foaf4j, Simplified FOAF Handling in Java
FOAF for Java is a Java library developed by Safelayer for facilitating the creation of applications that involve the use of FOAF profiles (Friend Of A Friend). This library can be downloaded from the SourceForge website.
There are currently several tools for handling the resources described in semantic languages although none are specifically for handling FOAF profiles. So, foaf4j abstracts the complexity of other RDF processing tools for the FOAF use case. This new library contains all the classes of the FOAF ontology defined in Java and also includes basic functions for creating and editing a user's profile data and for managing the addition of friends.
It also has functions for merging the different FOAF profiles a user might have. This functionality can be tested in the FOAF Manager experimental application, which supports adding different profiles based on a set of rules that decides if two contacts from two profiles might be the same person.
foaf4j is an initiative undertaken over the course of the CENIT SEGUR@ research project in which one of the main objectives has been to study and experiment with the use of semantic technologies for determining how they can contribute to improving security and trust in current systems. In this project, Safelayer has opted for the FOAF ontology for describing identity in the field of semantics. The FOAF Manager, PKI Trust Center and Interidy Identity Provider applications are all practical examples of the use of FOAF. These applications are available at Semantic Web Trust Portal in Safelayer Sandbox.
You can download the FOAF for Java project here.
This work was co-funded by the Spanish government's Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI, Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial) as part of the SEGUR@ project, reference CENIT-2007 2004 of the CENIT program (part of the INGENIO 2010 initiative).
