ROR (Resources of a Resource)

Created 2004/10/1

Last Update 2005/3/1

Permission is granted to everyone to use ROR, a patent-pending technology, for describing their own website(s) or resource(s) for free. ROR is provided “as is” without warranty, expressed or implied. Licensing of ROR will soon be made available; we are currently testing it with several partners.

Keywords

Semantic Web, RDF, XML, Vocabulary, Resource Description, Website Description

Overview

The idea behind ROR is to provide a simple and structured way for resources to generically describe their content, resources, and relationships with other resources, and make this information available in one location on the resource, accessible to all interested.

Status of this document

This document is a work in progress and will be refined. The author makes no commitments at this point regarding future updates. Feel free to send your questions, comments or suggestions at

Table of Content

Namespace. 2

Introduction. 2

ROR General Vocabulary. 2

Description. 2

Classes and Properties. 4

ROR Web Vocabulary. 5

Description. 5

Classes Overview.. 6

Classes and Properties. 6

ROR Document 7

About the type Property. 8

About the RDF seeAlso Property. 8

Example. 9

Namespace

xmlns:ror = “http://rorweb.com/0.1/”

Introduction

The goal of ROR is to facilitate the exchange of information and meaning between resources and/or applications, by providing a simple set of terms and mechanisms for describing their content, resources, and relationships with other resources, exploring the possibilities of the Semantic Web.

ROR currently provides a set of two vocabularies:

- General Vocabulary: describes the general aspects of a resource and the general relationships between the resources it uses or is composed of (collection, tree, or network structures).

- Web Vocabulary: is an extension to the General Vocabulary and specializes in describing Internet resources like web sites, web stores, products, web feeds, sitemaps, web services, etc

ROR is built on top of W3’s RDF (Resource Description Framework) but adds some constraints so that both RDF/XML and XML parsers can easily read it.

A ROR document can be created and added to a resource, to describe it. See ROR Document for details.

ROR General Vocabulary

Description

The General Vocabulary describes the general aspects of a resource and the general relationships between the resources it uses or it is composed of. The vocabulary is designed to be used as a skeleton for connecting and organizing the resources of a resource, on which additional meaning can be added using other vocabularies (e.g. Dublin Core, Syndication, ROR Web Vocabulary, etc).

A resource can be anything (a website, an object, a person, a place, a file, a database record, etc). In a ROR document describing a website, the top resource would typically represent the website itself, the lowest level resources would represent things as granular as a link, a blog or feed entry, a webpage paragraph, a product, a forum message, etc. The idea of ROR is to“divide and describe”: describe resources by decomposing them into ever smaller resources that can be described more fully and precisely.

Below is an example of a resource described with the ROR General Vocabulary:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<rdf:RDF

xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"

xmlns="http://www.rorweb.com/0.1/">

<Resource rdf:about="mything">

<title>My Thing</title>

<url>http://www.my-thing-site.com/</url>

...

</Resource>

<Resource rdf:about="thing-1">

<title>Thing 1</title>

<resourceOf rdf:resource="mything"/>

...

</Resource>

<Resource rdf:about="thing-2">

<title>Thing 2</title>

<resourceOf rdf:resource="mything"/>

...

</Resource>

<Resource rdf:about="thing-3">

<title>Thing 3</title>

<resourceOf rdf:resource="thing-2"/>

...
</Resource>

<Resource rdf:about="thing-4">

<title>Thing 4</title>

<resourceOf rdf:resource="thing-2"/>

...

</Resource>

<Resource rdf:about="thing-n">

<title>Thing n</title>

<resourceOf rdf:resource="mything"/>

...

</Resource>

</rdf:RDF>

In a ROR document all elements are described using the Resource class. The elements can optionally be identified using the rdf:about attribute. Class types are identified by the type property (also optional). For example, the main resource of a ROR document has its type property set to “Main”: <type>Main</type>. The type property is also used by the Web Vocabulary to identify other types of resources. A property can hold a value, or a reference to another resource. An example of a value is <title>My Thing</title>, an example of a reference is <resourceOf rdf:resource="mything"/>.

