{"id":16750,"date":"2022-11-08T14:10:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T19:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/?p=16750"},"modified":"2025-04-14T14:34:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T18:34:32","slug":"resolving-uniform-resource-identifiers-uris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/resolving-uniform-resource-identifiers-uris\/","title":{"rendered":"Resolving Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

Organizations that are getting started with the Resource Description Framework (RDF) often ask\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWhy do all of the entity identifiers look like URLs? Are they supposed to actually go somewhere?\u201d This can be difficult to answer without taking the time to explore the foundations of the semantic web and one if its core components: the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While URIs <\/span>can <\/span><\/i>act like functioning URLs, resolving to an actual webpage, they don\u2019t always have to. In the following sections, we\u2019ll explore the ins and outs of URIs: why you may want to consider resolvable URIs, how to design your URIs so that they<\/span> can <\/span><\/i>resolve, and how to set up the technical process to ensure your URIs direct users to the resources you want them to see.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s a URI?<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"magnifying<\/p>\n

URI stands for Uniform Resource Identifier. In RDF, a URI is the identifier used for an entity (also called a node, or object). Every entity in RDF <\/span>must <\/b>have a URI. A URI for an RDF entity is similar to the primary key for a row in a relational database table. However, unlike relational database identifiers, which are usually required to be unique only within a single table, URIs are intended to be <\/span>globally unique<\/b>. This means that they should not only be unique within your taxonomy or knowledge graph, but should be unique across <\/span>all <\/span><\/i>taxonomies and knowledge graphs, \u00a0both at your organization and across the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

But how can you possibly create a globally unique identifier without knowing all of the other URIs in existence? It\u2019s actually quite simple \u2013 use a URL! We do this with websites all of the time. You wouldn\u2019t want your website\u2019s unique identifier (its URL) to point to someone else\u2019s website, so you create a URL that uses a domain only you and your organization have access to. For example, Enterprise Knowledge owns the domain <\/span>www.enterprise-knowledge.com<\/a><\/strong>. Because of this, we can be certain no one else in the world is building website URLs (or unique identifiers) that start with <\/span>www.enterprise-knowledge.com<\/a><\/strong>, and therefore any URL we create on \u00a0 <\/span>www.enterprise-knowledge.com<\/a><\/strong> is guaranteed to be <\/span>globally <\/b>unique.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same concept applies with URIs. To ensure uniqueness, URIs typically look like URLs, starting with \u201chttp:\/\/\u201d. This gives you many more possibilities for creating unique identifiers than traditional database identifiers. For example, a row in a database table may have ID 1234, which is likely to be used again in a different table or database. A URI like <\/span>https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/author\/bschrader<\/a><\/strong> is very unlikely to be reused in another knowledge graph.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what does a URI look like? As previously established, URIs typically look like URLs, and the format of a URI is largely the same. Each URI has a protocol, a domain, a path, and an identifier that is unique within your domain and path:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Parts<\/a><\/p>\n

Protocol<\/h3>\n

The protocol for a URI, like a URL, is almost always <\/span>http:\/\/ <\/span><\/i>or <\/span>https:\/\/<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Domain<\/h3>\n

The domain is the \u201cmain page\u201d of your URI, usually ending in <\/span>.com<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> .org<\/span><\/i>,<\/span> .net<\/span><\/i>, or <\/span>.gov<\/span><\/i>. Ideally, this piece of your URI corresponds to a server or webpage to which you have admin access or can register as a new domain with a web hosting service (more on this below). Just like with URLs, the <\/span>www <\/span><\/i>is not always required.<\/span><\/p>\n

Path<\/h3>\n

The path of a URI can be as long or short as you want \u2013 in fact, you don\u2019t have to include a path at all. This can be human readable, providing breadcrumbs that drill down from the more general to more specific, or it can be opaque.<\/span>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Separator<\/h3>\n

As the same suggests, the separator separates the protocol, domain, and path of your URI from the unique identifier. This separator is typically either the hash character (<\/span>#<\/span><\/i>) or a forward slash (<\/span>\/<\/span><\/i>).<\/span>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Together, the protocol, domain, path, and separator form a <\/span>namespace<\/b>. In the example above, the namespace is <\/span>http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2004\/02\/skos\/core#<\/span><\/i>.<\/span>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Local Unique Identifier<\/h3>\n

Given that the URI itself is a unique identifier, it may seem strange to have a \u201cunique identifier\u201d component of the URI. However, this piece of the URI <\/span>only <\/span><\/i>needs to be unique <\/span>within the namespace<\/b>. For example, in the URI above, the local unique identifier is <\/span>prefLabel<\/span><\/i>. This means I can\u2019t reuse <\/span>prefLabel <\/span><\/i>in combination with the same namespace (<\/span>http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2004\/02\/skos\/core#<\/i><\/a><\/strong>) to refer to a different RDF entity. However, I <\/span>can <\/span><\/i>reuse <\/span>prefLabel <\/span><\/i>with a <\/span>different <\/span><\/i>namespace to create a new, valid URI.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Good<\/a><\/p>\n

