DBpedia Query Skill

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when users want to:

• Query DBpedia using natural language
• Ask questions about people, places, movies, books, organizations, etc.
• Get structured data from Wikipedia via DBpedia
• Create visualizations of DBpedia query results
• Generate HTML reports from SPARQL queries

Core Capabilities

✅ Natural Language to SPARQL: Convert user questions into valid SPARQL queries ✅ Query Execution: Execute queries against DBpedia endpoint ✅ HTML Generation: Create beautiful, interactive HTML result pages ✅ Multiple Output Formats: JSON, Markdown tables, or HTML ✅ Error Handling: Graceful handling of malformed queries or no results

DBpedia Endpoint

SPARQL Endpoint: https://dbpedia.org/sparql Format: JSON results (format=json) Method: HTTP GET with URL-encoded query

Common DBpedia Prefixes

PREFIX dbo: <http://dbpedia.org/ontology/>
PREFIX dbr: <http://dbpedia.org/resource/>
PREFIX dbp: <http://dbpedia.org/property/>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
PREFIX dct: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/>

Query Conversion Workflow

When a user provides a natural language prompt:

1. Analyze the Question

• Identify the subject (who/what is being asked about)
• Identify the predicate (what information is requested)
• Determine if filtering, sorting, or limiting is needed

2. Map to DBpedia Properties

Common mappings:

• "directed by" → dbo:director
• "release date" → dbp:date or dbo:releaseDate
• "budget" → dbo:budget
• "born in" → dbo:birthPlace
• "population" → dbo:populationTotal
• "capital of" → dbo:capital
• "written by" → dbo:author
• "starring" → dbo:starring

3. Construct SPARQL Query

Template:

PREFIX dbo: <http://dbpedia.org/ontology/>
PREFIX dbr: <http://dbpedia.org/resource/>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>

SELECT DISTINCT ?variable ?label
WHERE {
  ?variable <predicate> <object> ;
           rdfs:label ?label .
  FILTER(LANG(?label) = 'en')
}
ORDER BY <sort_criteria>
LIMIT <number>

4. Execute Query

Use curl to execute against DBpedia:

curl -s -G "https://dbpedia.org/sparql" \
  --data-urlencode "query=<SPARQL_QUERY>" \
  --data-urlencode "format=json"

5. Generate Output

Options:

• JSON: Raw query results
• Markdown Table: Formatted for terminal display
• HTML Page: Interactive, styled results page

Example Query Patterns

Pattern 1: Films by Director

User: "Show me movies directed by Christopher Nolan"

SPARQL:

PREFIX dbo: <http://dbpedia.org/ontology/>
PREFIX dbr: <http://dbpedia.org/resource/>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>