Connections Tree

The Connections Tree provides a view of all SPARQL connections that can be used to issue queries. These SPARQL connections can be selected in query files or Mentor notebooks to execute queries against local or remote endpoints.

Title Bar

The tree view is titled ‘Connections’ and enables the management of connections to SPARQL endpoints.

Primary Actions

The connections tree offers several actions that are visible as icons in the title bar:

Action	Description
Add Connection	Configure a new SPARQL connection.
Refresh Tree	Manually refreshes the connections tree.
Collapse / Expand All	Collapse or Expand all nodes in the connections tree.

Connection Scope

The tree displays two types of connections, User and Workspace.

Type	Description
User	User connections are only available to the current user and are typically stored on the user’s local machine.
Workspace	Workspace connections are stored in the .vscode directory and can thus be shared with other users in version controlled repositories.

Editing Connections

When you select an existing connection in the tree view or when you click on the ‘Add Connection’ icon in the title bar, the connection details will be displayed in an editor pane. From here, you can modify the connection settings, such as the SPARQL endpoint URL, authentication credentials, and other parameters. Once you have made your changes, you can save them to update the connection.

Workspace Connection

The workspace is a special SPARQL endpoint that gives you access to Mentor’s internal RDF triple store. The data in this store is recreated every time you open a new workspace and this connection cannot be deleted. It can be queried from SPARQL files and Mentor notebooks.

Authentication

The following authentication methods are supported for SPARQL connections:

Type	Description
None	No authentication.
Basic	Basic HTTP(s) authentication using a username and password.
Bearer Token	Authentication using a bearer token.
Microsoft Entra	Authentication using Microsoft Entra ID provider that is built into Visual Studio Code.

Security

The credentials for SPARQL connections are stored securely in the Visual Studio Code credential store. This means that your sensitive information, such as usernames and passwords, are not stored in plain text and are protected by the operating system’s security features.

They are never stored in the workspace or in any project files and thus cannot be shared with others.

Testing Connections

Once you have configured a connection, you can test it to ensure that it is working correctly. To test a connection, follow these steps:

1. Select the connection you want to test in the connections tree.
2. Click on the button in the editor pane.
3. The connection status will be displayed in the editor pane.

If the test fails, you may need to adjust the connection settings and try again.

Deleting Connections

To delete a connection from the connections tree, follow these steps:

1. Select the connection you want to delete in the connections tree.
2. Right-click on the connection and select “Delete” from the context menu.
3. Confirm the deletion when prompted.

Alternatively, you can delete a connection by selecting it and clicking on the icon in the connection header.

Once a connection is deleted, it cannot be recovered, so make sure you really want to delete it before confirming.