(adapted from <\/span>A data engineer\u2019s guide to semantic modelling<\/span><\/a> by Ilaria Maresi)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

What does it mean for a URI to be resolvable?<\/span><\/h2>\n

A resolvable, or dereferenceable, URI is a URI that actually points to a functioning website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, consider <\/span>SKOS (the Simple Knowledge Organization System)<\/a><\/strong>, an RDF framework typically used to create taxonomies. SKOS has several properties, such as preferred labels, alternate labels, and definitions. Each of these properties has its own URI:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2004\/02\/skos\/core#prefLabel<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2004\/02\/skos\/core#altLabel<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2004\/02\/skos\/core#definition<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

These URIs are all resolvable, which means clicking on any of these URIs takes you directly to the section of the SKOS documentation that defines that particular property, giving you more information about the topic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, the popular open knowledge graph Wikidata provides resolvable URIs as well. Try clicking on the following URIs for various concepts to find all of the information Wikidata has for these entities:<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington, D.C.: <\/span>https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q61<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Enterprise Knowledge: <\/span>https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q91151007<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The United Nations: <\/span>https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q1065<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Berners-Lee: <\/span>https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q80<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Resolvable URIs allow you to easily share information about your taxonomies, ontologies, and knowledge graphs to users, both within your organization and (if desired) outside of your organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Why should you use resolvable URIs?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Although they look like URLs, URIs are not <\/span>required <\/span><\/i>to resolve. For example, <\/span>http:\/\/www.my-really-great-knowledge-graph.com\/basketball<\/a><\/strong> is a valid URI, but if you plug it into a web browser, it won\u2019t actually go anywhere \u2013 it doesn\u2019t (at least at the time of writing this) resolve. However, it\u2019s highly recommended that the URIs you use actually <\/span>do <\/span><\/i>actually resolve (i.e. they point to a working webpage). The benefits of this are twofold: <\/span><\/p>\n

Reducing ambiguity and providing context<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of the core goals of the semantic web is to encode meaning in a machine readable way, thereby reducing ambiguity and adding meaning, or context, to data. A resolvable URI takes you to a page \"Lightbulb<\/a>where you can learn more about that entity, meaning anyone that encounters your URI \u201cin the wild\u201d and wants to understand what that URI means can simply plug that URI into a web browser and visit the page it points to, giving them context and meaning around your URI.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, any machine, application, or process that encounters your URI in the wild can attempt to load the resource that your URI points to. If your URI resolves to a page that hosts actual RDF data, the machine that follows your URI can process this URI to actually understand what your URI is (what its type is, how it relates to other RDF entities, etc.).<\/span><\/p>\n

By creating resolvable URIs, you\u2019re furthering the whole idea of <\/span>semantics<\/span><\/i> \u2013 reducing ambiguity and making meaning both human and machine readable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ensuring global uniqueness<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A resolvable URI ensures that your URI is globally unique in the same way that URLs are globally unique. If I own a URL and put a webpage there, no one else can possibly use that URL to host a \"\"<\/a>different page. The same is true for URIs. If I host a page of information about a concept at a URI address, no one else can use that URI to refer to a different concept. (While there\u2019s nothing <\/span>technically <\/span><\/i>stopping someone else from re-using this URI in a knowledge graph they create, they would be unable to have that URI resolve to anything other than my URI page, which would alert them that this URI is already in use. It\u2019s somewhat equivalent to someone else signing up for an account with your email address \u2013 they can do it, but they\u2019ll be unable to receive messages or reset their password, so it doesn\u2019t make much sense.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Where should your resolvable URIs go?<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"airplane<\/a>If you want to create resolvable URIs, you\u2019ll need to determine what information should actually be shown to users when they click on a given URI. Do you want to show raw RDF data for an entity? Or maybe repackage that RDF data in a prettier HTML format, like the Wikidata and SKOS URIs above? Or do you want to direct to a page that doesn\u2019t incorporate the RDF at all, and instead shows totally human readable content? Should each entity have its own webpage, as in Wikidata? Or should you have a single web page where every entity gets its own <\/span>section <\/span><\/i>of that page? This is up to you to decide, based on your needs and the goals of your organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Generating the content for a resolvable URI page can be achieved through a variety of methods. Showing raw RDF data simply requires you to point to a text file \u2013 no web development required. For example, see the dereferenceable URI <\/span>https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/01\/rdf-schema#label<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 While less human friendly, this is a viable option that provides detailed information about your URIs.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, if you want to show something a bit more human-friendly, there are several options. Many taxonomy and ontology editors on the market today will automatically create concept web pages for taxonomy concepts, or HTML ontology documentation for ontologies, based on the information you add to your taxonomy or ontology. This can reduce the content-creation burden and streamline the process of creating resolvable pages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several open source tools, such as <\/span>Widoco<\/a><\/strong>, can also be used to generate HTML ontology documentation for OWL compliant ontologies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, you always have the option of creating your own custom page for each URI you want to resolve. This can be time consuming, but provides you with greater flexibility and control of the information that is shown for each URI.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you need to consider when creating your URIs?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Remember: URIs should be <\/span>permanent<\/b>. You don\u2019t want to change them. This means that choosing your URI structure carefully is a crucial task. Here are some key considerations when choosing how to create URIs:<\/span><\/p>\n

