Scribd
Upload
101 views24 pages

Resource Description Framework (RDF)

This document provides an overview of Resource Description Framework (RDF), including its background, syntax, and history. RDF is a standard developed by the W3C for exchanging metadata using XML. It allows resources to be described through properties and property values. RDF maintains the structure and semantics of metadata to enable both human and machine understanding.

Uploaded by

Jahir Hasan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
101 views24 pages

Resource Description Framework (RDF)

This document provides an overview of Resource Description Framework (RDF), including its background, syntax, and history. RDF is a standard developed by the W3C for exchanging metadata using XML. It allows resources to be described through properties and property values. RDF maintains the structure and semantics of metadata to enable both human and machine understanding.

Uploaded by

Jahir Hasan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 24

Resource Description

Framework (RDF)
Presentation Topics
 Background
 Overview
 Example
 What is RDF?
 History
 Syntax
 Conclusion
Background
 Metadata
 Structured data about data
 Used by clients (web browsers) to improve
discovery and access of distributed
information.
 Usually imbedded into HTML to tell the
browser what information is contained in
the page.
Background
 Ontology
 Describes the structure of information at
different levels of abstraction.
 A tree-like structure which can be used to
describe semantics.
 Parse trees
 For this presentation we will use an
ontology only to describe the hierarchy of
the resources or information.
Ontology
Word

Noun Verb

Cause_to_change_
Dog, Cat, etc.
location

Throw, Roll, etc.


Overview
 The Resource Description Framework is
an infrastructure that enables the
exchange of metadata structured in an
ontology.
 Let us show this using an example!
Example!
 Lets say there is a document server and
a client that would like a list of the
documents.
 Very simple example.
 We will see sample syntax later.
Get document Information

Client Server

HTTP/ XML metadata


Another Example!
 What about a server that maintains
bookmarks instead of documents?
 Pretty simple!
 Now what if one of the bookmarks is a link to
a script that will list all of the client’s current
email on the server?
 Then the structure gets more complex and
dynamic.
 This is where the RDF’s ability to handle the
ontology is needed.
What is RDF?
 Developed by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) to provide a
standard for defining an architecture for
supporting the vast amount of web
metadata.
 Implemented using XML!
 Since it is an application of XML, it inherits
the syntax from XML.
 Namespaces for example.
What is RDF?
 Human and machine readable
 Machine-readable just means that it
maintains the structure of the ontology.
 This is very important.
What is RDF?
 For example, the following two sentences
mean the same thing to a human, but are
very different to a machine.
 “The author of Document 1 is John Smith”
 “John Smith is the author of Document 1”
 RDF maintains the semantics and is
unambiguous.
What is the RDF Data Model?
 This is how the data is represented
using XML.
 A Resource is any object identifiable by a
URI.
 The properties associated with a resource
are property-types.
 Each property-type has a value.
 A collection of property-types for the same
resource is called a Description.
RDF Data Model Diagram

Resource1 Property_type 1 Resource2 Property_Type 2 "Value"

Property_type 3 Property_type 4

"Value" "Value"
What is the RDF Data Model?
 These Descriptions are kept
unambiguous using the XML syntax and
namespaces.
 Property-types may also contain
collections of values
 Bags – Simple collection
 Sequence – Order matters
 Alternative – If-then type structure.
History
 How did this all come about you may ask.
 Metadata began in 1995 with PICS.
 Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)
 Mechanism for communicating ratings of web pages
from server to clients.
 Content control
 Introduced a general mechanism for creating rating
system.
 No fixed set of criteria.
History
 W3C started thinking about the general
problem of Interned resource description
based on the PICS architecture.
 W3C formed the PICS-NG (Next
Generation) working group.
 This eventually led to the development of
the Resource Description Framework (RDF)
Syntax
 Simple document report
<? xml version="1.0" ?>
<RDF xmlns = "http://w3.org/TR/1999/PR-rdf-syntax-19990105#"
xmlns:DC = "http://purl.org/DC#" > 

<Description about = "http://dstc.com.au/report.html" >


<DC:Title> The Future of Metadata </DC:Title>
<DC:Creator> Jacky Crystal </DC:Creator>
<DC:Date> 1998-01-01 </DC:Date>
<DC:Subject> Metadata, RDF, Dublin Core </DC:Subject>
</Description>
</RDF>
Syntax
 Complex Value
...
<DC:Creator parseType="Resource">
<vCard:FN> Dr Jacky J Crystal </vCard:FN>
<vCard:TITLE> Director </vCard:TITLE>
<vCard:EMAIL> [email protected] </vCard:EMAIL>
<vCard:ROLE> Researcher </vCard:ROLE>
</DC:Creator>
...
Syntax
 Bag
...
<DC:Creator>
<Bag>
<li> Maddie Azzurii </li>
<li> Corky Brown </li>
<li> Jacky Crystal </li>
</Bag>
</DC:Creator>
...
Syntax
 Sequence
...
<DC:Creator>
<Seq>
<li> Maddie Azzurii </li>
<li> Corky Brown </li>
<li> Jacky Crystal </li>
</Seq>
</DC:Creator>
...
Syntax
 Alternative
...
<vCard:ROLE>
<Alt>
<li xml:lang="en"> Programmer </li>
<li xml:lang="fr"> Programmeur </li>
<li xml:lang="it"> Programmatore </li>
</Alt>
</vCard:ROLE>
...
Syntax
 RDF Schema
<? xml version="1.0" ?>
<RDF xmlns = "http://w3.org/TR/PR-rdf-syntax#" xmlns:RDFS = "http://w3.org/TR/WD-rdf-schema#" > 

<Description ID = "Title" >


<type resource = "http://w3.org/TR/PR-rdf-syntax#Property" />
<RDFS:label> Title </RDFS:label>
<RDFS:comment> The name given to the resource, usually by the Creator or Publisher </RDFS:comment>
</Description> 

<Description ID = "Creator" >


<type resource = "http://w3.org/TR/PR-rdf-syntax#Property" />
<RDFS:label> Author or Creator </RDFS:label>
<RDFS:comment> The person or organisation primarily responsible for the intellectual
content of the resource
</RDFS:comment>
</Description> 
</RDF>
Conclusion
 RDF provides a needed standard for
describing resources between client and
server.
 The next step is to get organizations to use
the RDF instead of proprietary resource
descriptions.
 The increasing popularity of XML and JAVA
should help the acceptance of RDF.
Resources
 An Introduction to the Resource Description
Framework
 www.dlib.org/dlib/may98/miller/05miller.html
 An Idiot’s Guide to the Resource Description
Framework
 www.dstc.edu.au/Research/Projects/rdf/RDF-Idiot.html
 RDF: In Fifty Words or Less
 www.mozilla.org/rdf/50-words.html

You might also like