This JavaScript library introduces:
- A JSON-based RDF 1.2 serialisation format called
RDF Dataflow. - A serialiser and a deserialiser for
RDF Dataflowdocuments. These functions can run on any JavaScript runtime, both in web browsers and outside of them.
RDF Dataflow is an open format, and anyone is free to implement serialisers and deserialisers for their preferred runtime:
- The
types.mtsfile contains a description of this format. - The content type of this format is
application/x-rdfdataflow+json. - The file extension for this format is
.rdfdataflow.json.
RDF Dataflow is preferable whenever:
- RDF 1.2 support is required.
- Serialisers and deserialisers should be easy to implement.
- Document completeness (= non-truncation) should be easy to verify by examining the document contents.
Where the other RDF formats are currently falling short:
-
The SPARQL 1.1 Query Results JSON Format does not support RDF 1.2, and its purpose is to serialise many types of SPARQL results, not only RDF datasets.
RDF Dataflowis derived from this format. -
JSON-LD is another JSON-based format but it does not yet support RDF 1.2 (as of July 2025). This is a terse format and writing serialisers and deserialisers for it is a non-trivial task. RDF 1.2 support is on their roadmap, which will make this format terser still.
-
Turtle and TriG support RDF 1.2, but writing serialisers and deserialisers for those formats is non-trivial, and they make it impossible to ensure that a document hasn't been truncated.
-
N-Quads and N-Triples support RDF 1.2, but writing serialisers and deserialisers for those formats is somewhat more difficult than for
RDF Dataflow, and these formats also make it impossible to ensure that a document hasn't been truncated.
RDF dataset to RDF-Dataflow and back.
description = ''' Serialise an RDF dataset to an RDF-Dataflow object and read it back. '''
import {
toDataset, fromDataset, contentType, fileExtension,
emptyDataset, emptyDataflow
} from 'https://esm.sh/gh/doga/[email protected]/mod.mjs';
import t from 'https://esm.sh/gh/rdfjs/[email protected]';
// Create an in-memory RDF dataset.
const
datasetIn = emptyDataset(),
// RDF statement #1
subject1 = t.quad(
t.namedNode('http://site.example/user/123'),
t.namedNode('http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/age'),
t.literal('23', t.namedNode('http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#integer'))
),
predicate1 = t.namedNode('http://site.example/certainty'),
object1 = t.literal('0.9', t.namedNode('http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal')),
// RDF statement #2
subject2 = t.namedNode('http://site.example/user/567'),
predicate2 = t.namedNode('http://www.w3.org/2006/vcard/ns#hasEmail'),
object2 = t.namedNode('mailto:[email protected]'),
// RDF statement #3
subject3 = t.namedNode('http://site.example/product/1'),
predicate3 = t.namedNode('http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description'),
object3 = t.literal('A product', 'en'),
// RDF statement #4
subject4 = t.namedNode('http://site.example/product/1'),
predicate4 = t.namedNode('http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description'),
object4 = t.literal('Bir ürün'),
// RDF statement #5
subject5 = t.namedNode('http://site.example/product/1'),
predicate5 = t.namedNode('http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description'),
object5 = t.literal('منتج', {language: 'ar', direction: 'rtl'});
// Fill up the dataset.
datasetIn.add(t.quad(subject1, predicate1, object1));
datasetIn.add(t.quad(subject2, predicate2, object2));
datasetIn.add(t.quad(subject3, predicate3, object3));
datasetIn.add(t.quad(subject4, predicate4, object4));
datasetIn.add(t.quad(subject5, predicate5, object5));
// Produce an RDF Dataflow object from the dataset.
const
dataflowObject = fromDataset(datasetIn),
// Read the dataset back from Dataflow.
datasetOut = toDataset(dataflowObject);
console.info(`Content type: "${contentType}"`);
console.info(`File extension: "${fileExtension}"`);
console.group(`RDF dataset written as a Dataflow object:`);
console.info(JSON.stringify(dataflowObject, null, 2));
console.groupEnd();
console.group('\nRDF dataset read from the Dataflow object:');
for (const quad of datasetOut) {
console.group('Quad:');
if(quad.subject.termType === 'Quad') {
console.group('Subject quad:');
console.info(`Subject: ${quad.subject.subject.value}`)
console.info(`Predicate: ${quad.subject.predicate.value}`)
console.info(`Object: ${quad.subject.object.value}`)
console.groupEnd();
} else {
console.info(`Subject: ${quad.subject.value}`)
}
console.info(`Predicate: ${quad.predicate.value}`)
console.info(`Object: ${quad.object.value}`)
console.groupEnd();
}
console.groupEnd();Sample output for the code above:
Content type: "application/x-rdfdataflow+json"
File extension: ".rdfdataflow.json"
RDF dataset written as a Dataflow object:
{
"head": {
"terms": {
"subject": "s",
"predicate": "p",
"object": "o",
"graph": "g"
}
},
"dataset": [
{
"s": {
"type": "quad",
"value": {
"s": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://site.example/user/123"
},
"p": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/age"
},
"o": {
"type": "literal",
"value": "23",
"datatype": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#integer"
}
}
},
"p": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://site.example/certainty"
},
"o": {
"type": "literal",
"value": "0.9",
"datatype": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal"
}
},
{
"s": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://site.example/user/567"
},
"p": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://www.w3.org/2006/vcard/ns#hasEmail"
},
"o": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "mailto:[email protected]"
}
},
{
"s": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://site.example/product/1"
},
"p": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description"
},
"o": {
"type": "literal",
"value": "A product",
"lang": "en"
}
},
{
"s": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://site.example/product/1"
},
"p": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description"
},
"o": {
"type": "literal",
"value": "Bir ürün",
"datatype": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string"
}
},
{
"s": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://site.example/product/1"
},
"p": {
"type": "uri",
"value": "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description"
},
"o": {
"type": "literal",
"value": "منتج",
"lang": "ar",
"dir": "rtl"
}
}
]
}RDF dataset read from the Dataflow object:
Quad:
Subject quad:
Subject: http://site.example/user/123
Predicate: http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/age
Object: 23
Predicate: http://site.example/certainty
Object: 0.9
Quad:
Subject: http://site.example/user/567
Predicate: http://www.w3.org/2006/vcard/ns#hasEmail
Object: mailto:[email protected]
Quad:
Subject: http://site.example/product/1
Predicate: http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description
Object: A product
Quad:
Subject: http://site.example/product/1
Predicate: http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description
Object: Bir ürün
Quad:
Subject: http://site.example/product/1
Predicate: http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description
Object: منتج
Run the example above by typing this in your terminal (requires Deno 2+):
deno run --allow-net --allow-run --allow-env --allow-read jsr:@andrewbrey/[email protected] --dax=false --mode=isolated 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/doga/rdf-dataflow/refs/heads/main/README.md'∎