SPARQL 1.1 Federated Query

1.1 Document Conventions

2.1 Simple query to a remote SPARQL endpoint

  @prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
  @prefix : <http://example.org/> .
  
  :people15  foaf:name     "Alice" .
  :people16  foaf:name     "Bob" .
  :people17  foaf:name     "Charles" .
  :people18  foaf:name     "Daisy" .

<http://example.org/myfoaf/I> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/knows>  <http://example.org/people15> . 

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name
FROM <http://example.org/myfoaf.rdf>
WHERE
{
  <http://example.org/myfoaf/I> foaf:knows ?person .
  SERVICE <http://people.example.org/sparql> { 
    ?person foaf:name ?name . } 
}

2.2 SPARQL query with OPTIONAL to two remote SPARQL endpoints

Imagine we want to query people and optionally obtain their interests and the names of people they know. Imagine for instance, two endpoints containing data about people:

 
  @prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
  @prefix : <http://example.org/> .
  
  :people15  foaf:name     "Alice" .
  :people16  foaf:name     "Bob" .
  :people17  foaf:name     "Charles" .
  :people17  foaf:interest     <http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/rdb2rdf/> .
  

 
  @prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
  @prefix : <http://example.org/> .
  
  :people15  foaf:knows    :people18 . 
  :people18  foaf:name     "Mike" .
  :people17  foaf:knows    :people19 . 
  :people19  foaf:name     "Daisy" .
  

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?person ?interest ?known
WHERE
{
  SERVICE <http://people.example.org/sparql> { 
    ?person foaf:name ?name .  
    OPTIONAL { 
      ?person foaf:interest ?interest .
      SERVICE <http://people2.example.org/sparql> { 
        ?person foaf:knows ?known . } }
  }    
}

Notice that in the query above there is a nested SERVICE in the OPTIONAL clause. This query requires the SPARQL query service at http://people.example.org/sparql to support basic federated query.

2.3 Service Execution Failure

The execution of a SERVICE pattern may fail due to several reasons: the remote service may be down, the service IRI may not be dereferenceable, or the endpoint may return an error to the query. Normally, under such circumstances the invoked query containing a SERVICE pattern fails as a whole. Queries may explicitly allow failed SERVICE requests with the use of the SILENT keyword. The SILENT keyword indicates that errors encountered while accessing a remote SPARQL endpoint should be ignored while processing the query. The failed SERVICE clause is treated as if it had a result of a single solution with no bindings.

In the following query the SILENT keyword is present. If the remote SPARQL endpoint is not available because the SPARQL endpoint does not exist, it is down or it is not accessible the query will return a solution sequence of one empty solution mapping. If the SILENT keyword is not present, the query will stop and return the error.

  <http://example.org/people15>  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name>     "Charles" .

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?name
WHERE
{
  SERVICE SILENT <http://people.example.org/sparql> { 
    <http://example.org/people15> foaf:name ?name . }
}

2.4 Interplay of SERVICE and VALUES (Informative)

SPARQL 1.1 Query includes the VALUES clause (VALUES), which can be used to provide an unordered solution sequence that is joined with the results of the query evaluation. Implementers of SPARQL 1.1 Federated Query may use the VALUES clause to constrain the results received from a remote endpoint based on solution bindings from evaluating other parts of the query.

The following example shows how SERVICE and VALUES can work together. Suppose a query that asks for all instances of foaf:Person in the default graph and also their known people in the remote endpoint http://example.org/sparql:

Data in the default graph:

   
  @prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
  @prefix : <http://example.org/> .
  
  :a a foaf:Person  ;
     foaf:name     "Alan" ;
     foaf:mbox;     "alan@example.org" .
  :b a foaf:Person  ;
     foaf:name     "Bob" ;
     foaf:mbox     "bob@example.org" .
  

 
  @prefix foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .
  @prefix : <http://example.org/> .
  
  :a  foaf:knows     :b . 
  :b  foaf:knows     :c .
  :c  foaf:knows     :a .
  :a  foaf:interest  "SPARQL 1.1 Basic Federated Query" . 
  :b  foaf:interest  "SPARQL 1.1 Query" .
  :c  foaf:interest  "RDB2RDF Direct mapping" .
  

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?s
{
  ?s a foaf:Person .
  SERVICE <http://example.org/sparql> {?s foaf:knows ?o }
}

When the original query is executed naively, with an unconstrained service call the endpoint may return more results than necessary. It may also happen that the SPARQL endpoint will not return all of them. Many existing SPARQL endpoints have restrictions in the number of results they return and may miss the ones matching subjects ?s from the local default graph. Thus, an implementation of a query planner for federated queries may decide to decompose the query into two queries instead, where first the bindings from the local default graph are evaluated:

PREFIX : <http://example.org/>
PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?s
{
  ?s a foaf:Person
} 

Next, dispatch to the remote endpoint <http://example.org/sparql> a constrained query with the solutions for ?s:

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX : <http://example.org/>
SELECT * {?s foaf:knows ?o } VALUES (?s) { (:a) (:b) }

The query process involving SERVICE limits the data returned to the data it needs for the overall query:

PREFIX foaf:   <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?s ?o
{
  ?s a foaf:Person
  SERVICE <http://example.org/sparql> {?s foaf:knows ?o }
} 

3.1 Translation to the SPARQL Algebra

The SERVICE extension is defined as an additional type of GroupGraphPattern, with an accompanying addition to SPARQL Query 1.1's Transform (syntax form):

If the form is GroupGraphPattern

From the Translate Graph Patterns section of [SPARQL 1.1 Query Language] we extend the transformation of GroupGraphPattern to define the transformation of SERVICE patterns:

Let FS := the empty set
Let G := the empty pattern, Z, a basic graph pattern which is the empty set.
Let SilentOp := boolean, indicating SERVICE error behavior.

For each element E in the GroupGraphPattern
    If E is of the form FILTER(expr)
        FS := FS ∪ {expr}
        End

    If E is of the form OPTIONAL{P} 
        Let A := Transform(P)
        If A is of the form Filter(F, A2)
            G := LeftJoin(G, A2, F)
        Else 
            G := LeftJoin(G, A, true)
            End
        End

    If E is of the form MINUS{P}
        G := Minus(G, Transform(P))
        End

    If E is of the form BIND(expr AS var)
        G := Extend(G, var, expr)
        End

    If E is any other form 
        Let A := Transform(E)
        G := Join(G, A)
        End

    If E is of the form SERVICE [SILENT] IRI {P}
        Let G := Join(G, Service(IRI, Transform(P), SilentOp))
        End
   
   End
   
If FS is not empty:
  Let X := Conjunction of expressions in FS
  G := Filter(X, G)

The result is G.
            

3.2 SPARQL 1.1 Simple Federation Extension Algebra

The evaluation of SERVICE is defined in terms of the SPARQL Results [RESULTS] returned by a SPARQL Protocol [SPROT] execution of the nested graph pattern: