Properties

Introduction

Properties provide a flexible way to add information to words in a glossary. Property validation is enforced by the glossary preprocessor while the properties themselves are part of the glossary proper and are thus available in the JSON data that Oracc creates for glossaries. Because glossaries link to instances, the properties in a glossary can be applied to the contexts in which the words with the property occur.

There are two glossary tags used for glossary properties: @proplist and @prop. Both tags may be used more than once.

@proplist

The @proplist tag has a single argument which is the name of a file containing properties and permissible values. The file name may begin with a project name, followed by a colon (':'). If there is an explicit project name Oracc looks only in the 00lib directory of the named project. If there is no explicit project name, Oracc looks first in the current project's 00lib directory, then in the system properties directory. At present there are no system properties defined, but this feature is implemented for possible use in the future. System property files live in the lib/data/props directory of the Oracc installation (usually /home/oracc in a multi-user installation).

@prop

The @prop may be given before any senses, in which case the property applies to all senses of the word, or immediately after a @sense, in which case it applies to the sense.

The format of a @prop is:

	@prop KEY VALUES

The KEY must be defined in a proplist which has been included in the glossary's scope via a @proplist command, and the VALUES must be declared allowable values for the KEY. A KEY may have a single VALUE or many. No spaces are allowed in VALUES.

Proplist format

The file is a simple text file, with the extension .txt. Blank lines are ignored, as are comment lines which begin with the hash mark (#). The first word of any unindented line apart from comments is an allowable KEY; subsequent words are VALUES, which may be given over more than one line as long as the second and subsequent lines are indented. A VALUE may not contain spaces.

Example

For a proplist 00lib/loctypes.txt containing the following:

	loctype monument temple city field

The qpn.glo for a project would include the proplist giving only the base part of the filename:

	@proplist loctypes

Then reference the proplist:

	@entry Entry [1] GN
	@prop loctype monument
	...

To use the properties defined by another project:

	@proplist rinap:loctypes