Panel

The TAPoR Portal organizes information in panels (sometimes called portlets or coplets.) These can me minimized, maximized and closed using the three buttons in the upper left-hand corner of the panel.

myTools Library

TAPoR Texts

TAPoR Tools Panel

MyTools Library

What's the point?

Logging-in to the TAPoR Portal

Overview of the Main Page Layout

Using News

Setting up the electronic texts that you want to analyze

Quick Add (Texts)

Adding your own texts

Defining File Format, Tags, and Visibility

Define More Details

myTexts Library

!TAPoR Texts

DUCT TAPoR

Setting up the tools to use

Quick Add (Tools)

!TAPoR Tools Panel

!MyTools Library

Using the Workbench

my Texts and Tools panel

Tool Broker

Data Bench

a. Heading 2

a.a Heading 3

a.a.a Heading 4

2.1) Overview of the Main Page Layout

• Main: The first page upon logging in is the "Main" page. Like all the pages within the portal, it is arranged into 3 columns. The left column on the Main page houses the Introduction panel which includes a brief description of what can be found on the Main page, along with a description of TAPoR Help. The center column on the Main page has two panels. The top panel contains any announcements, and the panel beneath contains your TAPoR News. The right column on the Main page also has two panels. The top panel contains the TAPoR Help, and beneath that is the Current User and Chat panel.

• Every page within the portal is initially arranged in a similar three column layout, and the right column always containing the TAPoR Help panel (excluding the MyTexts page), and the Current User and Chat panel.

6.1) my Texts and Tools panel

• Selecting a text: In the "Text" area of the my Texts and Tools panel, select whichever text you would like to analyze. To view the text (to make sure that it is the text you intent to use, etc), you may click on the "View Text" button. The text will appear in a new window.

• Selecting a tool: Once a text has been selected in the "Text" section above, certain tools become highlighted in blue. The blue tools are those that can be used to analyze the text. The tools that are not highlighted cannot be used on the text chosen, due to the format of the text. Select which tool you would like to use on the chosen text.

• Use Tool on Source Text: Once a text and a tool (that was highlighted in blue) have been chosen, click on the "Use Took on Source Text" button. The Tool Broker in the center column will dislay further fields that need to be filled out.

6.2) Tool Broker

The Tool Broker displays the option available for the tool that was chosen. At the top of the tool broker, in bold text, is the name of the chosen tool and the format of text compatible with the tool in brackets; for example, List Words (HTML).

• Source Text: The Source Text area allows you to define which text to analyze with the chosen tool.
  • MyTexts: If you have already chosen a tool from the My Texts and Tools panel, the "myTexts" radio button will be selected, and the text you chose will be displayed in the dropdown menu beneath. If you would like to change to another text that is in your myTexts Library, simply drop down the menu, and select a different text. Note that only texts that are compatible with the chosen tool will appear in the dropdown menu.
  • Data Bench: Select the radio button next to "Data Bench". Select a data set stored in your Data Bench to analyze it with the chosen tool.
  • URL: Select the radio button next to "URL". Type in the URL of the web page you would like to analyze. Note: you must enter the full URL including "http://".
  • Upload Text: Select the radio button next to "Upload Text". Click on "Browse" and find the document you would like to analyze with the selected tool. Ensure that the document is in the format that corresponds with the tool - for instance a .html page for a tool that analyzes HTML. Note: Uploading a text within the Workbench will not store it in your MyTexts Library for future use. If you would like the text to reside in your MyTexts Library, upload it via the MyTexts area of the portal (See Section 4 of the tutorial).
  • Text: Select the radio button next to "Text". Type in or Copy and Paste whatever text you would like analyzed into the text field.

• Parameters: In the Parameters area, you must fill in all the required fields (indicated by an asterics '*'). Then click the "Submit" button. If the "Show results in new window" box was checked, your results will appear in a new window.

• Results: When your results appear, you can choose whether to save the results to your Data Bench, or to save them to your computer.
  • Save Results to Data Bench: The Data Bench is where you can store the results of your projects within your own myTAPoR account. To store the results, simply click on "Save Results to Data Bench". Next, the "Save Results" window will appear. Here, you will enter a label for the results, and any additional notes. Click "Save Results". Your results will now be saved in the Data Bench with the label you provided.
  • Save to My Computer: If you would like the results of your analysis to be saved onto your computer, click on "Save to My Computer". Note: the results will be saved as an XML document.

