File format for encoding linked data
JSON-LD 1.1
Abbreviation
| JSON-LD
|
---|
Status
| W3C Recommendation
|
---|
Year started
| 2010
|
---|
Editors
|
-
- Gregg Kellogg
- Pierre-Antoine Champin
- Dave Longley
-
- Manu Sporny
- Markus Lanthaler
|
---|
Authors
| Manu Sporny, Dave Longley, Gregg Kellogg, Markus Lanthaler, Niklas Lindstrom
|
---|
Base standards
| |
---|
Domain
| Semantic Web
,
Data Serialization
|
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Website
| |
---|
JSON-LD
(
JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data
) is a method of encoding
linked data
using
JSON
. One goal for JSON-LD was to require as little effort as possible from developers to transform their existing JSON to JSON-LD.
[1]
JSON-LD allows data to be serialized in a way that is similar to traditional JSON.
[2]
It was initially developed by the JSON for Linking Data Community Group
[3]
before being transferred to the RDF Working Group
[4]
for review, improvement, and standardization,
[5]
and is currently maintained by the JSON-LD Working Group.
[6]
JSON-LD is a
World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation
.
Design
[
edit
]
JSON-LD is designed around the concept of a "context" to provide additional mappings from JSON to an
RDF
model. The context links object properties in a JSON document to concepts in an
ontology
. In order to map the JSON-LD syntax to RDF, JSON-LD allows values to be coerced to a specified type or to be tagged with a language. A context can be embedded directly in a JSON-LD document or put into a separate file and referenced from different documents (from traditional JSON documents via an
HTTP
Link
header
).
Example
[
edit
]
{
"@context"
:
{
"name"
:
"http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name"
,
"homepage"
:
{
"@id"
:
"http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/workplaceHomepage"
,
"@type"
:
"@id"
},
"Person"
:
"http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person"
},
"@id"
:
"https://me.example.com"
,
"@type"
:
"Person"
,
"name"
:
"John Smith"
,
"homepage"
:
"https://www.example.com/"
}
The example above describes a person, based on the
FOAF (friend of a friend) ontology
. First, the two JSON properties
name
and
homepage
and the type
Person
are mapped to concepts in the FOAF vocabulary and the value of the
homepage
property is specified to be of the type
@id
. In other words, the homepage id is specified to be an
IRI
in the context definition. Based on the RDF model, this allows the person described in the document to be unambiguously identified by an
IRI
. The use of resolvable IRIs allows RDF documents containing more information to be
transcluded
which enables clients to discover new data by simply following those links; this principle is known as 'Follow Your Nose'.
[7]
By having all data semantically annotated as in the example, an RDF processor can identify that the document contains information about a person (
@type
) and if the processor understands the FOAF vocabulary it can determine which properties specify the person's name and homepage.
The encoding is used by
Schema.org
,
[8]
Google Knowledge Graph
,
[9]
[10]
and used mostly for
search engine optimization
activities. It has also been used for applications such as
biomedical informatics
,
[11]
and representing
provenance
information.
[12]
It is also the basis of
Activity Streams
, a format for "the exchange of information about potential and completed activities",
[13]
and is used in
ActivityPub
, the federated social networking protocol.
[14]
Additionally, it is used in the context of
Internet of Things (IoT)
, where a Thing Description,
[15]
which is a JSON-LD document, describes the network facing interfaces of IoT devices.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"JSON-LD Syntax 1.1"
. 2010-07-16
. Retrieved
2020-12-10
.
- ^
"On Using JSON-LD to Create Evolvable RESTful Services"
.
, M. Lanthaler and C. Gutl in Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on RESTful Design (WS-REST 2012) at WWW2012.
- ^
"JSON for Linking Data Community Group"
. json-ld.org.
- ^
"RDF Working Group"
. w3.org.
- ^
JSON-LD 1.0, A JSON-based Serialization for Linked Data, W3C Recommendation 16 January 2014
, 2014-01-16
, retrieved
2020-12-10
- ^
"JSON-LD Working Group"
. w3.org.
- ^
"Linked Data Patterns, Chapter 5: Follow Your Nose"
. 2023-06-07
. Retrieved
2023-06-07
.
- ^
"Data Model"
.
Schema.org
. Retrieved
2018-06-20
.
- ^
"Understanding structured data"
.
Bendev Junior
. 14 June 2022.
- ^
"Method Entities in Search"
.
Google Developers
. Retrieved
2017-10-17
.
- ^
Xin, Jiwen; Afrasiabi, Cyrus; Lelong, Sebastien; Adesara, Julee; Tsueng, Ginger; Su, Andrew I.; Wu, Chunlei (2018-02-01).
"Cross-linking BioThings APIs through JSON-LD to facilitate knowledge exploration"
.
BMC Bioinformatics
.
19
(1): 30.
doi
:
10.1186/s12859-018-2041-5
.
PMC
5796402
.
PMID
29390967
.
- ^
Huynh, Trung Dong; Michaelides, Danius T.; Moreau, Luc (2016),
PROV-JSONLD: A JSON and Linked Data Representation for Provenance
(PDF)
, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 9672, Springer International Publishing, pp. 173?177,
doi
:
10.1007/978-3-319-40593-3_15
,
ISBN
9783319405926
,
S2CID
44036472
- ^
Prodromou, Evan (May 2017).
"Activity Streams 2.0"
.
W3C Recommendation
– via W3C.
- ^
Tallon, Jessica (Jan 2018).
"ActivityPub"
.
W3C Recommendation
– via W3C.
- ^
"Web of Things (WoT) Thing Description, W3C Proposed Recommendation"
.
www.w3.org
. Retrieved
2020-03-26
.
External links
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edit
]
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Background
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Sub-topics
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Applications
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Related topics
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Standards
| Syntax and supporting technologies
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Schemas, ontologies and rules
| |
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Semantic annotation
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Common vocabularies
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Microformat vocabularies
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Products and
standards
| |
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Organizations
| | Working groups
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Community & business groups
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Closed groups
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Software
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Conferences
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