User:Pinfold

Build a Python CRUD interface for the Solid server at https://solidcommunity.net (managed by the Open Data Institute) allowing structured programmatic interaction with Solid Pods and demonstrating decentralized data principles in action.

Below is a structured work plan focusing on clarity, security, and reusability.

🧭 Objective

Develop a Python-based CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) interface for interacting with user data stored on Solid Pods hosted at https://solidcommunity.net.

The interface will:

Authenticate via Solid OIDC (OpenID Connect)

Perform RDF-based data operations (read/write triples)

Be modular and reusable in scripts or web apps

🧩 1. Background & Setup

1.1. Understand the Solid Protocol

Review Solid Protocol and Solid API.

Understand:

• WebID: User identity (https://username.solidcommunity.net/profile/card#me)
• Pod: Personal data store (https://username.solidcommunity.net/public/)
• Access control: Uses WAC or ACP
• Authentication: OIDC using solidcommunity.net as the issuer

1.2. Development Environment

Install dependencies:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install requests rdflib solid-auth-client

(We’ll use requests for HTTP, rdflib for RDF parsing, and a Python OIDC client for authentication.)

🧠 2. Authentication Module

2.1. Register an App with solidcommunity.net

Visit: https://solidcommunity.net/registerApp

Obtain:

client_id

client_secret

redirect_uri

2.2. Implement OIDC Flow

Use solid_oidc or a generic OIDC library like requests-oauthlib:

from requests_oauthlib import OAuth2Session

authorization_base_url = "https://solidcommunity.net/.well-known/openid-configuration" token_url = "https://solidcommunity.net/token"

solid = OAuth2Session(client_id, redirect_uri=redirect_uri) authorization_url, state = solid.authorization_url(authorization_base_url) print("Visit:", authorization_url)

1. After user grants access, use callback URL

token = solid.fetch_token(token_url, client_secret=client_secret, authorization_response=callback_url)

✅ Deliverable: Authenticated access token for use in CRUD operations.

🧱 3. Core CRUD Functions

Define a class SolidPodClient:

import requests from rdflib import Graph

class SolidPodClient:

   def __init__(self, base_url, access_token):
       self.base_url = base_url.rstrip('/')
       self.headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {access_token}"}

   def read(self, path):
       url = f"{self.base_url}/{path.lstrip('/')}"
       r = requests.get(url, headers=self.headers)
       g = Graph()
       g.parse(data=r.text, format='turtle')
       return g

   def create(self, path, data, content_type="text/turtle"):
       url = f"{self.base_url}/{path.lstrip('/')}"
       r = requests.put(url, headers={**self.headers, "Content-Type": content_type}, data=data)
       return r.status_code

   def update(self, path, data, content_type="text/turtle"):
       return self.create(path, data, content_type)

   def delete(self, path):
       url = f"{self.base_url}/{path.lstrip('/')}"
       return requests.delete(url, headers=self.headers).status_code

✅ Deliverable: A reusable Python module that can:

Read RDF data from the Pod

Write (create/update) new resources

Delete resources

⚙️ 4. Testing and Verification

4.1. Test Environment

Use a test Pod at https://yourusername.solidcommunity.net/public/test/.

4.2. Example Operations

# Example: Create a resource
data = """
@prefix schema: <http://schema.org/> .
<> a schema:Event ;
   schema:name "Cully Community Meeting" ;
   schema:startDate "2025-11-10" .
"""
client.create("public/test/event.ttl", data)

# Example: Read resource
graph = client.read("public/test/event.ttl")
for s, p, o in graph:
    print(s, p, o)

🔐 5. Access Control (Optional Extension)

5.1. Web Access Control (WAC)

Solid allows .acl files to specify access:

@prefix acl: <http://www.w3.org/ns/auth/acl#> .
   <#owner>
   a acl:Authorization ;
   acl:agent <https://yourusername.solidcommunity.net/profile/card#me> ;
   acl:accessTo <./event.ttl> ;
   acl:mode acl:Read, acl:Write, acl:Control .

5.2. Automate ACL Management

Add an optional set_permissions() function to your client.

🚀 6. Packaging and Distribution

• Organize your code as a Python package:

            solid_client/
            ├── __init__.py
            ├── auth.py
            ├── client.py
            ├── utils.py

• Add a setup.py and README.md
• Optional: Publish to PyPI as solid-crud-client

📘 7. Future Enhancements

	Feature	Description
	🧩 JSON-LD Support	Parse/write JSON-LD data natively
	🔄 SPARQL Queries	Support querying via SPARQL endpoints
	🔒 DID/VC Authentication	Integrate W3C DIDs and Verifiable Credentials
	🌐 Web Interface	Build a lightweight Streamlit or Flask UI
	📊 Integration	Connect with Semantic MediaWiki or Linked Data dashboards
	🗂️	Summary Timeline

Week	Task
1	Study Solid protocol and register app
2	Implement authentication and token retrieval
3	Build SolidPodClient CRUD module
4	Test against solidcommunity.net Pods
5	Add ACL and RDF utilities
6	Package and document

Would you like me to generate a starter Python repository (with full file structure and working code for authentication + CRUD) so you can clone and start from it?