Data Sets from Freebase using Genexus

In many development cycles there is a step of prototyping, in this step we need more than just the application in order to success. We need good Data Sets. 

Good Data Sets allow us to detect usability issues, performance issues, and probably give a good first impression to your customer.

So we decided to give to our users a way to generate data sets in order to be consumed by Genexus applications.
Fortunaly there are many sources of data today, one of them is FreeBase.

Briefly FreeBase "is an open database of the world's information" It's build by the community in a similar way as Wikipedia. FreeBase is one of the most famous application of the Web 3.0 wave where semantic matter.
So our Data Provider Generator is a new tool in order to generate data sets taking data from Freebase at first.

Let me show you a very simple sample.
You are creating an application for selling cars and in order to try your application you need data about Car Models. Yes, I know you could search for images, and information using your favorite search engine, but it is a time wasting task.

So, at first you have a structure data type in order to manipulate a CarModel

CarModel
{
  Name
  Image
  MadeBy
}

 And you have a Grid in your WebForm showing this information.
Until here you have a very simple application but without data, now you need the data, so in Genexus Evolution I,
you will have a Data Provider Generator in order to create a Data Set for your structure.

So you start de DataProvider Generator and you try a search about "car" (the results from freebase are ordered by relevance)



You will find that the “Automobile Model” type have a lot of information but you only want the Name, Image and Made By attributes so you map each attribute from the data source to the output structure.

After you select Finish you will have a bunch of data so that you can start you application prototype with some interesting data.


This final application sample looks like the following image

 But just in case you like cars here you have the sample online