Roadmap — Heratio + RiC
This roadmap covers how RiC capabilities are being integrated into Heratio as a first-class mode, with OpenRiC serving as the framework and ecosystem layer.
Phase 1 — Make RiC Visible Everywhere
Status: In progress
Objectives
- Expose RiC in normal Heratio use
- Establish the dual-view model (Heratio View / RiC View)
Deliverables
- Global Heratio / RiC view switch on key entity pages
- RiC side panel on description, agent, place, function, and instantiation pages
- Common actions: View Context, View Network, View Hierarchy
- Richer search result cards with contextual links
- RiC Explorer integrated into Heratio (graph visualisation, SPARQL, semantic search)
Phase 2 — Strong Service Boundaries
Objectives
- Reduce direct UI dependence on legacy tables
- Prepare for mixed persistence underneath
Deliverables
- Repository/service contracts for major entity types
- Centralised relationship service
- Dual renderers for key entities
- Standardised entity identity handling across views
Phase 3 — PostgreSQL Heratio-Native Domains
Objectives
- Move new operational domains into a stronger application data layer
- Avoid forcing modern features into legacy schema patterns
Deliverables
- PostgreSQL-backed workflow domain
- PostgreSQL-backed audit/event domain
- Enrichment, validation, and job metadata domains
- Reporting and integration state domains
Phase 4 — RiC as First-Class Relationship Engine
Objectives
- Move contextual authority toward the graph layer
- Make RiC central to discovery and relationships
Deliverables
- Graph-backed related materials logic
- Relationship-aware browse pages
- Contextual graph summaries on all key entities
- Semantic explanation services
- Expanded JSON-LD / RDF outputs
Phase 5 — Relation-Aware Editing and Validation
Objectives
- Make RiC operational rather than decorative
Deliverables
- Relation-aware editing widgets (link agents, functions, places, related records)
- Relationship type and qualifier handling
- SHACL / integrity validation in admin and QA flows
- Provenance capture improvements
Phase 6 — Deeper Model Migration Decision
Objectives
- Evaluate whether core description storage should migrate further toward Heratio-native and RiC-aligned patterns
Deliverables
- Architecture review based on service abstraction success
- Cost/benefit analysis of deeper AtoM schema de-emphasis
- Optional compatibility view strategy for legacy data structures
Completed Foundation
The following capabilities are already operational in Heratio:
- [x] RiC Explorer (2D/3D graph visualisation via Cytoscape.js / Three.js)
- [x] Automatic sync to Apache Jena Fuseki triplestore (17.9M+ triples)
- [x] SPARQL endpoint (public, queryable)
- [x] Semantic search (Qdrant vector search + Elasticsearch full-text)
- [x] EAD/ISAD to RiC-O mapping
- [x] JSON-LD / RDF outputs
- [x] Integrity checking and orphan management
- [x] Provenance tracking
- [x] AI-assisted description (Ollama embeddings)
- [x] OAI-PMH harvesting endpoint