Re: Profiles in Linked Data

Lars,

this is a very simple answer that I have given you before: a shape of
RDF data is defined as SPARQL query. There are no two ways about it.

Martynas

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 2:18 PM, Svensson, Lars <L.Svensson@dnb.de> wrote:
> Kingsley,
>
> On Monday, May 11, 2015 9:00 PM, Kingsley Idehen wrote:
>
>> We have to be careful here. RDF Language sentences/statements have a
>> defined syntax as per RDF Abstract Syntax i.e., 3-tuples organized in subject,
>> predicate, object based structure. RDF Shapes (as far as I know) has nothing to
>> do with the subject, predicate, object structural syntax of an RDF
>> statement/sentence. Basically, it's supposed to provide a mechanism for
>> constraining the entity type (class instances) of RDF statement's subject and
>> object, when creating RDF statements/sentences in documents. Think of this as
>> having more to do with what's regarded as data-entry validation and control, in
>> other RDBMS quarters.
>
> The charter of the data shapes WG [1] says that "the product of the RDF Data Shapes WG will enable the definition of graph topologies for interface specification, code development, and data verification", so it's not _only_ about validation etc. My understanding is that it's somewhat similar to XML schema and thus is essentially a description of the graph structure. As such, it can of course be used for validation, but that is only one purpose.
>
>> The function of the "profile" I believe you (and others that support this) are
>> seeking has more to do with enabling clients and servers (that don't necessarily
>> understand or care about RDF's implicit semantics) exchange hints about the
>> nature of RDF document content (e.g., does it conform to Linked Data
>> principles re. entity naming [denotation + connotation] ).
>
> No, my use of "profile" is really a "shape" in the sense of the data shapes wg. Some of their motivations are what I'm envisioning, too, e.g.
>
> * Developers of each data-consuming application could define the shapes their software needs to find in each feed, in order to work properly, with optional elements it can use to work better.
> * Developers of data-providing systems can read the shape definitions (and possibly related RDF Vocabulary definitions) to learn what they need to provide
>
>> Cut long story short, a "profile" hint is about the nature of the RDF content (in
>> regards to entity names and name interpretation), not its shape (which is
>> defined by RDF syntax).
>
> OK, I stand corrected: My question is: How can clients and servers negotiate shape information?
>
> Best,
>
> Lars

Received on Tuesday, 12 May 2015 12:34:12 UTC