Workbench¶
What’s in this document?
Overview¶
The Workbench is the web-based administration interface to the Ontotext Semantic Services. Its layout consists of two main areas. The navigation area on the left-hand side of the screen contains a menu with its main functionalities: Schemas, Playground, Monitoring, GraphQL, Search, and Documentation. The work area shows the tasks associated with the selected functionality.
The Workbench provides a search user interface where you can execute various types of search queries against the configured Semantic Search.
The search field offers auto-suggest. Select or hit Enter on the preferred suggestion, and Enter/click Search to see the results.
You can navigate through search result pages, and also change the page size via the drop-down list on the top right.
Set up License¶
In order to be able to use the Semantic Search Workbench, you first need to set up a license for the Semantic Objects. See how to do it here.
Upload Schema¶
To perform searches against the data, you first need to upload a schema in the Semantic Objects. See how to do it here.
GraphQL¶
The Workbench integrates the GraphiQL in-browser tool for writing, validating, and testing GraphQL queries. In it, you can:
- perform GraphQL queries and mutations for the SOML schema currently active in the Semantic Search or the Semantic Objects
- switch between available GraphQL endpoints: Semantic Search or Semantic Objects
- see the query response or errors
- see previously executed queries
- explore the active GraphQL SDL (schema definition language)
Type your query in the left side of the screen, and you will see intelligent typeaheads aware of the current GraphQL type schema and live syntax and validation errors highlighted within the text.
The GraphiQL Explorer plugin, which is integrated in the tool, enables you to construct correct GraphQL queries and mutations faster and more easily. Clicking the Explorer button will open a panel on the left where you can explore and construct queries/mutations.
See more about it in the official GraphiQL Explorer documentation, as well as in this OneGraph blog post on the subject.
Search Types¶
Full-text Search¶
The entered text will be matched against all text and keyword fields declared as searchable in the SOML schema.
Concept Search¶
Suggests relevant objects (concepts) from which you can select and execute a search.
Drill-down (Faceted) Search¶
With the facet filters on the left, you can refine the search results by filtering them by facet (e.g., type, releaseDate, boxOffice, episodeId, and so on). Click on a filter to expand it, and hover over a facet to see its full name. The number on the right shows how many objects match each facet.
![]()
Select a facet to filter your search results. To unselect it, click the close icon next to its name:
![]()
Select multiple facets:
![]()
Click on an object from the returned results to view details about it in the panel that opens on the right.
The same applies if you want to further explore the objects in the displayed details. For example, to find out more about the character “Lando Calrissian”, click on it. This will open it in a new tab.
Note
In terms of dateTime properties handling, the search needs to be made with precise value with timezone: 2016-06-23T09:07:22Z.
Administration¶
The Workbench application reads the following Semantic Search-specific configuration from the environment:
SEARCH_ENDPOINT: URL to the Search Service. This should be configured only if the service is deployed. When the Semantic Search is configured, the Workbench will execute SOML validation in that service too. Default value is undefined.
See more about the Workbench configurations here.

