeout to 480m (8h) in application.yml but users still get thrown out after a while.
7. VocBench system operator guide mentions a configuration parameter for HTTPS by referring to vbconfig.js file when deploying the web app separately (https://vocbench.uniroma2.it/doc/sys/). Can the HTTPS connection be configured through the application.yml for the stand-alone installation?
______
Joeli
After a round of feedback for VocBench use at the National Library of Finland, here are our latest findings to report, in addition to the two I reported earlier based on my own findings. Sorry if these have been already reported before!
1. In SPARQL view, there is a checkbox option for "Fetch prefix from prefix.cc". If I navigate to the URL http://prefix.cc/skosxl, I only get the skosxl namespace as a suggestion, so there should be no ambiguity. If I check the option box "Fetch prefix from prefix.cc" in the VB SPARQL view, and type skosxl: in the SPARQL editor, I don't get a SPARQL prefix in the prefix section. Instead I have to copy paste the prefix myself from http://prefix.cc/skosxl. I suppose, in this case, the checkbox is not really false either, as it never claimed that something would AUTOMATICALLY fetch the prefix from prefix.cc - I had to do it myself. Should the option box just be removed instead, as it doesn't seem to do anything?
2. How to delete a RDF resource that's not in the hierarchy for a vocabulary? You can open a resource by opening a new nav tab in the right side concept view at the Data page for a vocabulary and typing the resource URI manually. You can then edit the properties of this resource, but deleting the resource is not possible. However, deprecating is a possibility from the upper right corner drop down menu. Should this menu also have an option for deleting the resource? This would also be a pretty useful feature for SKOS XL labels.
3. Furthermore, when opening a concept from hierarchy, you get three views to it as tabs in the bottom row of the resource information view - the ResView, TermView and Code. Turns out you could even edit and delete triples in the Code view! But for some reason, if you open a concept by typing the URL yourself (see the previous question), you don't get the Code view. Was the Code view left out for a reason in this case?
4. When editing the text of a long literal, e.g. a skos:scopeNote, VB displays the editable content in a fairly short view window with a tiny scroll bar. But the displayable content for a literal is given the vertical space it requires. Should the same general idea be applied to the edit view? Just give the literal the space it takes without a scroll bar. I attached a screen shot of a long scope note in edit mode and a similarly long scope note in the view mode:
5. At least some of the navigation bar sub-pages can be switched for the project when the user login session has expired. For example, this means the user can have the login session expired while in the DATA view, then switch to SPARQL view, spend a long time writing a query, and only get thrown out upon trying to execute the query. Could the login session timeout be checked when switching from Data to SPARQL view?
6. The login session expiration configuration parameter is not applied to the VocBench GUI. I changed the server.servlet.session.timeout to 480m (8h) in application.yml but users still get thrown out after a while.
7. VocBench system operator guide mentions a configuration parameter for HTTPS by referring to vbconfig.js file when deploying the web app separately (https://vocbench.uniroma2.it/doc/sys/). Can the HTTPS connection be configured through the application.yml for the stand-alone installation?
______
Joeli
Tiziano Lorenzetti
Feb 25, 2026, 8:45:31 AMFeb 25
to Joeli Takala, vocbench-user
Dear Joeli,
thanks for these reports, very much appreciated. Please find the responses below.
1. When "Fetch prefix from prefix.cc" is active, the SPARQL editor automatically triggers a request to https://prefix.cc/popular/all.file.json to retrieve all prefix-namespace mappings from that source. Unfortunately, it seems that their certificate is expired (https://github.com/cygri/prefix.cc/issues/41), so the request to prefix.cc is blocked by the browser.
This issue does not depend on VB; as long as they don’t update the certificate, this behavior will persist. A temporary workaround could be:
thanks for these reports, very much appreciated. Please find the responses below.
1. When "Fetch prefix from prefix.cc" is active, the SPARQL editor automatically triggers a request to https://prefix.cc/popular/all.file.json to retrieve all prefix-namespace mappings from that source. Unfortunately, it seems that their certificate is expired (https://github.com/cygri/prefix.cc/issues/41), so the request to prefix.cc is blocked by the browser.
This issue does not depend on VB; as long as they don’t update the certificate, this behavior will persist. A temporary workaround could be:
- Access https://prefix.cc/popular/all.file.json manually.
- The browser will block the access, warning that the website is not secure or the connection is not private.
- Depending on your browser, you should be able to find an “Advanced” section where you can force access to the website.
- Since you then mark prefix.cc as trusted, VB requests will no longer be blocked.
2. That’s correct: if a resource is not in a hierarchy, it is not immediately obvious how to delete it. We can consider adding this option to the wishlist for future improvements.
However, if your main usage involves SKOSXL labels, you can delete the label from the Resource View of the linked resource. This will remove not just the link (skosxl:pref/alt/hiddenLabel) but the entire skosxl:Label. Additionally, in the Class panel, selecting skosxl:Label, the instance panel below will show all the skosxl labels, which you can delete from there.
However, if your main usage involves SKOSXL labels, you can delete the label from the Resource View of the linked resource. This will remove not just the link (skosxl:pref/alt/hiddenLabel) but the entire skosxl:Label. Additionally, in the Class panel, selecting skosxl:Label, the instance panel below will show all the skosxl labels, which you can delete from there.
3. That is indeed a bug; it was reported and fixed months ago. The fix will be included in the forthcoming release.
4. That’s a good suggestion, and we implemented it, so you will see this improvement in the next release.
In the current version, you can still expand the textarea by dragging the anchor in the bottom-right corner.
5. Good point. We are very close to the release, so I cannot guarantee it for this one, but it has been added to the wishlist.
5. Good point. We are very close to the release, so I cannot guarantee it for this one, but it has been added to the wishlist.
6. We will need to investigate this. VocBench GUI reflects the SemanticTurkey session, so it is likely that server.servlet.session.timeout is not properly handled in ST.
7. The parameter in vbconfig.js is only used to instruct VB on how to build URLs for backend requests. If you are running the standalone installation, you don’t need to modify it because VB already resolves the SemanticTurkey host URL using the protocol, host, and port of its container. You may find this discussion useful.
Thanks again and best regards,
Tiziano
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