{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T10:55:47Z","timestamp":1777460147080,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,12,6]],"date-time":"2018-12-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1544054400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In recent years, Web APIs have become a de facto standard for exchanging machine-readable data on the Web. Despite this success, however, they often fail in making resource descriptions interoperable due to the fact that they rely on proprietary vocabularies that lack formal semantics. The Linked Data principles similarly seek the massive publication of data on the Web, yet with the specific goal of ensuring semantic interoperability. Given their complementary goals, it is commonly admitted that cross-fertilization could stem from the automatic combination of Linked Data and Web APIs. Towards this goal, in this paper we leverage the micro-service architectural principles to define a SPARQL Micro-Service architecture, aimed at querying Web APIs using SPARQL. A SPARQL micro-service is a lightweight SPARQL endpoint that provides access to a small, resource-centric, virtual graph. In this context, we argue that full SPARQL Query expressiveness can be supported efficiently without jeopardizing servers availability. Furthermore, we demonstrate how this architecture can be used to dynamically assign dereferenceable URIs to Web API resources that do not have URIs beforehand, thus literally \u201cbringing\u201d Web APIs into the Web of Data. We believe that the emergence of an ecosystem of SPARQL micro-services published by independent providers would enable Linked Data-based applications to easily glean pieces of data from a wealth of distributed, scalable, and reliable services. We describe a working prototype implementation and we finally illustrate the use of SPARQL micro-services in the context of two real-life use cases related to the biodiversity domain, developed in collaboration with the French National Museum of Natural History.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info9120310","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,12,7]],"date-time":"2018-12-07T03:46:14Z","timestamp":1544154374000},"page":"310","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Integration of Web APIs and Linked Data Using SPARQL Micro-Services\u2014Application to Biodiversity Use Cases"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9064-0463","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Franck","family":"Michel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"I3S laboratory, University C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur, CNRS, Inria, 930 route des Colles, 06903 Sophia Antipolis, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Catherine","family":"Faron Zucker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"I3S laboratory, University C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur, CNRS, Inria, 930 route des Colles, 06903 Sophia Antipolis, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Olivier","family":"Gargominy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mus\u00e9um National d\u2019Histoire Naturelle, 36 rue Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 75005 Paris, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0543-1232","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fabien","family":"Gandon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"I3S laboratory, University C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur, CNRS, Inria, 930 route des Colles, 06903 Sophia Antipolis, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,12,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hecht, R., and Jablonski, S. (2011, January 12\u201314). NoSQL Evaluation: A Use Case Oriented Survey. Proceedings of the International Conference on Cloud and Service Computing (CSC), Hong Kong, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/CSC.2011.6138544"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"72","DOI":"10.1145\/1629175.1629198","article-title":"MapReduce: A Flexible Data Processing Tool","volume":"53","author":"Dean","year":"2010","journal-title":"Commun. ACM"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"21","DOI":"10.4067\/S0718-18762017000100003","article-title":"Evaluating the Quality of Open Data Portals on the National Level","volume":"12","author":"Lnenicka","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"45","DOI":"10.3897\/mycokeys.5.4302","article-title":"An appraisal of megascience platforms for biodiversity information","volume":"5","author":"Triebel","year":"2012","journal-title":"MycoKeys"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Heath, T., and Bizer, C. (2011). Linked Data: Evolving the Web into a Global Data Space, Morgan & Claypool. [1st ed.].","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-031-79432-2"},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Cyganiak, R., Wood, D., and Lanthaler, M. (2018, December 05). Available online: https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/2014\/REC-rdf11-concepts-20140225\/."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Hyland, B., Atemezing, G., and Villaz\u00f3n-Terrazas, B. (2018, December 05). Available online: https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/2014\/NOTE-ld-bp-20140109\/."