Linked Art API: TimeSpan Structure

Table of Contents

Introduction
Property Definitions
Example

Introduction

The details of time spans are recorded using a data structure called a TimeSpan. Each period, event, activity or further more specific class can have its own time span with fuzzy starting and ending points, and a duration of time that the event lasted between the start and end. They are always approximations, but allow for searching computation.

Timespans are used for all temporal entities, and described in the base patterns of the model.

Property Definitions

The time span data structure has the following properties.

Properties of TimeSpans

Property Name	Datatype	Requirement	Description
`id`	string	Optional	If present, the value MUST be a URI identifying the timespan, from which a representation of the timespan can be retrieved
`type`	string	Required	The class for the name, which MUST be the value `"TimeSpan"`
`_label`	string	Recommended	A human readable label, intended for developers
`_complete`	boolean	Optional	Non-Semantic. If there is an `id` property with a URI, and there is more information about the timespan available from the representation at that URI, then `_complete` MUST be present with a value of `false` to inform the consuming application that it might want to retrieve it
`classified_as`	array	Recommended	An array of json objects, each of which is a further classification of the time span and MUST follow the requirements for Type
`identified_by`	array	Recommended *	An array of json objects, each of which is a textual representation of the structured data in the time span, and MUST follow the requirements for Name
`begin_of_the_begin`	date	Recommended *	A string containing an ISO8601 formatted date-time, representing the earliest possible date at which the timespan could have started
`end_of_the_end`	date	Recommended *	A string containing an ISO8601 formatted date-time, representing the latest possible date at which the timespan could have ended
`end_of_the_begin`	date	Optional	A string containing an ISO8601 formatted date-time, representing the latest possible date at which the timespan could have started
`begin_of_the_end`	date	Optional	A string containing an ISO8601 formatted date-time, representing the earliest possible date at which the timespan could have ended
`referred_to_by`	array	Optional	An array of json objects, each of which is either a reference to a textual work that refers to the time span, or an embedded statement about the time span.
`duration`	json object	Optional	A json object representing the length of time for the time span within the date range, which MUST follow the requirements for Dimensions

- Note Well that TimeSpans MUST have at least one of identified_by, begin_of_the_begin and end_of_the_end. Without these, there is no information to convey to the consuming application, and it becomes impossible to distinguish with a reference if the id is given, as there are no other properties that would be present.

Property Diagram

Incoming Properties

Dimension instances are typically found as the object of the following properties. This list is not exhaustive, but is intended to cover the likely cases.

Property Name	Source Endpoint	Description
`timespan`	All endpoints	The timespan is the range of time for an activity in any endpoint

Example

An activity has a time span with a duration of 1 day, sometime circa 1750

It has a type of "TimeSpan"
It has a _label which briefly describes it as "1 day, c. 1750"
It is identified_by a Name, with content of "1 day, during circa 1750"
It is referred_to_by a description statement, with the content of "About 1750, as estimated by C. U. Rata"
It has a begin_of_the_begin earliest start date of 1720
It has a end_of_the_begin latest start date of 1751
It has a begin_of_the_end earliest end date of 1749
It has a end_of_the_end latest end date of 1780
It took a duration of time which ...
- ... has a type of "Dimension"
- ... has a value of 1
- ... has a unit of days, which has an id of aat:300379242 and has a type of "MeasurementUnit"

{
  "@context": "https://linked.art/ns/v1/linked-art.json",
  "id": "https://linked.art/example/event/1",
  "type": "Activity",
  "timespan": {
    "type": "TimeSpan",
    "_label": "1 day, c. 1750",
    "identified_by": [
      {
        "type": "Name",
        "content": "1 day, during circa 1750"
      }
    ],
    "referred_to_by": [
      {
        "type": "LinguisticObject",
        "classified_as": [
          {
            "id": "http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300435416",
            "type": "Type",
            "_label": "Description",
            "classified_as": [
              {
                "id": "http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300418049",
                "type": "Type",
                "_label": "Brief Text"
              }
            ]
          }
        ],
        "content": "About 1750, as estimated by C. U. Rata"
      }
    ],
    "begin_of_the_begin": "1720-01-01T00:00:00Z",
    "end_of_the_begin": "1751-01-01T00:00:00Z",
    "begin_of_the_end": "1749-01-01T00:00:00Z",
    "end_of_the_end": "1780-01-01T00:00:00Z",
    "duration": {
      "type": "Dimension",
      "value": 1,
      "unit": {
        "id": "http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300379242",
        "type": "MeasurementUnit",
        "_label": "days"
      }
    }
  }
}

graph TD classDef object stroke:black,fill:#E1BA9C,rx:20px,ry:20px; classDef actor stroke:black,fill:#FFBDCA,rx:20px,ry:20px; classDef type stroke:red,fill:#FAB565,rx:20px,ry:20px; classDef name stroke:orange,fill:#FEF3BA,rx:20px,ry:20px; classDef dims stroke:black,fill:#c6c6c6,rx:20px,ry:20px; classDef infoobj stroke:#907010,fill:#fffa40,rx:20px,ry:20px classDef timespan stroke:blue,fill:#ddfffe,rx:20px,ry:20px classDef place stroke:#3a7a3a,fill:#aff090,rx:20px,ry:20px classDef event stroke:#1010FF,fill:#96e0f6,rx:20px,ry:20px classDef literal stroke:black,fill:#f0f0e0; classDef classstyle stroke:black,fill:white; O1(event/1) class O1 event; O1-- type -->O1_0[Activity] class O1_0 classstyle; O2( _ ) class O2 timespan; O2-- type -->O2_0[TimeSpan] class O2_0 classstyle; O2-- _label -->O2_2("''1 day, c. 1750''") class O2_2 literal; O3( _ ) class O3 name; O3-- type -->O3_0[Name] class O3_0 classstyle; O3-- content -->O3_2("''1 day, during circa 1750''") class O3_2 literal; O2-- identified_by -->O3 O4( _ ) class O4 infoobj; O4-- type -->O4_0[LinguisticObject] class O4_0 classstyle; O5(aat:300435416) class O5 type; O5-- type -->O5_0[Type] class O5_0 classstyle; O5-- _label -->O5_3("''Description''") class O5_3 literal; O6(aat:300418049) class O6 type; O6-- type -->O6_0[Type] class O6_0 classstyle; O6-- _label -->O6_3("''Brief Text''") class O6_3 literal; O5-- classified_as -->O6 O4-- classified_as -->O5 O4-- content -->O4_3("''About 1750, as estimated by C. U. Rata''") class O4_3 literal; O2-- referred_to_by -->O4 O2-- begin_of_the_begin -->O2_5("''1720-01-01T00:00:00Z''") class O2_5 literal; O2-- end_of_the_begin -->O2_6("''1751-01-01T00:00:00Z''") class O2_6 literal; O2-- begin_of_the_end -->O2_7("''1749-01-01T00:00:00Z''") class O2_7 literal; O2-- end_of_the_end -->O2_8("''1780-01-01T00:00:00Z''") class O2_8 literal; O7( _ ) class O7 dims; O7-- type -->O7_0[Dimension] class O7_0 classstyle; O7-- value -->O7_2(1) class O7_2 literal; O8(aat:300379242) class O8 type; O8-- type -->O8_0[MeasurementUnit] class O8_0 classstyle; O8-- _label -->O8_3("''days''") class O8_3 literal; O7-- unit -->O8 O2-- duration -->O7 O1-- timespan -->O2

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