At the end of 2021, we answer 12 very short questions our users have asked during the year.
GraphDB User Question: Can I load Bzip files? How about 7zip?
Ontotext Answer: GraphDB allows importing archived files. However, only gzip and zip compressions can be supported.
GraphDB User Question: Does GraphDB do backups on its own?
Ontotext Answer: No, you have to automate the backup. We have full and incremental backup options. A cron job is reliable and easy to set up.
GraphDB User Question: The login form does not show up, security is on, and I cannot log in. What to do?
Ontotext Answer: The login form is set to appear when graphdb.auth.methods is set to “gdb” or “openid”, or both. If you only have “basic”, this means that the database expects you to pass your username and password in the URL.
GraphDB User Question: Can I use SHACL with a specific context only?
Ontotext Answer: You can’t, this is outside of the scope for standard SHACL. In the future, we may have a SHACL specification extension that covers this functionality.
GraphDB User Question: Can I have partial inserts with SHACL, i.e., blocking only the problematic data, letting the “good” data in?
Ontotext Answer: This is unlikely to ever be implemented. If you allow partial insert, you limit traceability. There’s also the issue that your data may be recursively dependent, resulting in the need for extra checks.
GraphDB User Question: How to get performance information about my queries?
Ontotext Answer: Press Shift-[Ctrl|Cmd]-Enter to get the explain plan, and see how the query would get evaluated.
GraphDB User Question: Can I create groups of saved queries?
Ontotext Answer: That’s not possible – but if you want different users to have access to different queries, you can do it by creating separate users.
GraphDB User Question: Can I export a single named graph?
Ontotext Answer: Yes, you can. There’s an API for doing it, or you can use the workbench UI.
GraphDB User Question: Can I run on Redhat or Centos?
Ontotext Answer: Absolutely. GraphDB can run on any Linux distribution.
GraphDB User Question: Can I have a GraphDB Free Docker image?
Ontotext Answer: This is something you have to do manually, since GraphDB Free requires a request form. If you don’t have Makefile, you can run the docker build command directly:
docker build --no-cache --pull --build-arg edition=free --build-arg version=${VERSION} -t ontotext/graphdb:${VERSION}-free free-edition
GraphDB User Question: Is there a Python/Java/C#/Javascript/REST API?
Ontotext Answer: Java has the official RDF4J and GraphDB API. Python has rdflib. C# has dotNetRdf. There is an official Javascript client. The REST API is available from swagger and documented at RDF4J.
GraphDB User Question: Why is the database storage not getting smaller when I delete triples?
Ontotext Answer: Deleted data is kept inside the database, but marked as unavailable, so if you reload it, it would be fast. You can compact the indexes by using the rebuild option of the storage tool.
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