001/**
002 * Copyright (c) 2011, The University of Southampton and the individual contributors.
003 * All rights reserved.
004 *
005 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
006 * are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
007 *
008 *   *  Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
009 *      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
010 *
011 *   *  Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
012 *      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
013 *      and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
014 *
015 *   *  Neither the name of the University of Southampton nor the names of its
016 *      contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
017 *      software without specific prior written permission.
018 *
019 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
020 * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
021 * WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
022 * DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
023 * ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
024 * (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
025 * LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
026 * ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
027 * (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
028 * SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
029 */
030/**
031 *
032 */
033package org.openimaj.rdf.serialize;
034
035import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
036import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
037
038/**
039 * This annotation will force a collection object to be output as an
040 * RDF collection (or sequence) rather than as individual triples when using
041 * the {@link RDFSerializer} to serialise objects.
042 * <p>
043 * By default the {@link RDFSerializer} will output collections in an unordered
044 * way, linked by the predicate for the field.
045 * <code><pre>
046 *              @Predicate("http://example.com/hasString")
047 *              String[] strings = new String[] { "one", "two" };
048 * </pre></code>
049 * ...will be output, by default, as:
050 * <code><pre>
051 *      http://example.com/object
052 *                      http://example.com/hasString "one";
053 *                      http://example.com/hasString "two".
054 * </pre></code>
055 * <p>
056 * When the {@link RDFCollection} annotation is used.
057 * the triples are encoded using RDF sequences;
058 * that is as subgraphs where the items have the predicates
059 * <code>rdf:_1, rdf:_2..., rdf:_n</code> and the type <code>rdf:Seq</code>.
060 * This retains the same order for the collection as when serialised.
061 * So the above example would be output as:
062 * <code><pre>
063 *      http://example.com/object
064 *              http://example.com/hasString http://example.com/strings .
065 *      http://example.com/strings
066 *              rdf:type        rdf:Seq;
067 *              rdf:_1  "one";
068 *              rdf:_2  "two".
069 * </pre></code>
070 *
071 *      @author David Dupplaw (dpd@ecs.soton.ac.uk)
072 *  @created 15 Nov 2012
073 *      @version $Author$, $Revision$, $Date$
074 */
075@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
076public @interface RDFCollection
077{
078}