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AnnotationAPI

Variant Annotations

This subset is designed for variant annotations in textual scholarship, allowing for the association of textual variants with specific witnesses (e.g. manuscripts) and precise targeting within digital scholarly editions.

The W3C Web Annotation Data Model has been enhanced in this subset to provide the necessary information about the textual witnesses in a simple and non-redundant way.

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Root Object: AnnotationPage

Example:

Code
{
  "id": "https://example.com/api/annotations/manifest1",
  "type": "AnnotationPage",
  "items": […],
  "startIndex": 0,
  "@context": "http://www.w3.org/ns/anno.jsonld",
  "partOf": {…}
}

AnnotationPage

Property	Type	Description
id	string (URI)	Unique identifier for this AnnotationPage.
type	string	MUST be "AnnotationPage".
items	array	List of Annotation objects.
startIndex	integer	Zero-based index of the first annotation in this page.
@context	string	JSON-LD context, defining the vocabulary used (W3C Web Annotation).
partOf	object	Reference to the parent AnnotationCollection.

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Annotation Object

Example

Code
{
  "type": "Annotation",
  "target": […],
  "body": {…},
  "id": "https://example.com/api/anno/item1/aff626"
}

Annotation

Property	Type	Description
type	string	MUST be "Annotation".
target	array	One or more targets (resources or parts thereof) being annotated.
body	object	The content of the annotation (e.g. text, comment, tag).
id	string (URI)	Unique identifier for this annotation.

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Target Object

Example

Code
{
  "type": "SpecificResource",
  "source": "https://example.com/api/html/item_1.html",
  "selector": {
    "type": "CssSelector",
    "value": "#aff626"
  },
  "language": "de",
  "format": "text/html"
}

Target

Property	Type	Description
type	string	MUST be "SpecificResource".
source	string	URI of the target resource.
selector	object	Describes how to locate the target within the resource (MUST be a CSS selector).
language	string	Language of the target resource (e.g. "de" for German).
format	string	MIME type of the target resource (e.g. "text/html").

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Selector Object

Example

Code
{
  "type": "CssSelector",
  "value": "#aff626"
}

Selector

Property	Type	Description
type	string	Type of selector. MUST be "CssSelector".
value	string	The selector value (e.g. "#aff626").

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Body Object (TextualBody)

Example:

Code
{
  "format": "text/plain",
  "value": "<i>ø</i>",
  "annotationType": "Variant",
  "type": "TextualBody",
  "witnesses": ["a", "b"]
}

Body (TextualBody)

Property	Type	Description
format	string	MIME type of the value (e.g. "text/plain").
value	string	The actual content of the annotation (e.g. HTML, plain text).
annotationType	string	Application-specific type (e.g. "Variant").
type	string	MUST be "TextualBody".
witnesses	array	List of witness identifiers (e.g. manuscript sigla).

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Parent AnnotationCollection

Example

Code
{
  "@context": [
    "http://www.w3.org/ns/anno.jsonld",
    "http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp.jsonld"
  ],
  "id": "https://example.com/api/anno/manifest1/",
  "total": 1,
  "first": "https://example.com/api/anno/manifest1",
  "last": "https://example.com/api/anno/manifest1",
  "type": ["AnnotationCollection"],
  "refs": […]
}

AnnotationCollection

Property	Type	Description
@context	array	JSON-LD contexts defining the vocabulary used.
id	string (URI)	Unique identifier for this AnnotationCollection.
total	integer	Total number of annotations in the collection.
first	string (URI)	URI of the first AnnotationPage.
last	string (URI)	URI of the last AnnotationPage.
type	array	MUST include "AnnotationCollection".
refs	array	List of references (e.g. witnesses, manuscripts).

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Reference Object

Example

Code
{
  "idnoAlt": null,
  "title": "a",
  "idno": "a"
}

Reference

Property	Type	Description
idnoAlt	null	Alternative identifier.
title	string	Human-readable title.
idno	string	Machine-readable identifier.

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Added Properties

The following terms have been added in comparison to the W3C Web Annotation Data Model:

In the Annotation Collection:

• The complete refs object

In the Annotation Page:

• body.annotationType
• body.witnesses