semantic search in software documentation (new proposal)

Semantic Search in Software Documentation(New Proposal)

Bilal Gonen, Thomas Reichherzer, Norman Wilde,The University of West Florida

Pensacola, Florida, USA

This research is currently supported in part by the UWF Nystul Endowment.

S2ERC Showcase 2013: UWF New Proposal 2

• Challenges in understanding software documentation.

• Support for discovery and navigation.

– When the territory is unfamiliar.

– Helping developers get up to speed.

– Making sure everyone is on the same page.

• Tools to support semantic search and navigation.

– uses RDF ontology capturing domain knowledge.

• Concluding remarks.

Overview

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Challenges in Understanding Software Documentation

• Software documentation:– traditionally follows IEEE 830 standard– recently captured by “use cases” or “user stories”– tends to be lots of textual information

• Developers must be able to – comprehend large volumes of information.– find relevant information to ensure developed and

maintained software meets requirements

S2ERC Showcase 2013: UWF New Proposal 4

• Knowledge about subject helps developers make the right decision.– domain knowledge is critical to understand software

documentation– developers must have consensus about software

requirements• Helping developers get up to speed and deal with

large volumes of documentation.– Help them discover relevant information.– Help them navigate between resources.

Support for Discovery & Navigation

Physical Links vs. Semantic Links

co_occurs_with

analyzesaffects

is_result_of

href

href

href

href

affects

affects

affects

co_occurs_withco_occurs_with

co_occurs_with

co_occurs_with

co_occurs_withis_result_of

is_result_of

is_result_of

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A Real Example

How are these articles related?

How do we find other documents related with “melanoma”?

One common option is to use statistical techniques.

A Real Example

Such a statistical technique may return these terms.

sun's harmful raysskinskin cancerlegankleskin pigmentmelaninaneuploidy

There are no named relationships.

Relationships In Ontology

breast cancer bone cancer

non-melanoma melanoma

blood cancerskin cancer

cancers

aneuploidy euploidymonoploidy

chromosomal disorder

is_result_of

A Real Example

Our approach is to offer several relationships to the user.

aneuploidyallelic imbalancechromosome aberrations

This is what user is interested in.

affectsco_occurs_with

occurs_in

is_result_of

Return files which includes “aneuploidy”

Chromosomal AneuploidiesIdentification of AneuploidyDefinition of AneuploidyAneuploidy and Deletions

Name of files in which “aneuploidy” occurs.

S2ERC Showcase 2013: UWF New Proposal 10

• Help identify a problem domain as proof-of-concept.

• Create ontologies needed for indexing.• Assist with annotations of software

documentation.• Build index from annotated documents.• Build browser interface to facilitate semantic

search and navigation.• Test and evaluate sample prototype system.• Identify applications of semantic browsing.

What We can Do

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Semantic Browser Tool

Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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Semantic Browser Tool

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• Semantic search can help developers learn what they don’t know.

• Previously unlinked documents get linked by semantic relationships.

• Users discover and can navigate relationships of their interest.

• Traversing semantically linked documents may help making access to software documentation more efficient.

Concluding remarks

Questions, Comments

Thank you…

Semantic browser is available at: www.uwf.edu/bgonenContact Bilal at bgonen@uwf.edu

Bilal Gonen, Thomas Reichherzer, Norman Wilde,The University of West Florida

Pensacola, Florida, USA