Practical RDF (Paperback)

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a structure for describing and interchanging metadata on the Web--anything from library catalogs and worldwide directories to bioinformatics, Mozilla internal data structures, and knowledge bases for artificial intelligence projects. RDF provides a consistent framework and syntax for describing and querying data, making it possible to share website descriptions more easily. RDF's capabilities, however, have long been shrouded by its reputation for complexity and a difficult family of specifications. Practical RDF breaks through this reputation with immediate and solvable problems to help you understand, master, and implement RDF solutions.

Practical RDF explains RDF from the ground up, providing real-world examples and descriptions of how the technology is being used in applications like Mozilla, FOAF, and Chandler, as well as infrastructure you can use to build your own applications. This book cuts to the heart of the W3C's often obscure specifications, giving you tools to apply RDF successfully in your own projects.

The first part of the book focuses on the RDF specifications. After an introduction to RDF, the book covers the RDF specification documents themselves, including RDF Semantics and Concepts and Abstract Model specifications, RDF constructs, and the RDF Schema. The second section focuses on programming language support, and the tools and utilities that allow developers to review, edit, parse, store, and manipulate RDF/XML. Subsequent sections focus on RDF's data roots, programming and framework support, and practical implementation and use of RDF and RDF/XML.

If you want to know how to apply RDF to information processing, Practical RDF is for you. Whether your interests lie in large-scale information aggregation and analysis or in smaller-scale projects like weblog syndication, this book will provide you with a solid foundation for working with RDF.

Table of Contents

Preface 

1. RDF: An Introduction
2. RDF: Heart and Soul
3. The Basic Elements Within the RDF/XML Syntax
4. Specialized RDF Relationships: Reification, Containers, and Collections
5. Important Concepts from the W3C RDF Vocabulary/Schema
6. Creating an RDF Vocabulary
7. Editing, Parsing, and Browsing RDF/XML
8. Jena: RDF in Java
9. RDF and Perl, PHP, and Python
10. Querying RDF: RDF as Data
11. A Brief Look at Additional RDF Application Environments
12. Ontologies: RDF Business Models
13. Subscription and Aggregation with RSS
14. A World of Uses: Noncommercial Applications Based on RDF
15. A World of Uses: Commercial Uses of RDF/XML
Index