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Harris, S., and Seaborne, A. (2018, December 05). Available online: http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/2013\/REC-sparql11-query-20130321\/."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Buil-Aranda, C., Hogan, A., Umbrich, J., and Vandenbussche, P.Y. (2018, January 21\u201325). SPARQL Web-Querying Infrastructure: Ready for Action?. Proceedings of the 12th International Semantic Web Conference, Sydney, Australia."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Michel, F., Montagnat, J., and Faron-Zucker, C. (2018, December 05). Available online: https:\/\/hal.archives-ouvertes.fr\/hal-00903568v2\/."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"169","DOI":"10.3233\/SW-2011-0055","article-title":"Bringing Relational Databases into the Semantic Web: A Survey","volume":"3","author":"Spanos","year":"2012","journal-title":"Semant. Web J."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Michel, F., Faron-Zucker, C., and Montagnat, J. (2016, January 8\u201310). A Generic Mapping-Based Query Translation from SPARQL to Various Target Database Query Languages. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WebIST), Shanghai, China.","DOI":"10.5220\/0005905401470158"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mugnier, M.L., Rousset, M.C., and Ulliana, F. (2016, January 23\u201325). Ontology-Mediated Queries for NOSQL Databases. Proceedings of the 30th Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Rome, Italy.","DOI":"10.1609\/aaai.v30i1.10112"},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Newman, S. (2015). Building Microservices, O\u2019Reilly Media."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Fielding, R. (2000). Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures. [Ph.D. Thesis, University of California]."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zaveri, A., Dastgheib, S., Wu, C., Whetzel, T., Verborgh, R., Avillah, P., Korodi, P., Terryn, R., Jagodnik, K., and Assis, P. (2017, January 28). smartAPI: Towards a More Intelligent Network of Web APIs. Proceedings of the 14th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC), Portoro\u017e, Slovenia.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-58451-5_11"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dragoni, N., Giallorenzo, S., Lafuente, A.L., Mazzara, M., Montesi, F., Mustafin, R., and Safina, L. (2017). Microservices: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Present and Ulterior Software Engineering, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-67425-4_12"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"301","DOI":"10.1007\/s00450-016-0337-0","article-title":"Microservices Tenets: Agile Approach to Service Development and Deployment","volume":"32","author":"Zimmermann","year":"2016","journal-title":"Comput. Sci.-Res. Dev."},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Speicher, S., Arwe, J., and Malhotra, A. (2018, December 05). Available online: https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/2015\/REC-ldp-20150226\/."},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Feigenbaum, L., Todd Williams, G., Grant Clark, K., and Torres, E. (2018, December 05). Available online: https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/2013\/REC-sparql11-protocol-20130321\/."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fielding, R., and Reschke, J. (2014). Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP\/1.1): Semantics and Content, IETF. Proposed Standard.","DOI":"10.17487\/rfc7231"},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Beckett, D., Berners-Lee, T., Prud\u2019hommeaux, E., and Carothers, G. (2018, December 05). Available online: https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/2014\/REC-turtle-20140225\/."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"184","DOI":"10.1016\/j.websem.2016.03.003","article-title":"Triple Pattern Fragments: A Low-cost Knowledge Graph Interface for the Web","volume":"37\u201338","author":"Verborgh","year":"2016","journal-title":"Web Semant. Sci. Serv. Agents World Wide Web"},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Minier, T., Skaf-Molli, H., and Molli, P. (arXiv, 2018). SaGe: Preemptive Query Execution for High Data Availability on the Web, arXiv."},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"Seaborne, A. (2018, December 05). Available online: https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/2013\/REC-sparql11-results-json-20130321\/."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Corby, O., and Faron-Zucker, C.F. (September, January 31). The KGRAM Abstract Machine for Knowledge Graph Querying. Proceedings of the International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (WI-IAT), Washington, DC, USA."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"Lanthaler, M., and G\u00fctl, C. (2013, January 14). Hydra: A Vocabulary for Hypermedia-Driven Web APIs. Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Linked Data on the Web (LDOW2013), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Prud\u2019hommeaux, E., and Buil-Aranda, C. (2018, December 05). Available online: https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/2013\/REC-sparql11-federated-query-20130321\/."