rdflib.js

Javascript RDF library for browsers and Node.js.

• Reads and writes RDF/XML, Turtle and N3; Reads RDFa and JSON-LD
• Read/Write Linked Data client, using WebDav or SPARQL/Update
• Real-Time Collaborative editing with web sockets and PATCHes
• Local API for querying a store
• Compatible with RDFJS task force spec
• SPARQL queries (not full SPARQL - just graph match and optional)
• Smushing of nodes from owl:sameAs, and owl:{f,inverseF}unctionProperty
• Tracks provenance of triples keeps metadata (in RDF) from HTTP accesses

Documentation

See:

• The API documentation is partial but useful

• Tutorial: Using rdflib in a Solid web app

• Tutorial: Using rdflib.js

• Tutorial: Using Turtle

• Using authenticated & alternate fetch methods

• Block diagram: rdflib modules

• Block diagram: The Fetcher

• Block diagram: The Fetcher - handling retries

• Block diagram: The Update Manager

• The Solid developer portal at Inrupt

for more information.

Install

Browser (using a bundler like Webpack)

npm install rdflib
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Browser (generating a <script> file to include)

git clone git@github.com:linkeddata/rdflib.js.git;
cd rdflib.js;
npm install;
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Generate the dist directory

npm run build:browser
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Node.js

Make sure you have Node.js and Node Package Manager (npm) installed.

npm install --save rdflib
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Serializer flags

The Turtle/N3/JSON‑LD serializers accept an optional flags string to tweak output formatting and abbreviation behavior.

• Pass flags via the options argument to serialize(...):

import { graph, serialize, sym } from 'rdflib'

const kb = graph()
const doc = sym('http://example.com/doc')
// ... add some statements ...

// Example: prevent dotted local parts in prefixed names
const turtle = serialize(doc, kb, doc.value, 'text/turtle', undefined, { flags: 'o' })
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Common flags used internally (you can combine them, e.g. 'o k'):

• s i – used by default for Turtle to suppress =, => notations
• d e i n p r s t u x – used for N-Triples/N-Quads to simplify output
• dr – used with JSON‑LD conversion (no default, no relative prefix)
• o – new: do not abbreviate to a prefixed name when the local part contains a dot. This keeps IRIs like http://example.org/ns/subject.example in <...> form instead of ns:subject.example.

Notes:

• For Turtle and JSON‑LD, user‑provided flags are merged with the defaults so your flags (like o) are honored.
• By contrast, passing 'p' disables prefix abbreviations entirely (all terms are written as <...> IRIs).

Contribute

Subdirectories

• dist: Where the bundled libraries are built. Run npm run build to generate them.
• test: Tests are here.
• lib: Transpiled, non-bundled library is built here when the library is published to npm.

Dependencies

- XMLHTTPRequest (Node.js version)

Thanks

Thanks to the many contributors who have been involved along the way. LinkedData team & TimBL

LICENSE

MIT