SPQL: SPecies Query Language

SPQL is a language used to query the Species Product Discovery Service

Grammar

query: terms (IN identifiers)? (WHERE expressions)? (RETURN returnExpression)?
 
terms: term  (',' term)*
 
term: words AS (('ScientificName'|'SN') | ('CommonName'|'CN'))
 
words: word (',' word)*
 
word : STRING
 
identifiers:  identifier (',' identifier)*
 
identifier: ID
 
expressions: expression (AND expression)*
 
expression:	(bc=boundCondition | dateCondition)
 
boundCondition: ('lowerBound' | 'upperBound') IS coordinate
 
dateCondition: ('fromDate' | 'toDate') IS date
 
date: INT '/' INT '/' INT
 
coordinate: FLOAT ',' FLOAT
 
returnExpression: '*' (havingExpression)? | 'Occurrence' | 'Taxon'
 
havingExpression: HAVING 'Occurrence' | 'Taxon'

SPQL 2.0

Synopsis

SEARCH BY term [, ...]
      [ IN datasource [, ...] ]
      [ WHERE condition [AND condition] ]
      [ RETURN {PRODUCT | OCCURRENCE | TAXON} ]
      [ HAVING having expression ]

Where term can be one of:

CN common name [, ...] RESOLVE [ WITH datasource [, ...] ] [EXPAND [ WITH datasource [, ...] ] ]
SN scientific name [, ...] [EXPAND [ WITH datasource [, ...] ] ]

Where condition can be one of:

coordinate {< | <= | == | => | >} LAT, LONG
eventDate {< | <= | == | => | >} DATE

Where having condition is a boolean expression composed by those elements:

item expression : item property {< | <= | == | != | => | >} value
function call: xpath(xpath expression) | exl(exl expression)

Description

The Search by query retrieves all the available elements from the species service. The general processing of Search by is as follows:

1. All the term are elaborated depending on the specified type:
   • CN case:
     • all the specified common names are mapped into scientific names using the specified datasources or all the available datasources if no one as been specified
     • if the EXPAND clause is specified the scientific names are expanded using the synonyms provided by the specified datasources or using all the available datasources if no one as been specified
   • SN case:
     • if the EXPAND clause is specified all the specified scientific names are expanded using the synonyms provided by the specified datasources or using all the available datasources if no one as been specified
2. The scientific names retrieved from the term elaboration are used for the retrieving of the specified elements in the RETURN clause (if no element is specified PRODUCT are returned).
3. If the WHERE clause is specified, all the elements that do not satisfy the condition are eliminated from the output (filtering made inside the Datasource).
4. If the HAVING clause is specified, all the elements that do not satisfy the having expression are eliminated from the output (the filtering is made outside the Datasource).

Date format

Accepted DATE formats are:

• "yyyy"
• "MM-yyyy"
• "MM/yyyy"
• "yyyyMMdd"
• "dd-MM-yyyy"
• "yyyy-MM-dd"
• "MM/dd/yyyy"
• "yyyy/MM/dd"
• "dd MMM yyyy"
• "dd MMMM yyyy"
• "yyyyMMddHHmm"
• "yyyyMMdd HHmm"
• "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm"
• "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm"
• "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm"
• "yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm"
• "dd MMM yyyy HH:mm"
• "dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm"
• "yyyyMMddHHmmss"
• "yyyyMMdd HHmmss"
• "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss"
• "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
• "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss"
• "yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss"
• "dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss"
• "dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss"

Functions

Currently the supported functions are:

• xpath: a XPath expression returning a boolean value;
• exl: a JExl expression returning a boolean value.