Rdfresource

Rdfresource is commonly used to refer to the RDF/XML attribute rdf:resource. The term as written without punctuation is not the standard name; the formal, widely used spelling is rdf:resource, defined in the RDF syntax namespace. In RDF/XML, this attribute is used to indicate that the object of a property is a resource identified by an IRI (as opposed to a literal or a blank node).

Usage and example

In an RDF/XML document, you can assign a resource value to a property using the rdf:resource attribute on the property element. For example:

<ex:knows rdf:resource="http://example.org/people/Alice"/>

This states that the value of the ex:knows property is the resource with the IRI http://example.org/people/Alice.

Semantics and constraints

The value of rdf:resource must be an IRI or a QName that resolves to an IRI. It cannot be a literal. The attribute is applicable to property elements and provides a concise way to reference a resource without creating an additional nested description for the object.

Relation to other RDF serializations

RDF/XML is one of several RDF serializations. In Turtle, the same statement would be written using a direct IRI in the object position, for example: ex:knows <http://example.org/people/Alice>. In JSON-LD, the IRI would appear as an @id value. RDF/XML’s rdf:resource form is mainly of historical and interoperability importance for RDF/XML documents.

See also

RDF, RDF/XML, RDF vocabulary, RDF syntax. The rdf:resource attribute is defined in the RDF namespace (http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#).