RDF Main Elements

From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)

# RDF Main Elements

The main elements of RDF are the root element, <RDF>, and the <Description> element, which identifies a resource.

## The <rdf:RDF> Element

<rdf:RDF> is the root element of an RDF document. It defines the XML document to be an RDF document. It also contains a reference to the RDF namespace:

    <?xml version="1.0"?>

    <rdf:RDF
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">
    .
    . Description goes here
    .
    </rdf:RDF>

## The <rdf:Description> Element

The <rdf:Description> element identifies a resource with the about attribute.

The <rdf:Description> element contains elements that describe the resource:

    <?xml version="1.0"?>

    <rdf:RDF
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:cd="http://www.recshop.fake/cd#">

    <rdf:Description
     rdf:about="http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Empire Burlesque">
      <cd:artist>Bob Dylan</cd:artist>
      <cd:country>USA</cd:country>
      <cd:company>Columbia</cd:company>
      <cd:price>10.90</cd:price>
      <cd:year>1985</cd:year>
    </rdf:Description>

    </rdf:RDF>

The elements, artist, country, company, price, and year, are defined in the http://www.recshop.fake/cd# namespace. This namespace is outside RDF (and not a part of RDF). RDF defines only the framework. The elements, artist, country, company, price, and year, must be defined by someone else (company, organization, person, etc).

## Properties as Attributes

The property elements can also be defined as attributes (instead of elements):

    <?xml version="1.0"?>

    <rdf:RDF
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:cd="http://www.recshop.fake/cd#">

    <rdf:Description
     rdf:about="http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Empire Burlesque"
      cd:artist="Bob Dylan"  cd:country="USA"
      cd:company="Columbia"  cd:price="10.90"
      cd:year="1985" />

    </rdf:RDF>

## Properties as Resources

The property elements can also be defined as resources:

    <?xml version="1.0"?>

    <rdf:RDF
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:cd="http://www.recshop.fake/cd#">

    <rdf:Description
     rdf:about="http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Empire Burlesque">
      <cd:artist rdf:resource="http://www.recshop.fake/cd/dylan" />
      .
      .
      .
      .
    </rdf:Description>

    </rdf:RDF>

In the example above, the property artist does not have a value, but a reference to a resource containing information about the artist.

From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)