textsitems

Textsitems are a modular data construct used in digital text management to pair a single passage of text with a set of related items, such as annotations, metadata, or linked resources. The concept focuses on linking content with contextual data in a compact, queryable unit, enabling structured text handling without duplicating metadata across the text.

In practice, a textsitem typically comprises an identifier, the text content itself, and a collection of items. Each item has a type (for example, annotation, tag, provenance, or resource), a value, and optional metadata such as provenance, timestamp, or source. The structure supports serialization in formats such as JSON or XML and can be stored in document stores, relational databases, or graph databases. This arrangement facilitates search by text, filtering by item type, and aggregation of metadata across items.

Usage and variations: textsitems are employed in digital editions, annotation tools, educational platforms, data curation workflows, and content-management systems to attach contextual data directly to passages. Some implementations keep text and items tightly coupled within a single record, while others reference linked item records to support larger annotation ecosystems. The approach promotes modularity, reusability, and scalable annotation across large corpora.

Example (plain text):

id: t001

text: "To be, or not to be, that is the question."

items:

- type: annotation

value: "Shakespeare, Hamlet"

provenance: editorial