Classes and Properties

1. Classes

Resource

Defines a new resource or object (subclass of rdfs:Resource)

Main

Defines the main resource (subclass of Resource)

2. Properties

id	Identifier or short name of the resource
title	Title of the resource
desc	Short description of the resource
descLong	Long description of resource
type	Type of the resource (Resource, Main, or other class types, maps to rdf:type)
category	Category describing the content of the resource (comma-delimited text from general to specific, or third-party resource reference).
keywords	Keywords describing the content of the resource (comma-delimited text)
url	URL of the resource if applicable
doc	URL of documentation about the resource
content	Content of the resource
format	Mime format of the resource (e.g. text/html, video/mpeg, etc)
size	Size of the resource if applicable (in KiloBytes)
creator	Creator of the resource
created	Creation date of the resource (e.g. 2005-01-31)
publisher	Publisher of the resource
published	Published date of the resource (e.g. 2005-01-31)
updated	Last update date of the resource
updatePeriod	Update period of the resource (example: second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year)
updateRate	Rate of the update period of the resource is updated (example: 1, 2, 3, etc)
image	Image about the resource
imageSmall	Small image about the resource
imageLarge	Large image about the resource
sortBy	Sort order of resources of this resource by [property] (default is sortOrder)
sortDir	Sort direction up or down (default is up)
sortOrder	Order position of resource (e.g. 1, 2, 3, etc)
language	Language of the resource
available	Determines if the resource is currently available (default is yes)
resource	A resource or object associated with this resource
resourceOf	A resource or object this resource is associated with (inverse property of resource)
seeAlso	A resource or object with more information about this resource (maps to rdfs:seeAlso)

Note: Some of the properties listed above will be mapped to properties of the Dublin Core vocabulary (http://dublincore.org).

ROR Web Vocabulary

Description

The ROR Web Vocabulary is an extension of the General Vocabulary and specializes in describing web resources like websites, web pages, web stores, web feeds, products, web services, etc, resources that are common on the Web. All classes are subclasses of the ROR Resource class.

Below is an example of a resource describing a product offered on a website. Here too, the resource is described using the Resource class, and the type property is set to the name of the class of interest, here Product. Setting the type property to Product tells a ROR document reader that this resource is of class Product, and that properties attached to that class (e.g. price, currency, etc) may also be found. All properties are optional.

<Resource rdf:about="web-hosting">

<type>Product</type>

<title>Web Hosting</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/webhosting.htm</url>

<image>http://www.acme.com/domains.gif</image>

<price>12.95</price>

<priceRecur>9.95</priceRecur>

<priceRecurPeriod>month</priceRecurPeriod>

<priceRecurRate>1</priceRecurRate>

<currency>USD</currency>

<available>yes</available>

<kind>service</kind>

</Resource>

Classes Overview

Here is the current list of classes included in the vocabulary; they can be used in the type property. Of course this list is not final, many new classes and properties will be added regularly. Classes with properties are further documented below.

Ad, Address, AffiliateProgram, Affiliation, Alert, App, Article, Audio, Archive, Banner, Blog, Book, Business, Contact, Course, Data, Discount, Document, Download, EBook, Entity, Event, Favorite, Feed, File, Forum, Friend, Graph, HttpService, Image, Information, Legal, Link, Magazine, Menu, Message, Music, Newsletter, Organization, Partner, Person, Poll, Product, QA, Report, Review, Schedule, SiteMap, Song, Text, Tip, Tool, Tutorial, Video, Webpage, WebService, Website, Wiki

Classes and Properties

Address

Defines an address

name	Name of person, business or organization
address1	Address 1
address2	Address 2
stateRegion	State or Region
postalCode	Zip code, postal code,
city	City
country	Country code

AffiliateProgram

Defines an affiliate (or associate) program

commission	Commission offered by program (e.g. 20)
commType	Type of commission: percent, amount
commissionRecur	Recurring commission (e.g. 2.00)
commissionRecurType	Type of recurring commission: percent, amount
commissionRecurPeriod	Period of recurring commission (e.g. month)
commissionRecurRate	Rate of period of recurring commission (e.g. 2, 3, 4, …).
trackingDays	Tracking duration of program (in days, 0 means no tracking, -1 means forever)
signupFee	Signup fee
currency	Currency of commission

App

Defines a software application or tool

platform

Platform supported by the application

Business

Defines an business

name	Name of the business
founded	Date, year founded (e.g. 2000, 200-06, 2000-06-01)
industry	Industry of the business
employees	Number of employees
tradeSymbol	Trade symbol

Contact

Defines a contact (person, business, or organization)

name	Name of person, business or organization
address	Address
phone	Phone number
mobile	Mobile phone number
work	Work number
pager	Pager number
fax	Fax number
email	Email address
foaf	Friend of a friend resource (http://www.foaf-project.org)
Note: if needed, several contacts can be created and grouped under one main contact resource (e.g. support, sales, marketing, business development, etc).

