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If you are reading this page then you know that LexEVS is an open-source, enterprise-wide terminology server. When first installed it , LexEVS comes with no terminologies loaded into it. This documentation will cover the means for loading most content types that can be loaded. LexEVS was built to accommodate a wide variety of input and meld it into a common form - unifying many common source formats.

This necessitates a variety of LexEVS loaders, each used on a specific incoming source format. These inputs When we speak of these generically, inputs to be loaded are typically called terminologies or coding schemes. Each terminology will have a specific source format. For example, if you load the terminology call the "NCI Thesaurus" you will download a file in one of several source formats namely a text file (TXT), a Web Ontology Language file (OWL), or a LexGrid XML file (XML).

LexEVS provides both a LexEVS administrative GUI and LexEVS loader commands to load terminologies.  While the LexEVS administrative GUI is very functional, a system administrator may prefer the command line interface because command scripts can be adjusted to increase memory and tune other java virtual machine settings to insure that loads of larger terminologies have adequate resources.  For example, a user may select a loading script, open it in an editor, increase the java heap size and PermGen memory, depending on the machine’s resources, and save the script before running with the appropriate options written into the command line. Still, the GUI can be convenient for loading smaller terminologies and, in many cases, works fine for loading moderately large terminologies like the NCI Thesaurus.  Loading terminologies requires some knowledge of the source format of the terminology.

Generic loading

Most terminology loads can be easily accomplished by pointing either the LexEVS commands or the LexEVS administrative GUI at the terminology source file and running the loader.   Generic loading instructions can be found for the LexEVS administrative GUI or the LexEVS loader commands. For many sources source formats you can use a variation of the following LexEVS command:

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This LexEVS loader command loads input in OWL format. Substituting the matching LexEVS loader command for the source format being used and pointing the loader to a local source file will load most terminologies. For example, the OBO source format would be loaded by the LoadOBO command. In the LexEVS administrative GUI, loading is accomplished using all of the various source format loaders are found under the "Load Terminology" menu. The administrative options must be enabled first in the Command menu.

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Some terminologies are special cases and need special handling.  Included in this category are the NCI Thesaurus in the OWL source format and any files loaded from in the UMLS RRF formatted sources.  (Rich Release Format) source format. The NCI MetaThesaurus is the largest terminology we load to be loaded and as such it also requires special handling.  OWL terminologies do not normally require special handling, but LexEVS offers some advanced loading options users may take advantage of. Each of these has its own documentation:

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