RESTful writable APIs for the web of linked data using relational storage solutions

Abstract

Linked Data is rapidly becoming an important mechanism to expose structured data in the web. The ability to inter-link data sets from different providers using standard description vocabularies and the same data model, opens new possibilities in the way these data can be used. Despite of its growth, Linked Data principles have not found yet widespread application in the design of data APIs for web applications. The lack of a write support for linked data repositories, the barrier imposed by the required technological change and the immature state of client and server semantic infrastructure are some of the main causes for this lack of adoption. This paper introduces a possible alternative for building writable web APIs according to Linked Data principles, using the already deployed technology stack present in most web applications. We propose the use of R2RML to lift relational data into the RDF model as well as to map SQL manipulation data queries into SPARQL update queries. Additionally a RDF vocabulary describing a RESTful interface for the mapped data that can be easily consumed from web clients is proposed. The combination of both aspects allows web developers to offer a familiar web API compatible with linked data APIs that can be deployed along with the already existing interface.