# Redland RDF Application Framework

## Dave Beckett
Institute for Learning and Research Technology
University of Bristol

## Overview

Redland is a library that provides a high-level interface for RDF allowing the RDF graph to be parsed from XML, stored, queried and manipulated. Redland implements each of the RDF concepts in its own class via an object based API, reflected into the other language APIs - Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Tcl. Some of the classes providing the parsers, storage mechanisms and other elements are built as modules that can be added or removed as required.

This library is mature and has been used in large systems. See the todo list or the website version for an up-to-date copy, and the FAQS for more information. Changes can be found in the NEWS file or more detailed changes in the ChangeLog.

Redland provides:

- A modular, object based library written in C
- Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Tcl interfaces for manipulating the RDF graph and parts - Statements, Resources and Literals
- Parsers and Serializers for reading and writing RDF as syntax.
- Storage for graphs in memory and on disk via Sleepcat / Berkeley DB.
- Query APIs for the graph by Statement (triples) or by Nodes and Arcs
- Statement Streams for construction, parsing, de/serialisation of graphs
- Start of query language support.
- No memory leaks so far.

## Sources

The packaged sources are available from http://www.redland.opensource.ac.uk/dist/source/ (master site) and also from the SourceForge site. There are nightly snapshots of the development version which is can also be browsed via CVSweb.

## License

This library is free software / open source software released under the LGPL or MPL licenses. See LICENSE.html for full details.

## Installation

See INSTALL.html for general installation and configuration information and the language specific documents for installing the interfaces in Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby or Tcl.

Further documentation is available in the documents area including the API document.

## Mailing Lists

The Redland mailing lists discuss the development and use of Redland and Raptor as well as future plans and announcement of releases.

## See Also

If you want to know more about RDF and related work, try some of these sites:

- W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF) activity page (official home page)
- Dave Beckett's Resource Description Framework (RDF) Resource Guide (yes that's me)

Copyright 2000-2003 Dave Beckett, Institute for Learning and Research Technology, University of Bristol