Codec Guide

• The Context
• Supported formats
  • Json-ld
  • GraphQL
• Encoding/Decoding

The Context

Communication between entities requires coordination in order to understand eachother. To disseminate information there needs to be some sort of conductor to guarantee a smooth flow. This conductor is the ‘context’. A context hold a mapping of aliases to predicate uri’s, directives, expected datatypes and containers. This context is a gatekeeper’s instruction on what an API is allowed to consume and execute or what it is allowed to produce.

Supported formats

L-space is about semantic graph computing. It expects data to be distributed and hence it should provide for the necessary tools to coop.

Json-ld

The main format used for encoding/decoding information is json-ld. The current implementation takes an interpretation on the current json-ld specs but should read existing json-ld fine. Still working on supporting pure json-ld and creating a custom json-ld-ish version to allow for the full spectrum of L-space.

GraphQL

GraphQL is supported for querying. Responses will be returned as json or json-ld. The GraphQL queries are reinforced by a context which is a replacement for the ‘GraphQL Type System’.

Encoding/Decoding

L-space provides for generic type parsers. All logic is available within ‘lspace-parse-core’. The main project supports a few implementation, one with Argonaut (‘lspace-parse-argonaut’) and one with Circe (‘lspace-parse-circe’). Implementions with other json-libraries only takes about 20 lines of code.