A communiqué from Geir Ove Grønmo and Steve Pepper announces the release of the Ontopia Knowledge Suite version 1.3, with a query engine and schema tools. The Ontopia Knowledge Suite (OKS) includes (1) "a full-featured Topic Map Engine written in 100% Java; (2) the Ontopia Topic Map Navigator Framework, a framework for building J2EE compliant web applications; (3) integration with full-text search engines; and (4) an RDBMS backend for persistent storage of very large topic maps. The new query engine, which utilizes the 'tolog' query language, enables complex queries to be performed on topic maps. The schema tools allow the validation of semantic constraints expressed using the Ontopia Schema Language (OSL), and the development of more intelligent, schema-aware end-user applications." Ontopia is also releasing a new version of its popular free topic map browser, called Omnigator; the Omnigator "is a generic application built on top of the Ontopia Navigator Framework that allows users to load and browse any conforming topic map, including their own."

From the announcement:

Topic mapping is a new paradigm for organizing, retrieving, and navigating information resources. Through the provision of a 'knowledge layer' that is independent of the information resources themselves, topic maps help capture and manage corporate memory, improve indexing, and enable the integration of information that spans multiple, disparate repositories. Topic maps are based on an international standard, defined by the ISO, and are interchanged using the Extensible Markup Language (XML) defined by the W3C.

Version 1.3 of the OKS adds significant new functionality in the form of a query engine and schema tools. Among other enhancements, all components now support Java2 version 1.4, memory consumption has been reduced by on average 30%, and support has been introduced for version 1.2 of LTM, the Linear Topic Map notation.

In addition to providing customers with much-needed additional power, 'tolog' and OSL are major contributions to the projects currently underway in ISO to develop a Topic Map Query Language (TMQL) and a Topic Map Constraint Language (TMCL).

Together with the Navigator Framework, these new features enable customers to build powerful topic map-driven web portals that integrate information from a variety of sources, provide much more intuitive navigational interfaces for end users, and greatly simplify web site development and maintenance.