Project:WikiBase-OpenFoodFacts

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This projects aims at evaluating the pros and cons of using Wikimedia, Wikibase Repository and Wikibase Client, the software running Wikidata to operate OpenFoodFacts.

In short, this software enables a collaborative structured data wiki, which is what OpenFoodFacts is about. The pros mainly revolve about the vitality of the codebase and the ecosystem. However, Wikibase lacks certain features that are unique to OpenFoodFacts.

This page is aimed at listing the pros and cons, and evaluating the feasibility.


Pros

  • Powerful Revision history
  • Structured data
  • Easy to add new fields
  • Integrated API
  • Unique identifier in case two products share the same barcode (barcode demoted as a mere value)
  • Integrated synonym and translation support
  • Ability to link to wikis
  • Ability to reuse the data for products in a easy to edit wiki
  • Vitality of the codebase
  • Vitality of the ecosystem (Gamification apps, Bot ecosystem)
  • System to enable gamification exist for wikidata
  • Ability to have a product be composed of two other products
  • Ability to have a product be composed of elements (we can define ingredients as entities)

Cons

  • Need to code a beautiful frontend to visualize the data
  • Need to code a friendlier frontend to edit the data
  • Lot of work to rebuild an OFF on top of Wikibase (feature parity with current OFF)

Risks

  • Can wikibase support everything we want to model in the Open Food Facts database?
  • Can wikibase support the type of queries done on Open Food Facts with enough performance?
    • e.g. Open Food Facts is a very heavy user of tag queries for its navigation by facets, that need to return results instantly
      • (/tagtype1/tag1/tagtype2 -> list of all tag2s for products that have tag1)
      • (/tagtype1/tag1/tagtype2/tag2 -> list of all products that have tag1 and tag2)
      • queries to build maps, graphs.

Wikibase Install Guide

  • en.wiki.openfoodfacts.org/Project:WikiBase-OpenFoodFacts

Feature developpement needed for feature parity