6.3) Data Bench

The Data Bench is where your saved results are stored. All of the stored results are listed in the dropdown menu. Each saved result is listed with a reference number (Ref#), label and tool. The reference number is assigned according to the order in which the results were saved. The Label is whatever you assigned the label to be after clicking "Save Results to Data Bench". The tool that is listed next to the label indicates which tool was used to generate the saved result.

• ViewDetails: Select a data set from the dropdown list. Hit "ViewDetails". A new window will appear with the details of that result set, including:
  • Result label: the label you assigned the result
  • Tool Used: the tool that was used to generate the result
  • Your Notes: the notes you added with the results
  • Results generated on: the date and time the results were generated
  • the arguments you used to produce the results.

• ViewResult: Select a data set from the dropdown list. Hit "ViewResult". A new window will appear displaying the results.

• ViewResultCode: Select a data set from the dropdown list. Hit "ViewResultCode". A new window will appear displaying the HTML code of the results page.

• Save to My Texts: Select a data set from the dropdown list. Hit "Save to My Texts". The results will be saved to your MyTexts Library, and will appear according to the label you assigned it.

• Save to My Computer: Select a data set from the dropdown list. Hit " save to My Computer". The results will be saved to your computer as an XML document.

6) Using the Workbench

Overview for Using the Workbench

The Workbench is the area where you put your tools to use on your texts. The tools and texts you have available to use are housed in your My Texts and Tools Library. Select a text, select a tool to use on that text, and then hit the "Use Tool on Source Text" button. The Tool Broker will display the options available for the tool you have chosen to use. Once the required information is filled out, you can hit "Submit" to view the results.

• Label for Text: Type a label for your text in the text box under "Label for text". The label you give a particular text is what appears in the "myTexts" panel, so choose a label that clearly identifies the text you are defining.

• File Format: This allows you to specify the way the text is encoded or to specify its format. For example, a Web page is going to be "HTML", but some scholarly texts on the Web will be in XML formats like "TEI" (Text Encoding Initiative) or "DocBook". This will help you match tools that can operate on specific formats.

• Collecting texts - TAPoR lets you keep a library of references with links to original documents on the web or elsewhere
• Analyzing texts - You can then pass these texts to tools that analyze the text and then store the results

Warnings: The portal is still being tested and there are certain features that do not work smoothly. For example, in many cases you will have to refresh the screen to see the effect of a change. Please report bugs or inconsistencies using the "Report a problem/ make a suggestion" link in the myHelp panel.

To choose which channels you want to subscribe to go to myPreferences and select from the list. These will then appear on your Main page.

If you have an Advanced account you can create a channel and edit news.

There are 3 main ways to add texts: using a Quick Add link, clicking the Add button in the myTexts Library, or using the TAPoR Texts panel to add public texts to your Library. The "myTexts" Library panel shows you which texts you have available to analyze. If it is your first time using TAPoR, the scrollbar area will be empty.

• File Format: This allows you specify the way the text is encoded or its format. For example a Web page is going to be "HTML", but some scholarly texts on the Web will be in XML formats like "TEI" (Text Encoding Initiative) or "DocBook". This will help you match tools that can operate on specific formats.

• Tags: Tags allow you to create sections/categories within your myTexts library. These are like keywords and you can have more than one. Select what tag you would like the text to appear under.

• Visibility: There are two options for visibility: Private, or Public. Select Private for the text to only be accessible through your own TAPoR account, or select Public to make the text available to anyone with a TAPoR account. If you select Public you can share your texts with other people.

Glossary

Panel: The TAPoR Portal organizes information in panels (sometimes called portlets or coplets.) These can me minimized, maximized and sometimes closed using the three buttons in the upper left-hand corner of the panel.

myTexts

• Analyzing texts

4.1) Quick Add (Texts)

5) Setting up the tools to use

Overview for Setting Up Tools

5.1) Quick Add (Tools)

• There is a small list of regularly used tools in the "Quick Add" section. To add one of these tools to your "myTools" library, simply click in a tool. You can add all of the Quick Add tools by selecting "click here to add all the tools".