What URL domains do you have access to?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want your URIs to be resolvable, you need to start them with a domain that you have access to. For example, if I choose to start all of my URIs with <\/span>http:\/\/google.com<\/a><\/strong>, I will likely create valid URIs, but unless I work for Google, it\u2019s unlikely that I\u2019ll ever be able to host content on Google related to my URIs. Instead, I should start my URI with a domain that I own or have access to (for example: <\/span>https:\/\/www.enterprise-knowledge.com\/<\/a><\/strong>).<\/span><\/p>\n

But what if you don\u2019t have access to <\/span>any <\/span><\/i>domains?<\/span><\/h4>\n

If you don\u2019t have access to a web domain where you can either host your content or set up redirect links (more on this below), you can work with the <\/span>W3C\u2019s Permanent Identifiers for the Web<\/a><\/strong> project. This project allows you to create URIs that begin with <\/span>https:\/\/w3id.org\/<\/i><\/a><\/strong>, and register your own redirects that they will host and serve, pointing your <\/span>https:\/\/w3id.org\/<\/i><\/a><\/strong> URIs wherever you choose. While this limits the flexibility you can have in your URI formats, this is a great option to ensure that you\u2019ll always be able to redirect and resolve your URIs without requiring you or your organization to maintain web servers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Human readable vs. opaque URIs<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Human readable URIs, as the name suggests, allow human beings to be able to make an educated guess as to what the URI refers to, simply by looking at the URI itself. For example, you may gather that the URI <\/span>https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/author\/bschrader<\/a><\/strong> refers to an author who has the username <\/span>bschrader<\/span><\/i>. This is a very user-friendly approach, and has the added benefit that many webpages are also organized using human-readable URLs. For example, a human being reading the URL above could likely (and correctly) guess that there\u2019s a page about <\/span>bschrader<\/span><\/i> in the author section of enterprise-knowledge.com. If you want your URIs to resolve within an existing web page structure, human readable URIs may be a good option.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Icon<\/a>However, remembering that good URIs should be <\/span>permanent<\/b>, human-readable URIs may have some drawbacks. What if <\/span>bschrader<\/span><\/i> changes their name or username, and now goes by <\/span>bsmith<\/span><\/i>? You don\u2019t want to change the URI, but it may now become more confusing to users. Similarly, if <\/span>bschrader<\/span><\/i> transitions from being an author to, say, an editor, the URI can\u2019t change to reflect that.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Opaque URIs, on the other hand, do not allow a user to surmise what the URI might refer to. The wikidata URIs listed in the section above are a good example: the URI <\/span>https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q1065<\/a><\/strong> gives no indication to a human being that this refers to the United Nations (until a human being visits the resolvable link, that is). While this can be less user-friendly, particularly for developers that may be querying an unfamiliar knowledge graph, opaque URIs are much more likely to be permanent. If the name of the United Nations changes at some point in the future, the Wikidata URI is not at all impacted. Opaque URIs are also a great option for multilingual taxonomies, ontologies, and knowledge graphs. By using an opaque identifier, you don\u2019t have to choose which language label is used in the URI, thereby giving equal footing to all languages used.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both human-readable and opaque URIs are widely and successfully used across the semantic web. Whether you use human-readable or opaque URIs ultimately depends on your needs as an organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Slashes vs. hashes<\/strong><\/p>\n

You may have noticed that the URI examples for SKOS and Wikidata in the section above use slightly different formats. Wikidata URIs use a slash to separate the wikidata prefix from the identifier for a concept (<\/span>https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/wiki\/Q1065<\/a><\/strong>), while SKOS URIs incorporate a hash to do the same (<\/span>http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2004\/02\/skos\/core#prefLabel<\/a><\/strong>). Both of these are valid URI formats, and which one you decide to use depends on the type of page you want to use for URI dereferencing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"icon<\/a>Slashes<\/b><\/p>\n

