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Writing RDF in Apache Jena

This page describes the RIOT (RDF I/O technology) output capabilities introduced in Jena 2.10.1.

See Reading RDF for details of the RIOT Reader system.

See Advanced RDF/XML Output for details of the Jena RDF/XML writer.

API

There are two ways to write RDF data using Apache Jena RIOT, either via the RDFDataMgr 

RDFDataMgr.write(OutputStream, Model, RDFFormat) ;
RDFDataMgr.write(OutputStream, Dataset, RDFFormat) ;

or using the model API:

model.write(output, "format") ;

The format names are described below; they are a superset of the names Jena has supported before RIOT.

Many variations of these methods exist. See the full javadoc for details.

RDFFormat

Output using RIOT depends on the format, which involves both the language (syntax) being written and the variant of that syntax.

The RIOT writer architecture is extensible. The following languages are available as part of the standard setup.

  • Turtle
  • N-Triples
  • RDF/XML
  • RDF/JSON
  • TriG
  • NQuads

In addition, there are variants of Trutle, TriG for pretty printing, streamed output and flat output. RDF/XML has variants for pretty printing and plain output. Jena RIOT uses org.apache.jena.riot.RDFFormat as a way to identfy the language and variant to be written. The class contains constants for the standard supported formats.

Note:

RDFFormats and Jena syntax names

The string name traditionally used in model.write is mapped to RIOT RDFFormat as follows:

Jena writer name RIOT RDFFormat
"TURTLE" TURTLE
"TTL" TURTLE
"Turtle" TURTLE
"N-TRIPLES" NTRIPLES
"N-TRIPLE" NTRIPLES
"NT" NTRIPLES
"RDF/XML-ABBREV" RDFXML
"RDF/XML" RDFXML_PLAIN
"N3" N3
"RDF/JSON" RDFJSON

Formats

Normal Printing

A Lang can be used for the writer format, in which case it is mapped to an RDFFormat internally. The normal writers are:

RDFFormat or Lang
TURTLE Turtle, pretty printed
TTL Same
NTRIPLES N-triples
TRIG TriG, pretty printed
NQUADS
RDFXML RDF/XML, pretty printed

Pretty printed RDF/XML is also known as RDF/XML-ABBREV

Pretty Printed Languages

All Turtle and TriG formats use prefix names, and short forms for literals.

The pretty printed versions of Turtle and TriG prints data with the same subject in the same graph together. All the properties for a given subject are sorted into a predefined order. RDF lists are printed as (...) and [...] is used for blank nodes where possible.

The analysis for determing what can be pretty printed requires temporary datastructures and also a scan of the whole graph before writing begins. Therefore, pretty printed formats are not suitable for writing persistent graphs and datasets.

When writing at scale use either a "blocked" version of Turtle or TriG, or write N-triples/N-Quads.

Example:

@prefix :      <http://example/> .
@prefix dc:    <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix rdf:   <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .

:book   dc:author  ( :a :b ) .

:a      a           foaf:Person ;
        foaf:knows  [ foaf:name  "Bob" ] ;
        foaf:name   "Alice" .

:b      foaf:knows  :a .

Pretty printed formats:

RDFFormat Same as
TURTLE_PRETTY TURTLE, TTL
TRIG_PRETTY TRIG
RDFXML_PRETTY RDFXML_ABBREV, RDFXML

Streamed Block Formats

The streamed formats write triples or quads as given.
They group together data by adjacent subject or graph/subject in the output stream.

The written data is like the pretty printed forms but without RDF lists being written in the '(...)' form, and it does not use the blank node form [...].

This gives some degree of readability while not requiring excessive temporary datastructure. Data larger than the size of RAM can be written but blank node labels need to be tracked in order to use the short label form.

Example:

@prefix :  <http://example/> .
@prefix dc:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix rdf:  <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .

:book   dc:author  _:b0 .

_:b0    rdf:rest   _:b1 ;
        rdf:first  :a .

:a      foaf:knows  _:b2 ;
        foaf:name   "Alice" ;
        rdf:type    foaf:Person .

_:b2    foaf:name  "Bob" .

:b      foaf:knows  :a .

_:b1    rdf:rest   rdf:nil ;
        rdf:first  :b .

Formats:

RDFFormat
TURTLE_BLOCKS
TRIG_BLOCKS

Line printed formats

There are writers for Turtle and Trig that use the abbreviated formats for prefix names and short forms for literals. They write each triple or quad on a single line.

The regularity of the output can be useful for test processing data.
These formats do not offer more scalabilty than the stream forms.

Example:

The FLAT writers abbreviates IRIs, literals and blank node labels but always writes one complete triple on one line (no use of ;).

