Lab: Getting started with VSCode, Python and RDFlib

Lab 1: Getting started with VSCode, Python and RDFlib

Topics

Today we have 2 goals. 1. To setup a programming environment that you will use for the lab excercises (if you don't already have one). 2. To start some basic programming of RDF.

Installation of and introduction to Python, VSCode, Pip and RDFlib.

VSCode is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that can be used for writing Python code.

The Pip command is used to easily install additional python packages for your coding environment.

RDFLib is a Python package for working with RDF. With this we can create RDF graphs, parse and serialize RDF, perform SPARQL queries on graphs and more.

Tasks

You likely already have Python installed on your computer (it comes with MAC for instance). To find out, type 'python' in the commandline on windows or type 'python --version' in the terminal on your MAC. If you don't already have Python, download and install the Python for your operative system here. We recommend downloading the most recent version.

If you are already using a different Python IDE than VSCode that you are comfortable with, then you are free to use that program instead.

Otherwise Download and Install the free and open source Visual Studio Code IDE here.

Start Pycharm and create a new project with a new .py file.

RDFlib

Using the VSCode terminal, install RDFlib by simply entering: pip install rdflib

To import rdflib to your .py file, write 'import rdflib' at the top of the file. Alternatively to import certain modules of rdflib, you can write e.g 'from rdflib import Graph'

Coding Tasks

When solving the coding tasks you can look at the readings below if needed. Use the Classes/interfaces and methods listed at the bottom of the page. ()

1. Write a program that creates an RDF graph containing the triples from the following sentences. Note that one sentence could result in more than one triple. When solving these particular tasks I would try to avoid using Blank Nodes, and instead use full URI's instead. For URIs you can just use an example URI like "http://example.org/". This means that if you talk about a person called Cade, the URI could be "http://example.org/Cade". Remember the Namespaces can be used so that you don't have to write the full URI everytime.

• Cade is married to Mary
• The capital of France is Paris
• Cade is 27 years old
• 26 years is the age of Mary
• Marys interests include hiking, chocolate and biology
• Mary is a student
• Paris is a City in France
• Cade and Mary are kind people

If you have more time...

If you have more time you can continue extending your graph with some of the stuff from lab 2: "Cade has the full name Cade Tracey. He lives in 1516 Henry Street, Berkeley, California 94709, USA. He has a B.Sc. in biology from the University of California, Berkeley from 2011. His interests include birds, ecology, the environment, photography and travelling. He has visited Canada and France." Try to use as many different methods as possible to create the triples.

Documentation and other useful reading

If needed here is an introduction of how to create projects and python files in Pycharm Pycharm - Tutorial by jetbrains.com.

RDFLib Documentation- Todays focus are the following:

• Intro to RDFlib
• Intro to creating triples

Additional recommended in depth documentation:

• RDF Terms
• Namespaces and Bindings

Slides from the lecture

Relevant RDFlib interfaces (and methods)

import rdflib:

• Graph (add)
• URIRef
• Literal
• NameSpace
• Bnode
• RDF, FOAF

All RDFlib modules can be found here Browser search (often Ctrl-F) is useful here to find the module that you want.