Technical Architecture

Overall Architecture

Nanopublications are published in a decentralized ecosystem of services and applications.

This is the overall architecture of the current nanopublication ecosystem:

(arrows represent data flow; gray components are yet to be developed)

Core Components

Nanopub Registry (instance, code) is the second-generation kind of service for publishing and retrieving nanopublications in a decentralized fashion.

The legacy nanopub-server (instance, code) is still used to keep the old (unsigned) nanopublications, but has otherwise no longer a function in the latest generation of the ecosystem.

Nanopub Query (instance, code) forms the second-generation of services to query nanopublications. They allow for decentrally querying the published nanopublications via a number of SPARQL endpoints covering different subsets and aspects of nanopublications.

Nanodash (instance, code) is a general client and user interface for nanopublications, It allows for user-friendly browsing, querying, and publishing nanopublications, but can also be used as an API and intermediary layer for other services to build upon.

Auxiliary Components

The Nanopub Monitor (instance, code) is a service to observe the services running the core components of the nanopublication ecosystem.

Vodex (code) is a vocabulary index service, used to provide auto-complete on third-party vocabularies.

nanopub-http (code) is a service that provides features of the nanopublication libraries, most importantly for signing and publishing, over HTTP.

Libraries

See Tools.

Third-party Systems

See Tools.