Community Solid Server

An open and modular implementation of the Solid specifications

• Community Solid Server is open software to provide people with their own Solid Pod.

• It will give developers an environment to create and test new Solid applications.

• Its modular architecture will allows us to try out new ideas on the server side and thereby shape the future of Solid.

Current status

This software is in alpha status, which means it is too early for use with Solid apps.

However, you can already boot up the server, play around with it, and check how it is made.
The architectural diagram can help you find your way.

If you are interested in helping out with the development of this server, be sure to have a look at the developer notes and good first issues.

Running locally

npm ci
npm start

Interacting with the server

The server supports low-level interaction via HTTP methods, such as GET, PUT, HEAD, ...

Below, we provide several examples on how to interact with the server using curl.

PUT: Creating resources for a given URL

Create a plain text file:

$ curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  -d "abc" \
  http://localhost:3000/myfile.txt

Create a turtle file:

$ curl -X PUT -H "Content-Type: text/turtle" \
  -d "<ex:s> <ex:p> <ex:o>." \
  http://localhost:3000/myfile.ttl

POST: Creating resources at a generated URL

Create a plain text file:

$ curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  -d "abc" \
  http://localhost:3000/

Create a turtle file:

$ curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: text/turtle" \
  -d "<ex:s> <ex:p> <ex:o>." \
  http://localhost:3000/

The response's Location header will contain the URL of the created resource.

GET: Retrieving resources

Retrieve a plain text file:

$ curl -H "Accept: text/plain" \
  http://localhost:3000/myfile.txt

Retrieve a turtle file:

$ curl -H "Accept: text/turtle" \
  http://localhost:3000/myfile.ttl

Retrieve a turtle file in a different serialization:

$ curl -H "Accept: application/ld+json" \
  http://localhost:3000/myfile.ttl

DELETE: Deleting resources

$ curl -X DELETE http://localhost:3000/myfile.txt

PATCH: Modifying resources

Currently, only patches over RDF resources are supported using SPARQL Update queries without WHERE clause.

$ curl -X PATCH -H "Content-Type: application/sparql-update" \
  -d "INSERT DATA { <ex:s2> <ex:p2> <ex:o2> }" \
  http://localhost:3000/myfile.ttl

HEAD: Retrieve resources headers

$ curl -I -H "Accept: text/plain" \
  http://localhost:3000/myfile.txt

OPTIONS: Retrieve resources communication options

$ curl -X OPTIONS -i http://localhost:3000/myfile.txt