Site Structure

To create an rdfpub site, you will need to create files that define your site's content, a file for its settings, and names for its various components. How you name and organize your files affects how your site is rendered. The rules for how an rdfpub site is generated from its source is a matter of convention over configuration, a principle that favors implicit processing rules over complex configuration files.

Although most rdfpub processing rules are implicit, there is some minimal configuration necessary for an rdfpub site. Configuration is explained more below and in the next lesson.

Directory structure

The URL's of an rdfpub site are generated according to the site's source directory sturcture. For instance, this page of the tutorial has the URL path /tutorial/lessons/site-structure which is generated from a matching directory path in its source. The root directory of your site corresponds to the root path, /.

Every URL generated in this fashion is commonly referred to as a resource which can also have data and templates associated with it. Resources are explained further in the Resources lesson.

Data

Your site content is driven by data files which, in the case of an rdfpub site, are RDF files. Any RDF file in a resource's directory will be associated with that resource.

RDF and supported RDF files are explained further in the Resources lesson.

Queries

In order to extract specific bits of information from your RDF data, you will need SPARQL queries. Each of your SPARQL queries are executed against each of the resources that they're associated with.

You can learn more about SPARQL queries and how rdfpub processes them in the SPARQL lesson.

Templates

In order to render your resources as HTML for display on the web, you must create templates that define how your data is converted to HTML. rdfpub uses Handlebars as its template engine.

Template processing is covered in greater detail in the Handlebars lesson.

Static files

Many websites make use of files that are served exactly as they are, such as images or CSS. Any site file that isn't RDF, SPARQL, or a Handlebars template is copied to the generated site as a static file.

You can read more about static files in the static file lesson.

Configuration

There are some settings that cannot be expressed through ordinary files and directories. This handful of settings is defined in a special file at the root directory of your site called .rdfpub.

The next lesson thoroughly explains rdfpub site configuration.