GSOC 2022 - Taxonomy editor

Taxonomy editor

Summary

Create an application that enables more contributors to taxonomies, while continuously checking quality.

Description

Status: Selected for GSOC 2022, Planning

People:

• Aadarsh Anantha Ramakrishnan (GSOC intern)
• Charles Népote, Stéphane Gigandet (mentors)

Impact (why)

Taxonomies are at the heart of openfoodfacts in many aspects. It helps identify components (ingredients, labels, brands,…) and link them to useful properties, at the base of nutri-score, eco-score, allergens identification and some other properties.

Each taxonomy is a DAG (directed acyclic graph) where leaves have one or more parents. Currently the taxonomy is in a raw text file in our repository: https://github.com/openfoodfacts/openfoodfacts-server/tree/main/taxonomies.

While effective for the application, this format is quite cumbersome to edit for contributors.

Expected outcomes (what)

We would like to have a tool (online or standalone) to edit taxonomies.

Expected outcomes:

The tool should:

• help quickly find an element with a search
• help visualize the hierarchy of components
• help visualize the component, it’s synonyms in multiple languages
• indicate inherited properties for an element, and signal when there are more than one
• enable edition of those names, synonyms and properties
• run some validation on names, synonyms and properties (no duplicate, specific formats, etc.)

As a bonus, it would be really interesting to know the impact of a modification on the application. For that we could imagine simple API’s (one for each taxonomy) on the openfoodfact application to visualize which products would be affected by a change. This feedback could be a really interesting tool to ensure no error is made (unexpected side effects)

Timeline

• Timeline proposed by Aadarsh: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KeNLc-2V1U_zcA-3QkvBm35LxYSItQZc/view?usp=sharing
• To be discussed

Resources / Contributing

• Main github repository
• Project to track current tasks: https://github.com/orgs/openfoodfacts/projects/28

• Slack channels: #taxonomies
• Existing documentation on taxonomies : Global taxonomies - Product Opener/Taxonomy Edition

• Initial proposal: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KeNLc-2V1U_zcA-3QkvBm35LxYSItQZc/view?usp=sharing
• Initial project phases presentation (2022/05/24): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mHyN7NGf7PBxH0wSJlhiFsHAruu8NJnlcrzNl4SIVFo/edit?usp=sharing