Re: Default and named datasets in federated queries

2012/6/3 Peter Waher <Peter.Waher@clayster.com>

> Hello****
>
> ** **
>
> When reading the grammar rules for federated queries [60], I cannot see a
> way to specify default and/or named datasets in the federated query:****
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-query/#sparqlGrammar****
>
> ** **
>
> Cannot see it here either:****
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-federated-query/****
>
> ** **
>
> Nor in this document (where the rule is now [59]):****
>
> http://www.w3.org/2009/sparql/docs/query-1.1/rq25.xml#sparqlGrammar****
>
> ** **
>
> As it is today, they only reasonable interpretation I can see is to make
> the federated query against any default datasets defined by the remote
> server. Is this correctly understood?****
>
> ** **
>
> The other possibility, which I see as not particularly suitable, is to
> send the default and named datasets defined by the main query. This could
> however cause a lot of problems. Say the main query uses a series of
> datasets which it fetches (or holds internally), and are only used by the
> main query. Sending these to the remote server, could cause that server to
> load the datasets from the first, since it might not know if they’re useful
> or not.****
>
> ** **
>
> Is this issue discussed/solved already? I.e. Is there a coming solution
> where you can specify default and named datasets in federated queries?****
>
> ** **
>
> Sincerely,****
>
> Peter Waher****
>
> ** **
>

Dear Peter,

The point about SERVICE is to direct a specific part of the SPARQL query to
a remote dataset because that dataset most probably will contain the data
that the user needs. The dataset description is used to select graphs from
a local pool, not from a remote one. In this sense, the use of GRAPH maybe
enough to allow the sender to select the graphs of interest. Below you can
find an example of this GRAPH ussage.

PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name
WHERE {
 SERVICE <http://example.org/sparql> {
   GRAPH <http://example.org/graph>
    { ?person foaf:name ?name ; foaf:mbox ?mbox }
 }
}
Using GRAPH, the only case missing is a merge of graphs to be the default
graph. If an application wants to access a general purpose SPARQL
processor, then it uses the SPARQL protocol - not as part of a query
because, after all, SERVICE happens inside a local query execution.


I'd appreciate if you could briefly confirm that this addresses your
comment,

best regards,

Carlos