SIOC implementation for BlogEngine.NET

Update: This is now part of the Data Portability Pack for BlogEngine.NET

A major feature of BlogEngine.NET is that it supports a lot of open standards. Keeping with this, I’ve setup an initial implementation of SIOC for BlogEngine.NET. SIOC (Semantically-Interconnected Online Communities) is an extension of RDF which goes beyond RSS in that it describes not only the content of a website, but the connections between site content, users on the site, and another websites. While RSS has one big document for recent content, SIOC splits up its data into (1) a site profile, (2) profiles for authors, (3) profiles for posts, and (4) profiles for comments. Each of these not only lists the author’s name, but also includes FOAF (Friend of a Friend) data to help identify users across the Internet via a hashed email address. If all sites were SIOC/FOAF enabled, you could theoretically search an aggregator site (like Technorati if it supported SIOC) for all posts and comments by a given user within a set of blogs, forums, or other websites. For more information on this, see my post on Data Portability standards.

Site Profile

To get a feel for the data, here’s what the site profile looks like (note: I’ve tried to match the Word Press SIOC plugin URL conventions as much as possible)
http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=site

<rdf:RDF>
  <!-- users -->
  <sioc:Usergroup rdf:about="http://localhost/johndyer/sioc.axd?sioc_type=site#authors">
    <dc:title>Authors at "John Dyer"</dc:title>
    <sioc:has_member>
      <sioc:User rdf:about="http://localhost/johndyer/author/John+Dyer.aspx" rdfs:label="John Dyer">
        <sioc:see_also rdf:resource="http://localhost/johndyer/sioc.axd?sioc_type=user&amp;sioc_id=John+Dyer" />
      </sioc:User>
    </sioc:has_member>
  </sioc:Usergroup>
  <!-- site info -->
  <sioc:Site rdf:about="http://johndyer.name/">
    <dc:title>John Dyer</dc:title>
    <dc:description>ASP.NET, Flash, and JavaScript from FreeTextBox and Dallas Seminary</dc:description>
    <sioc:link>http://johndyer.name/</sioc:link>
    <sioc:host_of>http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=site#webblog</sioc:host_of>
    <sioc:has_group>http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=site#authors</sioc:has_group>
  </sioc:Site>
  <!-- blog info, posts-->
  <sioc:Forum rdf:about="http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=site#webblog">
    <sioc:name>John Dyer</sioc:name>
    <sioc:link rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=site#webblog" />
    <sioc:container_of>
      <sioc:Post rdf:about="http://johndyer.name/post/2008/02/BlogEngineNET-Extension-Flash-Video-Player.aspx" dc:title="BlogEngine.NET Extension: Flash Video Player">
        <rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=post&amp;sioc_id=06af08e0-c4eb-421c-9e18-b618358d33ca" />
      </sioc:Post>
    </sioc:container_of>
  </sioc:Forum>
</rdf:RDF>

This describes (1) the users on the site (sioc:Usergroup) which would be blog authors, (2) the site in general (sioc:Site), and (3) and displays the content (sioc:Forum). Each of these has links to other SIOC documents for the user and then for the posts.

Post Profile

Here’s what a post looks like:
http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=post&sioc_id=612564cd-3cfa-42b5-92e9-44beb52f7cd5

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/" xmlns:rss="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/" xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content" xmlns:sioc="http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#">
  <foaf:Document rdf:about="http://johndyer.name/">
    <dc:title>SIOC post profile for "John Dyer"</dc:title>
    <dc:description>A SIOC profile describes the structure and contents of a weblog in a machine readable form. For more information please refer to http://sioc-project.org/.</dc:description>
    <foaf:primaryTopic>http://johndyer.name/post/2008/02/Website-Break-Coke-vs-Diet-Coke-vs-Coke-Zero.aspx</foaf:primaryTopic>
    <admin:generatorAgent>BlogEngine.NET SIOC Generator (1.0) by John Dyer</admin:generatorAgent>
  </foaf:Document>
  <!-- post data -->
  <sioc:Post rdf:about="http://johndyer.name/post/2008/02/Website-Break-Coke-vs-Diet-Coke-vs-Coke-Zero.aspx">
    <sioc:link rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name/post/2008/02/Website-Break-Coke-vs-Diet-Coke-vs-Coke-Zero.aspx" />
    <sioc:has_container rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=site#webblog" />
    <dc:title>Website Break: Coke vs. Diet Coke vs. Coke Zero</dc:title>
    <!-- post author -->
    <sioc:has_creator>
      <sioc:User rdf:about="http://johndyer.name/author/John+Dyer.aspx">
        <rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=user&amp;sioc_id=John+Dyer" />
      </sioc:User>
    </sioc:has_creator>
    <foaf:maker>
      <foaf:Person rdf:about="http://johndyer.name/author/John+Dyer.aspx" foaf:name="John Dyer">
        <foaf:mbox_sha1sum>3eb435778fafc3efde35fba2ca731c6d3234178f</foaf:mbox_sha1sum>
        <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name/" />
        <rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=user&amp;sioc_id=John+Dyer" />
      </foaf:Person>
    </foaf:maker>
    <dcterms:created>2/1/2008 4:40:53 PM</dcterms:created>
    <sioc:content> Today, we decided to take a break from web development and do something truly important: a taste test. Tim, Adam, Brian, and I wanted to see if we could identify Coke, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero in a blind test. We each had three cups that another team member had setup. We tasted each drink and tried to match the drink with the cup and also mark our favorite. Tim is the narrator and then the participants from left to right are: John (me), Adam, Tim, and Brian.    </sioc:content>
    <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Today, we decided to take a break from web development and do something truly important: a taste test. Tim, Adam, Brian, and I wanted to see if we could identify Coke, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero in a blind test. We each had three cups that another team member had setup. We tasted each drink and tried to match the drink with the cup and also mark our favorite. Tim is the narrator and then the participants from left to right are: John (me), Adam, Tim, and Brian.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded>
    <!-- categories and tags -->
    <sioc:topic rdfs:label="Off Topic" rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name//category/Off Topic.aspx" />
    <sioc:topic rdfs:label="challenge" rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name//?tag=/challenge" />
    <sioc:topic rdfs:label="soda" rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name//?tag=/soda" />
    <!-- comments -->
    <sioc:has_reply>
      <sioc:Post rdf:about="http://johndyer.name/post/2008/02/Website-Break-Coke-vs-Diet-Coke-vs-Coke-Zero.aspx#id_a82699f9-77e2-460d-b3b1-d1d470180df9">
        <rdfs:seeAlso rdf:resource="http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=comment&amp;sioc_id=a82699f9-77e2-460d-b3b1-d1d470180df9" />
      </sioc:Post>
    </sioc:has_reply>
    <!-- outbound links -->
    <sioc:links_to rdf:resource="http://www.cokezero.com/" rdfs:label="Coke Zero" />
  </sioc:Post>
</rdf:RDF>

