
                     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
