Re: RDF Schema Validator

The Jena2 preview [1] includes an early version of RDFS support. This does allow
you to check an RDF Graph against a schema. However, this is just an
implementation of the RDF(S) closure rules from the model theory - so that the
only constructs which are actually illegal are those involving datatype clashes
(e.g. finding an xsd:string where the schema expected an xsd:int), everything
else just turns into additional entailments.

To use RDFS for validation, other than this datatype checking, you have to make
additional assumptions (for example unique names assumptions or disjointness of
particular classes, or some closedness assumptions). The long-term way to do
this is to use OWL. However, it would be possible to build an RDFS tool which
could at least spot "unexpected" data items, especially given some
application-specific hints. Sort of an RDFS lint.

We've talked about doing such a thing as a Jena contrib tool and I'm interested
in use cases for it. What sorts of validation are you looking for? What
constructs, apart from datatype clashes, do you want to regard as violations to
be detected by a validator?

Dave

[1] http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/jena/Jena-2p2.zip?download

Leo Sauermann wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I wrote a schema for Musicbrainz and I want to check if I did it right.
> 
> Are there any RDF Schema validators I can use that:
> - Import my RDF Schema
> - Then validate some RDF files against the schema
> 
> ICSForth RDFSuite is a little bit too heavy for me, is there a website
> or Jena implementation available ?
> 
> Thanks for any help
> (if there is one - > why is it not in dave beckett's list?)
> 
> Leo

Received on Friday, 11 April 2003 08:38:37 UTC