Here at TSO, we’ve been doing more work on tool support to make it easier to write SPARQL queries. We have now released version 0.5 of Flint, our browser-based SPARQL editor. The syntax checking in this new release is powered by a new parser which we have re-written from the ground up to be more closely integrated into the editor (it’s also a good deal smaller than the old one). This has enabled us to make the ctrl-space code auto-completion and the panel of SPARQL keyword buttons sensitive to the context at the cursor position. The SPARQL keyword buttons will only be enabled for keywords which are valid in the context. Pressing ctrl-space when a property is expected will allow properties to be selected from those used in the dataset (first select a namespace prefix or type ‘<’ to start a URI).
For those who wish to embed a Flint editor on their own web pages, Flint 0.5 is being bundled as a download with instructions on how to configure and deploy it. This is released under an open license in the hope that people will find it useful.
Flint is still under development. Please check back for future releases. If you have any comments, suggestions or bug reports, please send them to opendata@tso.co.uk.