Glossary

For questions around the concepts and terminology specific to Solid, refer to https://solidproject.org/faqs.

ACL

An Access Control List is a Resource that controls users’ level of access ({ read: <boolean>, append: <boolean>, write: <boolean>, control: <boolean> }) to a Resource. For example, it can list rules like “https://jcaesar.solid.community/profile/card#me can read this Resource”, and “https://cleopatra.solid.community/profile/card#me can read this Resource and its children”. See also Access Modes, or read about how you can read and change it at Manage Access to Data (WAC).

Access Control Policies

One of the access control mechanisms that can be used with Solid. See Manage Access to Data (ACP).

Agent

A user. Agent typically refers to a person but could also refer to an organization, a bot, etc.

Access Modes

The types of access that have been granted: Read Access, Append Access, Write Access and/or Control Access.

Append Access

Access to add data to the applicable Resource.

Client

An application; also referred to as client application. Can be Web-based, server-based, CLI tools, etc.

For information on WebID-based authentication for client applications, see Appendix: Client ID Document (Browser & Node.JS).

Control Access

Access to view and manage who has access to the applicable Resource.

Applicable to the ACL authorization system.

Container

A special type of Resource that can contain other Containers as well as RDF Resources (SolidDatasets) or Non-RDF Resources. Technically, a Container is itself a SolidDataset.

A Container is analogous to a folder on your file system.

For example, given a Resource at https://cleopatra.solid.community/profile/card, both https://cleopatra.solid.community/profile/ and https://cleopatra.solid.community/ are Containers.

The URL for a Container ends with a slash /.

Default access

Rules defining Access Modes that apply not to the Container Resource directly, but are inherited by its children, their children if applicable, and so forth.

Extended Profile

An RDF Resource, stored in an Agent’s Pod, that contains data about the Agent. The extended profile is complementary to the WebID Profile.

Unlike a WebID Profile which, by definition, is publicly readable, an extended profile may or may not be publicly accessible (for reads or writes) based on the Agent’s discretion. That is, the Agent can specify access to the extended profile like any other resource in the Agent’s Pod.

For more information, see https://solid.github.io/webid-profile/#extended-profile-documents.

Fallback ACL

If a Resource does not have an explicit Resource ACL of its own, the Fallback ACL is the ACL of the Container closest to that Resource that does have its own explicit Resource ACL. Only the Default access rules in the Fallback ACL apply.

IRI

Internationalized Resource Identifier. An IRI is similar to standard web URI but allows for internationalized characters such as the umlaut Ä, or the Greek letter Δ. See also IRI Wikipedia page.

Non-RDF Resource

Any non-RDF binary or text file, such as .pdf, .jpeg, etc.

Pod

Storage location for your data. You manage the access to data stored in your Pod.

Resource

The data sent to you when you type a URL into a web browser. A resource can be an RDF Resource or a Non-RDF Resource.

Resource ACL

The ACL that applies to a given Resource. If none exists, the Fallback ACL applies.

Read Access

Access to view the contents of the applicable Resource.

RDF Resource

A Resource Description Framework (RDF) document whose contents consists of statements that describe a some subject by its relationships and have the following form (also known as a triple):

Note

The example is written in Turtle syntax which encloses URLs in angle brackets (< >) and ends statements with a period (.).

<subject> <predicate> <object> .

The predicate describes the relationship between the subject and the object.

SolidDataset

Representation of RDF Resource as a set of Things. For more information, see Structured Data (RDF Resources).

Thing

A data entity, e.g., a person. A Thing is associated with a set of data or properties about the Thing, e.g., name, date of birth, address, etc.

A Thing is saved as part of a SolidDataset, where a SolidDataset is a set of Things. For more information, see Structured Data (RDF Resources).

Verifiable Credential

Set of claims (i.e., the credential) that can be verified. See https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/#credentials.

Web Access Control

One of the access control mechanisms that can be used with Solid, based on Access Control Lists. See Manage Access to Data (WAC).

WebID

A URL that uniquely identifies an Agent. The Resource found at the WebID can provide more information about the Agent.

For more information on WebID URL, see https://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/webid/spec/identity/#dfn-webid.

WebID Profile

The RDF Resource obtained when dereferencing the WebID. The WebID Profile may be stored separately from the Agent’s Pod.

For more information, see https://solid.github.io/webid-profile/.

Write Access

Access to add (i.e. append), update, and delete contents of Resource. Granting Write access automatically grants Append Access.