@prefix :  <http://example/> .
@prefix dc:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix rdf:  <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
_:b0 foaf:name "Bob" .
:book dc:author _:b1 .
_:b2 rdf:rest rdf:nil .
_:b2 rdf:first :b .
:a foaf:knows _:b0 .
:a foaf:name "Alice" .
:a rdf:type foaf:Person .
_:b1 rdf:rest _:b2 .
_:b1 rdf:first :a .
:b foaf:knows :a .

 

RDFFormat
TURTLE_FLAT
TRIG_FLAT

N-Triples and N-Quads

These provide the formats that are fastest to write, and data of any size can be output. They do not use any internal state. They maximise the interoperability with other systems and are useful for database dumps. They are not human readable, even at moderate scale.

The files can be large but they compress well with gzip. Compression ratios of x8-x10 can often be obtained.

Example:

The N-Triples writer makes no attempt to make it's output readable. It uses internal blank nodes to ensure correct labeling without needing any writer state.

_:BX2Dc2b3371X3A13cf8faaf53X3AX2D7fff <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name> "Bob" .
<http://example/book> <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/author> _:BX2Dc2b3371X3A13cf8faaf53X3AX2D7ffe .
_:BX2Dc2b3371X3A13cf8faaf53X3AX2D7ffd <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#rest> <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#nil> .
_:BX2Dc2b3371X3A13cf8faaf53X3AX2D7ffd <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#first> <http://example/b> .
<http://example/a> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/knows> _:BX2Dc2b3371X3A13cf8faaf53X3AX2D7fff .
<http://example/a> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name> "Alice" .
<http://example/a> <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person> .
_:BX2Dc2b3371X3A13cf8faaf53X3AX2D7ffe <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#rest> _:BX2Dc2b3371X3A13cf8faaf53X3AX2D7ffd .
_:BX2Dc2b3371X3A13cf8faaf53X3AX2D7ffe <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#first> <http://example/a> .
<http://example/b> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/knows> <http://example/a> .

 

RDFFormat Other names
NTRIPLE NTRIPLE, NT, NTRIPLES_UTF8
NQUADS NQUADS, NQ, NQUADS_UTF8

 

Introduced in version: Jena 2.10.2

The main N-Triples and N-Quads writers follow RDF 1.1 and output using UTF-8.
For compatibility with old software, writers are provided that output in ASCII (using \u escape sequences for non-ASCI characters where necessary).

RDFFormat
NTRIPLES_ASCII
NQUADS_ASCII

RDF/XML

RIOT supports output in RDF/XML. RIOT RDFFormats defaults to pretty printed RDF/XML, while the jena writer writer name defaults to a streaming plain output.

RDFFormat Other names Jena writer name
RDFXML RDFXML_PRETTY, RDF_XML_ABBREV "RDF/XML-ABBREV"
RDFXML_PLAIN "RDF/XML"

Examples

Example code may be found in jena-arq/src-examples.

Ways to write a model

The follow ways are different ways to write a model in Turtle:

    Model model =  ... ;

    // Write a model in Turtle syntax, default style (pretty printed)
    RDFDataMgr.write(System.out, model, Lang.TURTLE) ;

    // Wriet Turtle to the blocks variant
    RDFDataMgr.write(System.out, model, RDFFormat.TURTLE_BLOCKS) ;

    // Write as Turtle via model.write
    model.write(System.out, "TTL") ;

Ways to write a dataset

The prefered style is to use RDFDataMgr:

Dataset ds = .... ;
// Write as TriG
RDFDataMgr.write(System.out, ds, Lang.TRIG) ;

// Write as N-Quads
RDFDataMgr.write(System.out, dataset, Lang.NQUADS) ;

Additionaly, a single model can be written in a dataset format - it becomes the default graph of the dataset.

Model m = 
RDFDataMgr.write(System.out, m, Lang.TRIG) ;

might give:

@prefix :      <http://example/> .
@prefix dc:    <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
@prefix rdf:   <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .

{
    :book   dc:author  ( :a :b ) .

    :a      a           foaf:Person ;
            foaf:knows  [ foaf:name  "Bob" ] ;
            foaf:name   "Alice" .

    :b      foaf:knows  :a .
}

Adding a new output format

An complete example of adding a new output format is given in the example file: RIOT Output example 3

Notes

Using OutputStreams is strongly encouraged. This allows the writers to manage the character encoding using UTF-8. Using java.io.Writer does not allow this; on platforms such as MS Windows, the default configuration of a Writer is not suitable for Turtle because the characte set is the platform default, and not UTF-8. The only use of wirters that is useful is using java.io.StringWriter.