5.2) TAPoR Tools Panel

Each tool appears with a brief description of its function. For more information, press "Detailed Info". "Website" will open the TAPoRware website in a new window. To the right of every tool name is written HTML, PLAIN, and/or XML; this indicates what type of text the tool will work with.

To try a tool, click "Try It", or select the arrow icon. Both of these options lead to the "Tool Broker". A "Use Tool" window will appear, within which you will need to input the information necessary for the tool. Click "Submit" to see results. The results will appear in a new window if "Show results in a new window" was selected.

The following describes the 4 ways to search for tools:

• 1) Type: Allows you to search for the tool you would like to use according to the type of text analysis in does.
  • Search: If you need a tool that runs searches on texts, select "Search". All of the tools that fall within the category of search tools are listed under "Search Tools". The search tools currently available on TAPoR are: Find Concordance (HTML, XML, or plain text), Find Co-occurrence (HTML, XML or plain text), and Find Collocation (HTML, XML or plain text).
  • Text Gathering: If you need a tool that gathers text, select, "Text Gathering". The text gathering tools currently available on TAPoR are: Extract Text (XML), and Googlizer (HTML, XML, or plain text).
  • List and Statistical: If you need a tool that creates lists or gives statistical results, select "List and Statistical". The list and statistical tools currently available on TAPoR are: List Element (XML), List Words (HTML, XML, or plain), HyperPo, Linguistic Micro View, Summarizer (Plain text), Comparator (Plain text), and QMatrix.
  • Visualization: If you need a tool that performs visualization of texts, select "Visualization".
  • Editing: If you need a tool that performs editing functions on texts, select "Editing". The editing tools currently available on TAPoR are: XSL Transformer, TEI Transformer, JTidy Transformer, and Tokenizer (Plain text).
  • Research Support: If you need research support tools, select "Research Support".
  • Miscellaneous: If you need tools that do not fall under any of the previous categories, select "Miscellaneous". The miscellaneous tool currently available on TAPoR is: LiteMorph.

• 2) Source Format: Allows you to search for the tool you would like to use according to the format of the source text.
  • HTML Tools: If you need a tool that works on an HTML source, select "HTML Tools".
  • XML Tools: If you need a tool that works on an XML source, select "XML Tools".
  • Plain Text Tools: If you need a tool that works on a plain text source, select "Plain Text Tools".

• 3) New and Popular: Allows you to select tools to use according to whether they are new or popular.
  • Top 10 Tools: If you would like to use a tool that falls within the category of Top Ten Most Popular Tools, select "Top 10 Tools".
  • New Tools: If you would like to use a tool that is recent, select "New Tools".

• 4) All A-Z: Allows you to search through an alphabetical listing of all the tools available.

5.3) MyTools Library

• Show: The dropdown menu next to "Show" allows you to choose which tools within your library you would like to see. Selecting "All" will show all of the tools within your collection, regardless of which tag they are categorized under. You may select a specific tag, or category, to limit the list of tools to those within that specific tag.

• Edit: Select a tool within the library of tools. Click "Edit". The "Add and Edit Tools" panel will display the information that is available for that tool. Editing the tool label changes the name of the tool within your myTools library. You can edit the notes, about the tool, or the tag that the tool is categorized under. To apply changes, hit "Update Tool".

• Delete: Select a tool for deletion. Hit the "Delete" button. The tool will be removed from your list of texts. NOTE: Deleted tools cannot be retrieved without going through the "Add" process again. Make sure you wish to delete a tool before hitting "Delete".

• Use: Select a text, and hit the "Use" button. The Tool Broker (Use Tool window) will appear. Input the information necessary for the tool. Click "Submit" to see results. The results will appear in a new window if "Show results in a new window" was selected.

• Add:

• Log In: Enter your Username and Password into the correct fields in the Login area. Please note that this area is case sensitive. Next, click on "Login".

• Visibility: There are two options for visibility: Private, or Public. Select private for the text to only be accessible through your own TAPoR account, or select public to make the text available to anyone with a TAPoR account.

4.5) myTexts Library

• Show: The dropdown menu next to "Show" allows you to choose which texts within your library you would like to see. Selecting "All" will show all of the texts within your collection, regardless of which tag they are categorized under. You may select a specific tag, or category, to limit the list of texts to those within that specific tag.

