Re: mapping a relational database as RDF

On Thu, 2004-03-25 at 14:51, Rob Shearer wrote:
> A user has a large volume of data stored in a traditional RDBMS, and
> currently queries that data using SQL.
> 
> The user wishes to expose an RDF view of the the database. The user
> should be able to translate his SQL queries into RDF queries with very
> little need for additional custom code.
> 
> This clearly isn't really a use case in its own right; it's starting a
> level higher at the abstract requirements.
> 
> Is there any support for such a requirement?

Yes, I think so.

We have some Semantic Web Advanced
Development experience in this area:

  http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/RDB-RDF.html
  http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/dbork/dbview.py

  http://www.w3.org/1999/07/13-persistant-RDF-DB
  (that's what google says when I ask it about "eric rdf sql".
  Is that your work on going from algae to SQL and back, ericp?)

That experience was one of the things that convinced the director
that it was time to standardize this stuff. We couldn't get
research funding for it any more. They said it was too straightforward,
and that industry was going to take care of that sort of
stuff pretty soon.

Some use cases I personally have lived thru include:

(1) a meeting registration query. see
  "Aside: Fun with Relational Databases on the Semantic Web"
  http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/meetings/tech-200303/

and

(2) grabbing some human resources stuff out of a database.
It's in this Makefile:

[[[
#query the management database for resources from the Semantic Web
activity:
SWQ='http://swada.w3.org:9000/manage/.dbq?name1=Resources&fields1=ResourceID....'

swEffort.rdf: dbview-manage
	echo query is the last one...
	$(WGET) $(SWQ) -O $@
]] -- http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Makefile

Hmm... I can't remember if I actually used the output of that query
for anything.

>  Is it worth working up a
> few use cases which include RDBMS schema, their RDF translations, and
> the SQL queries that we'd like to be able to translate?

I expect so.

-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/
see you at the WWW2004 in NY 17-22 May?

Received on Thursday, 25 March 2004 16:14:44 UTC