BANGALORE, INDIA: Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations are the most basic database operations, but they are also the most crucial. CRUD operations are typically done using the Structured Query Language (SQL) on relational database systems. As the Web is becoming more and more data-oriented, there is a need to shift from SQL-based CRUD operations to semantic Web-based CRUD operations. Learn how to use PHP to perform CRUD operations over the semantic Web.

When developing a Web application, it's standard practice to create a database structure on which server-side code is placed for the logic and UI layers. To connect to the database, the server-side code needs to do some basic creating, updating, deleting, and - most importantly - reading of records.

As databases behind Web applications are typically relational databases, these CRUD operations are done using the well-known language, SQL. However, as Web development is increasingly occurring through object-oriented programming (OOP), the model is changing.

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a perfect way to describe objects while maintaining the meaning of that data. Simple Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL - pronounced "sparkle") is the language typically used to query against that data, as it syntactically matches the structure of RDF itself. Both RDF and SPARQL are technologies within what has been dubbed the semantic Web stack.

To fully embrace the semantic Web idea, you can apply traditional Web-development techniques to RDF data using SPARQL. This article shows how to use a simplified Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern, the PHP server-side scripting language, and SPARQL for connecting to RDF - as opposed to using SQL on a relational database system.

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