• Edit: Select a text within the library of texts. Click "Edit". The "Add and Edit Texts" panel will display the information that is available for that text. Edit any field, and hit "Update Text".

• Delete: Select a text for deletion. Hit the "Delete" button. The text will be removed from your list of texts. NOTE: Deleted texts cannot be retrieved without going through the "Add Text" process again. Make sure you wish to delete a text before hitting "Delete".

• View: Select a text, and hit the "View" button. Your text will appear in a new window.

4.6) TAPoR Texts

You can search for a public text three ways: according to the tag it is filed under, what file format it is, or you can view a listing of all the texts and sort them by label, author or date.

Once you have found a text you would like to add to your MyTexts library, simply click on the "Add to myTexts" button (the button with an addition sign and a heart). The text will now appear in your myTexts library.

4.7) DUCT TAPoR

The following steps describe how to search for texts within D.U.C.T. from within the TAPoR portal.

1. Show Duct Search Coplet: Within the myHelp panel, click the link labeled "Show Duct Search Coplet". A panel labeled D.U.C.T Search appears under the Introduction panel.
2. Keywords: Enter the keywords you wish to search for in the text field labeled "Keywords to include". Enter any keywords that you wish not to be present in the search results in the text field labelled "Keywords to Disallow". You may enter as many keywords as you wish, by simply separating each term with a space.
3. Perform Search: Select either "All terms must be present", or "At least one term must be present", and then click "Perform Search". Once the results appear, click on any article link to be taken to its location within D.U.C.T. Click the "BACK" button to be taken back to the D.U.C.T. search options.
4. Reset Form: Clicking "Reset Form" will clear the keywords you have requested to search/omit to allow you to type in a new set of keywords.
5. Toggle Advanced Search: For more advanced search options, click the "Toggle Advanced Search" button. Enter keywords into any of the fields, and select either "must contain", or "must not contain". Next, hit the "Perform Search" button. Once the results appear, click on any article link to be taken to its location within D.U.C.T. Click the "BACK" button to be taken back to the D.U.C.T. search options.

1) What's the point?

2) Logging-in to the TAPoR Portal

• Visit http://www.tapor.ca. Click on TAPoR Alpha Portal to get to the home page of the TAPoR portal.
• Set up an Account: Before being able to log in to the TAPoR portal, an account needs to be set up for you. To request an account, you need to email Lian Yan via email at: lyan(at)mcmaster(dot)ca. This email address also appears when you click on "Sign Up for an Account Here" within the Login area. You will receive an email from Lian Yan within a few days indicating what your personal Username and Password are.
• Enter your Username and Password into the correct fields in the Login area. Please note that this area is case sensitive. Next, click on "Login".

3) Using News

4) Setting up the electronic texts that you want to analyze

Overview for Setting Up Texts

There is a fourth way to add a text to your Library, but this method does not require you to be logged into MyTapor immediately. This method involves clicking a Quick Add button while viewing another site on the Internet. This will then take you to your Tapor account so that you can log in and, once logged in, will add the site’s content as a text to your Library.

The following sections will guide you through the process of adding a text to your library using the various methods available:

4.1) Quick Add
4.2) Adding Your Own Text
4.3) Defining File Format, Tags and Visibility
4.4) Defining More Details
4.5) My Texts Library
4.6) TAPoR Texts
4.7) DUCT TAPoR

4.1) Quick Add

• The "Introduction" panel houses the Quick Add option. Here you can select the link of any of the sample texts (i.e. Click here to add "MOVING UPTOWN: Nineteenth-century Views of Manhattan" to your texts), and it will automatically be added to your myTexts library.

4.2) Adding your own texts

• To add your own text, click the "Add button" in your myTexts Library, or select "Click here to add a text" within the Introduction panel directly under the Quick Add title.

• Add and Edit Texts Panel: This panel allows you to choose a label, source, file format, and tag for each text, and will allow you to choose whether the text’s visibility is private or public.

• Label for Text: Type a label for your text in the text box under “Label for text”. The label you give a particular text is what appears in the "myTexts" panel, so choose a label that clearly identifies the text you are defining.

• Text Source: The "Text Source" area allows you to select where you will retrieve your text from. There are four options for accessing your text: "URL", "File Upload", "Text" and "Aggregate Text".

1. "URL": Here, you type the full URL of the webpage you would like to analyze. For example, to study the text on the home page of the CBC News website, enter "http://www.cbc.ca" into the text field provided. NOTE: you must make sure to include the “http://” in your URL. Click on "VIEW" to see the webpage that you have specified to analyze. Ensure that this is the page you want to study; otherwise, correct the URL.
2. "File Upload": If the text for analysis is located on your computer, you need to upload the file to TAPoR. Click on the "Browse..." button to open up the "File Upload" window. Find where your text file is located on your computer. Highlight the text, and click the "Open" button. NOTE: the text file must be either XML, HTML, TEI, plain text, MEP, DocBook, or TARL. For instance, a document saved as a Microsoft Word Document cannot be uploaded. If you attempt to add a text with an invalid file format for the TAPoR portal, an exclamation mark (!) will appear next to "File Upload". Clicking on the button labeled "..." will allow you to make a new file selection.
3. "Text": You can type the text you would like to analyze directly into the text box available when you select the "Text" tab. Type the text, or copy and paste text from a document into the text box. There is no word limit.

There are small 'up arrow' and 'down arrow' icons located next to each URL. Clicking on the "up arrow" will send the text one above the preceding text, while clicking the "down arrow" will send the text one below the text beneath it.

To delete a URL, select it by clicking the "Select" box next to the URL. You may select multiple URLS for deletion at one time. After making your selections, click "Remove Selected URL(s)".

4.3) Defining File Format, Tags, and Visibility

Once you have chosen a text source, you can define the file format, tags and visibility.

• File Format: ????

• Tags: Tags allow you to create sections/categories within your myTexts library. Select what tag you would like the text to appear under.

To access the Tag Manager, click "More Details". A button labeled "Open Tag Manager" will appear next to the current choice of tags. Click on the button to open the Tag Manager window.

To add a new tag, type in a new tag name in the text field labeled "Tag Name". Click "Add Tag". Click "Close". The new tag will now appear within the “Tags” dropdown menu in the central "Add and Edit Texts" section.

To edit an existing tag, select the tag from the drop down menu next to "Select a Tag to Edit/Delete" and click the "Edit" button. The tag's current name will appear in the area next to "Tag Name". Type in a new name for the tag and click "Update Tag". Finally, click "Close". The tag will now have a new name in your myTexts library. To delete an existing tag, select the tag from the drop down menu next to "Select a Tag to Edit/Delete" and click the "Delete" button. Click "Close". NOTE: You cannot delete tags that contain texts.

• Visibility: There are two options for visibility: Private, or Public. Select private for the text to only be accessible through your own TAPoR account, or select public to make the text available to anyone with a TAPoR account.

"Add Text" Button: Once you have completed the steps for adding a text, simply click on the "Add Text" button, and your text will be added to your "myTexts" section. NOTE: You must at least enter a label for the text, choose a text source, specify a tag, and indicate visibility in order to upload a text. The added fields that appear after clicking "More Details" are not mandatory.

4.4) Define More Details

• Type: Specify the type of text by selecting Web Page, Journal Article, Book Chapter, Book, or Other.
• Authors: Input the author’s last name and first name in the provided fields. To add more authors, click "Add Author" and repeat the process. To delete an author, click within the selection box and hit "Remove Author".
• Enter date, title, publisher, issue, place of publication, volume, and pages in the provided fields.
• Secondary Authors: Input the secondary author's last name and first name in the provided fields. To add more secondary authors, click "Add Author" and repeat the process. To delete an author, click within the selection box and hit "Remove Author".
• Enter secondary title, language, creators, source, rights and description in the provided fields. If choosing "other" for language, the text field becomes active for inputting the other language.

• Collecting texts
• Analyzing them

Overview of the Portal

Using News

Using the Workbench

TAPoR Text Analysis Tutorial

This page provides a tutorial on how simple text analysis strategies using the TAPoR Portal.

What's the point?

Logging-in to the TAPoR Portal

Setting up the electronic texts that you want to analyze

Setting up the tools to use

Listing words to identify themes

Finding words to generate a concordance

Finding words that collocate with a theme

Some other tools

What next?

-- GeoffreyRockwell - 07 May 2005