RDF Schema (RDFS)

RDF Schema (RDFS) is an extension of RDF.

RDF Schema and Application Classes

RDF describes resources using classes, properties, and values.

In addition, RDF also needs a way to define application-specific classes and properties. Application-specific classes and properties must be defined using an extension of RDF.

RDF Schema is one such extension.

RDF Schema (RDFS)

RDF Schema does not provide actual application-specific classes and properties; instead, it provides a framework for describing application-specific classes and properties.

Classes in RDF Schema are very similar to classes in object-oriented programming languages. This allows resources to be defined as instances of classes and subclasses of classes.

RDFS Example

The following example demonstrates some aspects of the capabilities of RDFS:

In the above example, the resource "horse" is a subclass of the class "animal".

Abbreviated Example

Since an RDFS class is an RDF resource, we can abbreviate the above example by using rdfs:Class instead of rdf:Description, and removing the rdf:type information:

That's it!