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Michel, F., Gargominy, O., Tercerie, S., and Faron-Zucker, C. (2017, January 21\u201325). A Model to Represent Nomenclatural and Taxonomic Information as Linked Data. Application to the French Taxonomic Register, TAXREF. Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Semantics for Biodiversity (S4BioDiv) co-located with ISWC 2017, Vienna, Australia."},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"Gargominy, O., Tercerie, S., R\u00e9gnier, C., Ramage, T., Schoelink, C., Dupont, P., Vandel, E., Daszkiewicz, P., and Poncet, L. (2016). TAXREF V10. 0, R\u00e9f\u00e9rentiel Taxonomique Pour La France: M\u00e9thodologie, Mise En Oeuvre et Diffusion, Mus\u00e9um national d\u2019Histoire Naturelle."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"577","DOI":"10.3233\/SW-150190","article-title":"TraitBank: Practical semantics for organism attribute data","volume":"7","author":"Parr","year":"2016","journal-title":"Semant. Web"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Corby, O., and Faron-Zucker, C. (2015, January 20\u201322). STTL: A SPARQL-based transformation language for RDF. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST), Lisbon, Portugal.","DOI":"10.5220\/0005450604660476"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"38","DOI":"10.1109\/2.121508","article-title":"Mediators in the Architecture of Future Information Systems","volume":"25","author":"Wiederhold","year":"1992","journal-title":"IEEE Comput."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mendes, P.N., Passant, A., and Kapanipathi, P. (2010, January 1\u20133). Twarql: Tapping into the Wisdom of the Crowd. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Semantic Systems, Graz, Austria.","DOI":"10.1145\/1839707.1839762"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lanthaler, M. (2013, January 13\u201317). Creating 3rd Generation Web APIs with Hydra. Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on World Wide Web, WWW\u201913 Companion, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.","DOI":"10.1145\/2487788.2487799"},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Serrano, D., Stroulia, E., Lau, D., and Ng, T. (2017, January 25\u201330). Linked REST APIs: A Middleware for Semantic REST API Integration. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Web Services (ICWS), Honolulu, HI, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICWS.2017.26"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lefran\u00e7ois, M., Zimmermann, A., and Bakerally, N. (2017, January 28). A SPARQL extension for generating RDF from heterogeneous formats. Proceedings of the 14th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC), Portoro\u017e, Slovenia.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-58068-5_3"},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"J\u00fcnemann, M., Reutter, J.L., Soto, A., and Vrgoc, D. (2016, January 17\u201321). Incorporating API Data into SPARQL Query Answers. Proceedings of the 15th International Semantic Web Conference (Posters and Demos), Kobe, Japan."},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"Moreau, B., Serrano-Alvarado, P., Desmontils, E., and Thoumas, D. (2017, January 21\u201325). Querying non-RDF Datasets using Triple Patterns. Proceedings of the 16th International Semantic Web Conference (Posters and Demos), Vienna, Austria."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dimou, A., Sande, M.V., Slepicka, J., Szekely, P., Mannens, E., Knoblock, C., and Walle, R.V.D. (2014, January 16\u201318). Mapping Hierarchical Sources into RDF Using the RML Mapping Language. Proceedings of the International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC), Newport Beach, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSC.2014.25"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Michel, F., Djimenou, L., Faron-Zucker, C., and Montagnat, J. (2015, January 1). Translation of Relational and Non-Relational Databases into RDF with xR2RML. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST), Lisbon, Portugal.","DOI":"10.5220\/0005448304430454"},{"key":"ref_42","unstructured":"Beckett, D., Broekstra, J., and Hawke, S. (2018, December 05). Available online: https:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/2013\/REC-rdf-sparql-XMLres-20130321\/."},{"key":"ref_43","unstructured":"Polleres, A., Kamdar, M.R., Fernandez, J.D., Tudorache, T., and Musen, M.A. (2018, January 8). A More Decentralized Vision for Linked Data. Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Decentralizing the Semantic Web (DeSemWeb) Co-Located with ISWC 2018, Monterey, CA, USA."}],"container-title":["Information"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/9\/12\/310\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T15:31:50Z","timestamp":1760196710000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/9\/12\/310"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,12,6]]},"references-count":43,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,12]]}},"alternative-id":["info9120310"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/info9120310","relation":{"has-preprint":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.20944\/preprints201811.0337.v1","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["2078-2489"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2078-2489","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,12,6]]}}}