Resource Description Framework

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a method to describe and exchange <a href="/facts/Graph_theory/VVPCd4TX">graph</a> data. It was originally designed as a data model for <a href="/facts/Metadata/qt35z79C">metadata</a> by the <a href="/facts/World_Wide_Web_Consortium/lGWmhF6M">World Wide Web Consortium</a> (W3C). It provides a variety of syntax notations and formats, of which the most widely used is Turtle (<a href="/facts/Terse_RDF_Triple_Language/PD2stm7f">Terse RDF Triple Language</a>).
RDF is a <a href="/facts/Directed_graph/YBdfQ0um">directed graph</a> composed of triple statements. An RDF graph statement is represented by: (1) a node for the subject, (2) an arc from subject to object, representing a predicate, and (3) a node for the object. Each of these parts can be identified by a <a href="/facts/Uniform_Resource_Identifier/UjyqxTpA">Uniform Resource Identifier</a> (URI). An object can also be a literal value. This simple, flexible data model has a lot of <a href="/facts/Expressive_power_(computer_science)/DEp1sAtc">expressive power</a> to represent complex situations, relationships, and other things of interest, while also being appropriately abstract.
RDF was adopted as a W3C recommendation in 1999. The RDF 1.0 specification was published in 2004, and the RDF 1.1 specification in 2014. <a href="/facts/SPARQL/XPP7pFDJ">SPARQL</a> is a standard query language for RDF graphs. <a href="/facts/RDF_Schema/GCVY1XYY">RDF Schema</a> (RDFS), <a href="/facts/Web_Ontology_Language/jkr0IGn8">Web Ontology Language</a> (OWL) and <a href="/facts/SHACL/RQGL2vhl">SHACL</a> (Shapes Constraint Language) are ontology languages that are used to describe RDF data.

Resource Description Framework open-in-new

Resource Description Framework