Debasing

Overview

De-basing is the process of converting an imported RDF dataset into mesh-native form so that all local IRIs resolve relative to a node’s future serving location.
It is part of namespace adoption: bringing external content under a Semantic Flow node’s identifier space.

Mesh-native files follow the rules described in
relative identifier.

Goals

• Remove any explicit @base / BASE declarations.
• Rewrite local IRIs so that they become relative IRIs.
• Ensure that the file is valid when parsed with the node’s effective base IRI (its final public URL).
• Preserve external IRIs unchanged.
• Record the transformation in provenance.

When De-basing Occurs

De-basing is applied whenever an imported dataset is intended to become content of a node—either as:

• a PayloadFlow dataset, or
• a ReferenceFlow dataset.

Datasets placed in the assets tree are not de-based.

Algorithm (Conceptual)

Given:

• oldBase: the detected namespace prefix of the imported dataset.
• nodeBase: the node’s future HTTP URL (the mesh-native base).

For each IRI I in the dataset:

1. If I begins with oldBase:
   • Replace I with a relative IRI:
     I_rel = I.removePrefix(oldBase)
2. Else:
   • Leave I unchanged (external reference).

Finally:

• Remove explicit @base from serialization.
• Ensure all local IRIs are relative IRIs.
• Store provenance documenting:
  • original base (oldBase),
  • target node base (nodeBase),
  • the de-basing Activity.

Example

Imported:

@base <https://legacy.example.org/ns/foo/> .
<Bar> a ex:Thing .

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Backlinks

• 2025 11 28 Rdfsource Debasing Parsing