RAN-Map: a system for automatically producing API layers from RDF schemas

Abstract

This work describes a system for the automatic generation of full-fledged API layers from RDF schemas, providing the whole set of Object-Oriented functionalities to retrieve, store, edit and delete the corresponding data in a semantic Triplestore. The layers the system is capable of producing range from an underlying domain model, resulting from the classes, data properties and object properties of the input schema, to the related lower-level data source and access components, up to higher-level facades and web service interfaces, all of which are immediately operational and can be used out-of-the-box for development purposes either as stand-alone components or integrated into external applications. A user-friendly graphical interface allows for an easy configuration and customization of the generation process to suit specific development needs. Once configured, the execution of the generation process takes place almost instantaneously, bringing about a full set of API components in a matter of seconds and thus dramatically saving design and development time and effort. Experimentation of the system has been carried out within the context of a EU-funded research project featuring a large semantic schema, a significant portion of which represented a Learning Model specifically engineered to be used for a plethora of e-learning solutions; nevertheless, the system is generic enough to be employed for a variety of applications relying upon semantic schemas and data.