Slashes are a good option when you want every URI to point to its <\/span>own <\/b>webpage. For example, visiting the UN URI (<\/span>https:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/wiki\/Q1065<\/a><\/strong>) takes you to a page that <\/span>only <\/span><\/i>contains information about that UN concept. Slashes are a great option for URIs that talk about concepts, or individual entities in your knowledge graph.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hashes\u00a0\"hashtag<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Hashes, on the other hand, take you to a specific <\/span>section <\/b>of a webpage. For example, the SKOS URIs below all take you to the same page, but to different sections, or anchor tags, within that page:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2004\/02\/skos\/core#prefLabel<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2004\/02\/skos\/core#altLabel<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2004\/02\/skos\/core#definition<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you plan to host a single webpage split into sections that define different URIs, hashes are a good option for your URI format. Hashes are often (but not always) used in URIs that define ontology elements (like classes, relationships, and attributes), enabling you to create a single webpage with your ontology documentation while still directing users to the specific section that defines an individual relationship or attribute URI.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who should see your resolvable pages?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When creating pages to display content for resolvable URIs, you\u2019ll want to consider <\/span>who <\/span><\/i>should be able to see this content. Some organizations may want the general public to be able to see this information \u2013 this is particularly true for externally facing resources like public taxonomies or linked open data projects. In this case, you simply need to make sure that the website on which you plan to host the resolvable URI pages is publicly accessible. For example, <\/span>https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com<\/a><\/strong> is publicly accessible, so anyone can access the content at <\/span>https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/author\/bschrader<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, in other cases, you may want your information to be accessible only to users inside your organization. In these instances, it\u2019s important to make sure that the pages to which your URIs point are either located behind your organization\u2019s firewall (i.e. only accessible to users on your organization\u2019s network or VPN), or that these pages require users to authenticate with some kind of organizational credentials. While this may impact your choice of URI, it is possible to have your URIs use a publicly accessible domain (like <\/span>https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com<\/span><\/a>), but redirect to a webpage that is controlled behind a firewall or via login (see below).<\/span><\/p>\n

The technical nitty-gritty: how do you make your URIs resolve?<\/span><\/h2>\n

So you\u2019ve thought through your URI format and you\u2019ve decided which content should be shown for each resolvable URI: now how do you get the URI to actually point to the content? First, in almost all cases, <\/span>you must have access to the domain for your URIs<\/b>. If you don\u2019t have access to a domain, you may want to consider working with the <\/span>W3C\u2019s Permanent Identifiers for the Web<\/a><\/strong> project, as described above. Whether you\u2019re hosting content directly on a website in that domain, or redirecting URIs to point to a webpage hosted elsewhere, you\u2019ll need access to that domain to set up either option.<\/span><\/p>\n

Assuming you have access to your URI domain, you have two main options:<\/span><\/p>\n

Host the content at the actual URL location of the URI\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

This requires you to develop your URIs and your webpage together. For example, if you want to host content for the URI <\/span>https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/author\/bschrader<\/span><\/a> at that exact same URL, you need to:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. have a webpage hosted at <\/span>https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. have an authors section on that webpage<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. host an HTML page for <\/span>bschrader<\/span><\/i> in the authors section of <\/span>https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This approach also requires you to maintain the same structure of your web page in perpetuity. If the website is reorganized, and the authors section moves under a new parent page called \u201ccreators\u201d, the content for your URI may no longer be reachable<\/span><\/p>\n

    Create URL redirects\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

    This option is more flexible, and allows you to change the content to which your URIs point over time, without needing to change the URIs themselves. In this option, you\u2019d need to access the server hosting the main webpage on your domain. For example, if my URIs all start with <\/span>https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com<\/a><\/strong>, I\u2019d need access to the server hosting that web page. Any server hosting a web page will be running a web server, like NGINX or Apache. In addition to serving web pages, these web servers have the ability to reroute traffic coming into the domain using URL redirects. For example, say you want any URI using the format<\/span><\/p>\n

    https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/person\/<\/a><\/strong>{username}<\/span><\/p>\n

    to actually point to a different page (including a website hosted elsewhere), such as:<\/span><\/p>\n

    https:\/\/my-really-great-knowledge-graph.com\/<\/a><\/strong>person\/{username}<\/span><\/p>\n

    You can set up a URL redirect in the proxy settings for your web server. As mentioned above, this redirect process can point URIs to other locations on the same domain, or to locations on a totally separate domain. For more details on how to set up these redirects, consult the documentation for your web server.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Conclusion<\/span><\/h1>\n

    Resolvable URIs are a great way to make sure your semantic resources are both human and machine readable, improving access to knowledge and reducing ambiguity. Choosing good URIs that will be permanent, globally unique, and resolvable involves several considerations, but when done correctly, it can enable others to easily explore your semantic resources. To get help setting up resolvable URIs, contact us today.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Organizations that are getting started with the Resource Description Framework (RDF) often ask\u00a0\u201cWhy do all of the entity identifiers look like URLs? 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