Discount

Defines a product discount

discountType	Type of discount: percent, amount
amount	Amount of the discount (e.g. 15)
for	Resource this discount applies to
startDate	Start date (e.g. 2005-01-01)
endDate	End date (e.g. 2005-12-31)

Event

Defines an event

starts	Start date and/or time
ends	End date and/or time
location	Place or location

Feed

Defines a web feed (rss, atom, ror)

feedType	rss, atom, ror
feedVersion	Version of the feed (e.g. 0.91, 1.0, 2.0)

Note: when feedType is ror, entries are identified through the resource or resourceOf properties

HttpService

Defines an http service

name	Name of the service
url	URL of the service
methodType	Type of http method: get, post
input	Input parameter
output	Output parameter

Image

Defines an image

width

Width

height

Height

animated

Is the image animated? yes, no

Legal

Defines legal information for a resource

privacy	Privacy page or text
disclaimer	Disclaimer page or text
copyright	Copyright page or text
tradmark	Tradmark page or text
patent	Patent page or text
agreement	Agreement page or text

Message

Defines a message (email, forum, etc)

sender	Sender
recipient	Recipient
cc	Copy to
bcc	Blind copy to
title	Title or subject
body	Body
thread	Thread

Newsletter

Defines a newsletter or ezine

circulation	Circulation of the newsletter
publishPeriod	Period of publishing (example: day, week, month, year)
publishRate	Rate of publishing period (example: 1, 2, 3, etc)
archive	URL of archive

Person

Defines a business

name	Name of the person
firstName	First name
lastName	Last Name
middleName	Middle name
birthDate	Birth date
gender	Gender

Product

Defines a product or service

price	Price of the product or service (one-time, initial, setup)
priceRecur	Recurring price, if any
priceRecurPeriod	Recurring period (example: minute, hour, day, week, month, year)
priceRecurRate	Frequency of price recurring period (example: 1, 2, 3, etc)
currency	Currency of the price
kind	Kind of product or service: goods, service

Defines a Q&A element

question

A question

answer

The answer

Review

Defines a review (for a product, a resource, etc)

for	Object of the review (a product name, a url, etc)
pros	Pros about the object of the review
cons	Cons about the object of the review
rating	Rating (from 0, bad - to 10, excellent)

WebService

Defines a web service

name

Name of the service

wsdl

Location of the WSDL document

[to be completed]

ROR Document

A ROR document(s) can be added to a resource to describe its content and resources (products, services, methods, sitemap, content, etc). The default ROR document name is ror.xml. This means that web agents and applications (e.g. search engine spiders, etc) can search for this document on a website and find valuable information about it and its resources.

If the resource is a webpage, it can reference this file or another ROR document in the HTML code (in the <head> section):

title="ROR" href="another-file.xml" />

A ROR document can be a simple static file or a document generated periodically or on-the-fly by the server using information pulled from a database.

To add meaning, elements of a webpage (words, paragraphs, images, etc) can reference resources in the ROR document. For example, the name of a product can include a reference to the product resource itself:

Webpage elements (english):

<span resource="main">Our company</span> offers the following services: <br />
- <span resource="domain-registration">Domain Registration</span><br />

- <span resource="web-hosting">Web Hosting</span>

<span resource="discount">20% Discount</span>

Webpage elements (french):

<span resource="main">Notre Societe</span> offre les services suivant: <br />
- <span resource="domain-registration">Registration de Domaines</span><br />

- <span resource="web-hosting">Hebergement</span>

<span resource="discount">Rabais de 20%</span>

Corresponding resources:

<title>Acme Web Hosting</title>

...

</Resource>

<type>Product</type>

<title>Domain Registration</title>

...

</Resource>

<type>Product</type>

<title>Web Hosting</title>

...

</Resource>

<Resource rdf:about="discount ">

<type>Discount</type>

<title>Discount</title>

...

</Resource>

About the type Property

The ROR type property is similar to the RDF type property, which is also supported by ROR. It is meant to be an easy way to say this:

<rdf:type rdf:resource=”http://rorweb.com/0.1/[ClassName]” />

The rdf:type property also provides a way to extend the ROR Vocabulary

As with RDF, ROR allows resources to have several types at the same time (be an instance of multiple classes). The example below shows how a website can describe a downloadable application:

<Resource rdf:about="domain-name-finder">

<type>App</type>

<type>Download</type>

<title>Domain Name Finder</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/domainfinder.htm</url>

<platform>Windows 2000</platform>

<platform>Windows XP</platform>

<size>1000</size>

</Resource>

About the RDF seeAlso Property

The RDF seeAlso property is used in ROR to state that further information can be found elsewhere (inside or outside a ROR document).

