A RIF Based Mapping of RDB2RDF

Abstract

Mapping RDB to RDF (i.e., RDB2RDF) is the key to constructing the Semantic Web, hence has been an active research field during the last decade. Many technically heterogeneous RDB2RDF tools resulted in non-interchangeable and unreusable RDB2RDF mapping descriptions. In 2009, the W3C RDB2RDF Incubator Group Report once strongly suggested that the RDB2RDF mapping language be expressed in rules as defined by the W3C Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group, because rules are an effective way to express mappings between information models, and RIF, as part of the infrastructure for the Semantic Web, is now a standard for exchanging rules among Web rule systems. This paper addresses the issue of RIF-based RDB2RDF mapping and proposes a database semantics-driven, RIF Production Rule Dialect (RIF-PRD) based mapping description approach. The work includes defining a set of generic RIF-PRD mapping rules for RDB2RDF, developing a prototype mapping engine called RIFD2RME (stands for RIF-based RDB2RDF Mapping Engine), and conducting case study experiments with the prototype. The experimental results indicate that the proposed mapping approach is achievable and effective.