This one also has a “document” description (which I left out on the site profile) and then has information about the post including its author (both sioc:has_creator and foaf:maker which has my email as a SHA1 hash), content (sioc:content and content:encoded), categories (sioc:topic), outbound links (sioc:links_to), and then links to the comments for the post (sioc:has_reply)

Download and Installation

~~Download BlogEngine.NET SIOC extension~~
~~Copy the three files into the \App_Code\Sioc\ directory~~
Add the following line to your web.config
<add verb="*" path="sioc.axd" type="SIOC.SiocHandler, App_Code" validate="false"/>

Update: This is now part of the Data Portability Pack

What’s Next?

This extension will add a <link> tag to your header, but you view it directly at: http://yoursite.com/sioc.axd
Explore the SIOC file at: http://sparql.captsolo.net/browser/browser.py?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjohndyer.name%2Fsioc.axd
An SIOC explorer is also available here which allows you to search and sort the data from among several sites: http://www.activerdf.org/sioc/

20 thoughts on “SIOC implementation for BlogEngine.NET”

Chris says:

February 9, 2008 at 12:16 pm

I noticed that your extension, while very cool, breaks the syndication portion of BlogEngine.Net. I haven’t had time to run down what’s going on but you can see the effect by looking at http://johndyer.name/syndication.axd.
John Dyer says:

February 9, 2008 at 6:13 pm

Thanks Chris. It’s fixed now.
The SiocExtension class is using Post.Serving event to add the SIOC <link> to the header. This is not terribly efficient, but I don’t think there’s another event that can be used for doing this.
Chris says:

February 10, 2008 at 10:47 am

Sweet. Works as advertised. Thanks for the update.
vito says:

June 10, 2008 at 10:06 pm

http://johndyer.name/post/2008/02/SIOC-implementation-for-BlogEngineNET.aspx
yoav ram says:

August 28, 2008 at 4:52 pm

hi john
i’ve been looking into your rdf output.
when exporting comments, why don’t you connect them to the post they comment with sioc:reply_of (with the post rdf url as the object)?
your only connection is via the sioc:link to the comment html, but that is not enough.
if one wants to know that s comment is a comment just by looking a the rdf, one must know it is a reply_of another post!
it’s is a major problem, i think.
another major problem is your implementation of foaf:primaryTopic.
i think you should use a rdf:resource as the object and not a literal.
take a look here for examples to correct implementations (to my understanding) of the spec:
http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/index.php?sioc_type=comment&sioc_id=554475
(besides the fact that they use a reply_to instead of a reply_of!!)
besides all that – good job and thanks for sharing!
yoav
yoav ram says:

September 1, 2008 at 3:38 pm

hey
also noticed you haven’t got a time and date field such as dcterms:created…
Luisao says:

October 13, 2008 at 2:51 am

Saludos
Alojaweb says:

November 11, 2008 at 9:15 am

this is interesting, I’m going to try.
Thanks Jhon.
Dieran Blog says:

May 29, 2010 at 8:49 am

I came lately to your website and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my initial comment. Keep writing, cause your posts are impressive! Doesn’t it take up a lot of time to keep your blog so fascinating
belkin n1 router says:

June 7, 2010 at 4:00 pm

didn’t try to do it your way, i may just as well do now. thanks for the idea.
Nick Reviews says:

June 8, 2010 at 12:31 am

How simple your method is and how effectively it works! Thanks for the tip 🙂
Linna says:

June 9, 2010 at 3:19 am

Hi,John
When I open http://johndyer.name/sioc.axd?sioc_type=post&sioc_id=612564cd-3cfa-42b5-92e9-44beb52f7cd5,it dont work. Mine brower is Chrome.
Eddy says:

June 11, 2010 at 7:32 am

Muy bueno el metodo y ademas muy facil de emplear. Eddy
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June 13, 2010 at 7:41 pm

Hello my friend,i like your blog very much ^^ i hope you will add facebook website badge on your blog Regards ADI
Burr Grinder says:

June 20, 2010 at 8:32 pm

Thanks for posting this great tutorial
Lawrence Williams says:

June 21, 2010 at 1:03 am

open standards make it so easy to create new stuff
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