PUBLICATION
ShExpose: Automatic REST API Generation from Shape Expressions for RDF Data Access
Type
Conference Paper
Year
2026
Authors
Christoph Göpfert M.Sc.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Gaedke
Research Area
Event
26th International Conference of Web Engineering
Published in
26th International Conference on Web Engineering, Lyon, France
ISBN/ISSN
tba
Download
TBA
Abstract
The increasing adoption of knowledge graphs in data-intensive applications contrasts with the limited availability of developer-friendly interfaces for managing RDF data. This paper presents an approach for automatically generating RESTful API endpoints from Shape Expressions (ShEx) schemas. Given only a set of ShEx schemas and the endpoint of a triplestore, our approach derives endpoints for creating, reading, updating, and deleting shape instances, as well as attribute-level endpoints for more fine-grained access. The generated REST API is implemented as a layer on top of the SPARQL endpoint, thereby abstracting query formulation from clients while maintaining direct access to the underlying triplestore. To facilitate documentation, client generation, and integration with existing tooling, OpenAPI specifications are automatically generated for all derived endpoints. In contrast to prior approaches, which typically rely on additional configuration, such as hand-crafted query templates or manual mappings of endpoints to SPARQL queries, the proposed approach does not require additional configuration. By exposing RDF data through conventional REST‑style endpoints, our approach aims to lower the entry barrier for web developers unfamiliar with Semantic Web technologies.
Reference
TBA