For example, elements of a SiteMap, which are generally just representations of other elements of the resource, can use the seeAlso property to identify the elements they represent.

The property can also be used to document the location of other ROR documents. Large websites might not want to store all information in one ROR document, but across several documents. For example, the main ROR document could contain a resource named “Articles” which points to another ROR document(s) containing the Article resources.

<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource=”http://acme.com/articles.xml” />

Another use of the property is for documenting other websites or resources (e.g. related websites, partners, etc)

Example

Below is an example of a ROR document describing the resources of a website called Acme Web Hosting. Additional examples will be added soon.

Main Document (ror.xml)

<?xml version="1.0"?>

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

xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"

xmlns="http://rorweb.com/0.1/"

xml:base="http://www.acme.com/ror/">

<title>Acme Web Hosting</title>

</Resource>

<type>Contact</type>

<title>Contact Information</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/contact.htm</url>

<name>Acme Hosting, Inc</name>

<address>123 Main Street\nBoston, MA 02211</address>

<email>sales@acme.com</email>

</Resource>

<url>http://www.acme.com/rssnews.xml</url>

</Resource>

<type>Product</type>

<title>Products</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/products.htm</url>

</Resource>

<type>Product</type>

<title>Domain Registration</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/domains.htm</url>

<image>http://www.acme.com/domains.gif</image>

<imageSmall>http://www.acme.com/smalldomains.gif</imageSmall>

<kind>service</kind>

</Resource>

<type>Product</type>

<title>Web Hosting</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/hosting.htm</url>

<image>http://www.acme.com/hosting.gif</image>

<imageSmall>http://www.acme.com/smallhosting.gif</imageSmall>

<priceRecurPeriod>month</priceRecurPeriod>

<kind>service</kind>

</Resource>

<title>Services</title>

</Resource>

<type>WebService</type>

<title>Web Services</title>

<doc>http://www.acme.com/webservices.htm</doc>

<wsdl>http://www.acme.com/webservices.wsdl</wsdl>

</Resource>

<type>HttpService</type>

<title>Search</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/cgi-bin/search</url>

<doc>http://www.acme.com/http-services.htm#search</doc>

<input>sort-order</input>

</Resource>

<type>Article</type>

<title>Articles</title>

<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="http://www.acme.com/articles.xml"/>

</Resource>

<sortBy>created</sortBy>

</Resource>

<title>Entry 3</title>

</Resource>

<title>Entry 2</title>

</Resource>

<title>Entry 1</title>

</Resource>

<title>More Things</title>

<keywords>some keywords here</keywords>

</Resource>

<title>Thing 1</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/thing1</url>

</Resource>

<title>Thing 2</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/thing2</url>

</Resource>

<title>Thing 1.1</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/thing11</url>

</Resource>

<title>Thing 1.2</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/thing12</url>

</Resource>

<type>Legal</type>

<title>Legal</title>

<privacy>http://www.acme.com/privacy.htm</privacy>

</Resource>

<type>Sitemap</type>

</Resource>

<title>About</title>

<url>http://www.acme.com/about.htm</url>

</Resource>

<title>Products</title>

<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="products"/>

</Resource>

<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="newsfeed"/>

</Resource>

<title>Contact</title>

<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="contact"/>

</Resource>

<title>Daily Blog</title>

<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="blog"/>

</Resource>

<title>Articles</title>

<rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="articles"/>

</Resource>

</rdf:RDF>

Articles (articles.xml)

<?xml version="1.0"?>

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

xmlns="http://rorweb.com/0.1/"

xml:base="http://www.acme.com/ror/">

<type>Article</type>

<title>Article 1</title>

<descLong>article description</descLong>

<url>http://www.acme.com/article1.htm</url>

<author>John Smith</author>

</Resource>

<type>Article</type>

<title>Article 2</title>

<descLong>article description</descLong>

<url>http://www.acme.com/article2.htm</url>

<author>Jane Smith</author>

</Resource>

<type>Article</type>

<title>Article N</title>

<descLong>article description</descLong>

<url>http://www.acme.com/articlen.htm</url>

<author>John Smith</author>

</Resource>

</rdf:RDF>