NU IT
Northwestern University Information Technology
MorphAdorner Northwestern
 
MorphAdorner Server Services: Text Summarizer Service

Service name: summarizer
Service description: Find summary sentences for a text.
HTTP methods allowed: GET, POST, OPTIONS
POST accepts as input: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
HTTP return codes: 200: service succeeded
400: service failed with an error

Query parameters

    corpusConfig Corpus configuration name. In the standard distribution these are ece, eme, and ncf.
    media Result format. One of json, xml, html, text .
    text Text to be processed.
    includeInputText Allowed values are true to include the input text in the output and false to not include the input text.
    maxSumSent Maximum number of summary sentences.

Sample POST form

<form accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" action="summarizer"
      target="_blank"
      name="summarizer">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5">
<tr>
<td><strong>Text:</strong></td>
<td colspan="2">
<textarea name="text" rows="15" cols="76"></textarea>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>
<input type="checkbox" name="includeInputText" value="true"
       checked="checked"/>
Include input text in results
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<strong>
Lexicon:</strong>
</td>
<td>
<input type="radio" name="corpusConfig" value="eme">Early Modern English</input><br />
<input type="radio" name="corpusConfig" value="ece">Eighteen Century English</input><br />
<input type="radio" name="corpusConfig" value="ncf" checked="checked">Nineteenth Century Fiction</input>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Summary sentences:</strong></td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="maxSumSent" size = "20" value="5" />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
&nbsp;
</td>
<td>
&nbsp;
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<strong>Results format:</strong>
</td>
<td>
<input type="radio" name="media" value="json">JSON format</input><br />
<input type="radio" name="media" value="xml" checked="checked">XML format</input><br />
<input type="radio" name="media" value="html">HTML format</input><br />
<input type="radio" name="media" value="text">Text format</input>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
&nbsp;
</td>
<td>
&nbsp;
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<input type="submit" name="summarizer" value="Summarizer" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

Output

Here is sample output for the text summarizer service. We use Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" as the text, and request a two sentence summary. The JSON and XML output optionally echoes back the input text.

JSON output

{
  "SummarizerResult": {
    "text": "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on
this  continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to
the proposition that all men are created equal.    Now we are engaged
in a great civil war, testing whether that  nation, or any nation, so
conceived and so dedicated, can long  endure. We are met on a great
battle-field of that war. We have  come to dedicate a portion of that
field, as a final resting  place for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might  live. It is altogether fitting and proper that
we should do  this.    But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate --
we can not  consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave
men, living  and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far
above our  poor power to add or detract. The world will little note,
nor  long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what  they
did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated  here to the
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus  far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated  to the great task
remaining before us -- that from these honored  dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they  gave the last full measure of
devotion -- that we here highly  resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain -- that this  nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom -- and that  government: of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall  not perish from the earth.",
    "corpusConfig": "ncf",
    "maxSumSent": 2,
    "summaryText": "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. It is
rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before
us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that
government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth. "
  }
}

XML output


<SummarizerResult>
    <text>Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
          continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to
          the proposition that all men are created equal.
          Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that
          nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long
          endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have
          come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting
          place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might
          live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
          But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not
          consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men,
          living  and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far
          above our  poor power to add or detract. The world will little
          note, nor  long remember what we say here, but it can never forget
          what  they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be
          dedicated  here to the unfinished work which they who fought here
          have thus  far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
          dedicated  to the great task remaining before us -- that from
          these honored  dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
          which they  gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here
          highly  resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain --
          that this  nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom --
          and that  government: of the people, by the people, for the people,
          shall  not perish from the earth.</text>
    <corpusConfig>ncf</corpusConfig>
    <maxSumSent>2</maxSumSent>
    <summaryText>Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought
          forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and
          dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. It is
          rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before
          us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
          cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we
          here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that
          this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that
          government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
          perish from the earth.</summaryText>
</SummarizerResult>

HTML output (source)

<p>
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under
God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government: of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
</p>

HTML output (display)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Text output

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under
God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government: of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
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