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.

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