NAME

RDF::TrineX::Functions - some shortcut functions for RDF::Trine's object-oriented interface

SYNOPSIS

  use RDF::TrineX::Functions -all;
  
  my $model = model();
  parse('/tmp/mydata.rdf', into => $model);
  
  $model->add_statement(statement(
      iri('http://example.com/'),
      iri('http://purl.org/dc/terms/title'),
      "An Example",
  ));
  
  print RDF::Trine::Serializer
      -> new('Turtle')
      -> serialize_model_to_string($model);

DESCRIPTION

This is a replacement for the venerable RDF::TrineShortcuts. Not a drop-in replacement. It has fewer features, fewer dependencies, less hackishness, less magic and fewer places it can go wrong.

It uses Sub::Exporter, which allows exported functions to be renamed easily:

  use RDF::TrineX::Functions
    parse => { -as => 'parse_rdf' };

Functions

iri, literal, blank, variable

As per the similarly named functions exported by RDF::Trine itself.

These are wrapped with a very tiny bit of DWIMmery. A blessed URI object passed to iri will be handled properly; a blessed URI object passed to literal will default the datatype to xsd:anyURI. A string starting with "_:" passed to either iri or blank will correctly create a blank node. A string starting with "?" passed to either blank or variable will correctly create a variable. If any of them are passed an existing RDF::Trine::Node, it will be passed through untouched.

Other than that, no magic.

curie

Like iri but passes strings through RDF::NS::Trine.

statement(@nodes)

As per the similarly named function exported by RDF::Trine itself.

Again, a tiny bit of DWIMmery: blessed URI objects are passed through iri and unblessed scalars (i.e. strings) are assumed to be literals.

store

As per the similarly named function exported by RDF::Trine itself.

model

Returns a new RDF::Trine::Model. May be passed a store as a parameter.

parse($source, %options)

Parses the source and returns an RDF::Trine::Model. The source may be:

  • a URI

    A string URI, blessed URI object or RDF::Trine::Node::Resource, which will be retrieved and parsed.

  • a file

    A filehandle, Path::Class::File, IO::All, IO::Handle object, or the name of an existing file (i.e. a scalar string). The file will be read and parsed.

    Except in the case of Path::Class::File, IO::All and strings, you need to tell the parse function what parser to use, and what base URI to use.

  • a string

    You need to tell the parse function what parser to use, and what base URI to use.

  • a model or store

    An existing model or store, which will just be returned as-is.

  • undef

    Returns an empty model.

The parser option can be used to provide a blessed RDF::Trine::Parser object to use; the type option can be used instead to provide a media type hint. The base option provides the base URI. The model option can be used to tell this function to parse into an existing model rather than returning a new one. The graph option may be used to provide a graph URI.

into is an alias for model; type, using and as are aliases for parser; context is an alias for graph.

Examples:

  my $model = parse('/tmp/data.ttl', as => 'Turtle');

  my $data   = iri('http://example.com/data.nt');
  my $parser = RDF::Trine::Parser::NTriples->new;
  my $model  = model();
  
  parse($data, using => $parser, into => $model);
serialize($data, %options)

Serializes the data (which can be an RDF::Trine::Model or an RDF::Trine::Iterator) and returns it as a string.

The serializer option can be used to provide a blessed RDF::Trine::Serializer object to use; the type option can be used instead to provide a type hint. The output option can be used to provide a filehandle, IO::All, Path::Class::File or file name to write to instead of returning the results as a string.

to and file are aliases for output; type, using and as are aliases for serializer.

Examples:

  print serialize($model, as => 'Turtle');

  my $file = Path::Class::File->new('/tmp/data.nt');
  serialize($iterator, to => $file, as => 'NTriples');

Array References

In addition to the above interface, each function supports being called with a single arrayref argument. In those cases, the arrayref is dereferenced into an array, and treated as a list of arguments. That is, the following are equivalent:

  foo($bar, $baz);
  foo([$bar, $baz]);

This is handy if you're writing a module of your own and wish to accept some RDF data:

  sub my_method {
    my ($self, $rdf, $foo) = @_;
    $rdf = parse($rdf);
    
    ....
  }

Your method can now be called like this:

  $object->my_method($model, 'foo');
  
  $object->my_method($url, 'foo');
  
  $object->my_method(
      [ $filehandle, as => 'Turtle', base => $uri ],
      'foo',
  );

Export

By default, nothing is exported. You need to request things:

  use RDF::TrineX::Functions qw< iri literal blank statement model >;

Thanks to Sub::Exporter, you can rename functions:

  use RDF::TrineX::Functions
    qw< literal statement model >,
    blank => { -as => 'bnode' },
    iri   => { -as => 'resource' };

If you want to export everything, you can do:

  use RDF::TrineX::Functions -all;

To export just the functions which generate RDF::Trine::Node objects:

  use RDF::TrineX::Functions -nodes;

Or maybe even:

  use RDF::TrineX::Functions -nodes => { -suffix => '_node' };

If you want to export something roughly compatible with the old RDF::TrineShortcuts, then there's:

  use RDF::TrineX::Functions -shortcuts;

When exporting the serialize function you may set a default format:

  use RDF::TrineX::Functions
      serialize => { -type => 'NTriples' };

This will be used when serialize is called with no explicit type given.

Pseudo-OO interface

new

This acts as a constructor, returning a new RDF::TrineX::Functions object.

All the normal functions can be called as methods:

 my $R = RDF::TrineX::Functions->new;
 my $model = $R->model;

There's no real advantage to using this module as an object, but it can help you avoid namespace pollution.

BUGS

Please report any bugs to http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=RDF-TrineX-Functions.

SEE ALSO

RDF::Trine, RDF::QueryX::Lazy, RDF::NS.

AUTHOR

Toby Inkster <tobyink@cpan.org>.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Toby Inkster.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.