Databases
This article is about choice of database models and implementations. Copyleft free to modify and free in cost software is strongly preferred over other solutions.
Known types of databases
- w:Relational database provided by a w:RDBMS
- Subject-predicate-object database are provided by w:Triplestores , native or on top of RDBMS
- w:Graph databases would intuitively appear more advanced than using RDF-triplet composed semantic networks.
- w:Object databases were a supposed fad in the late 80's and early 90's as w:relational algebra based systems are quite old.
Relational database
Together Consumerium and Consumium run all the 3 major free full fledged RDBMS there are: w:MariaDB, w:MySQL and w:Postgresql.
Relevant relational database powered software
- MediaWikis run on w:MySQL or the better and more ethical binary compatible drop-in replacement w:MariaDB. A recent fork by the original MySQL founders from MySQL.
The Netherlands server serving the Consumium free social media run on MariaDB 10
- https://d.consumium.org since 2013 and the rest mentioned on the landing page over there since 2016
- Postgresql is also in use working as data storage for w:GNU MediaGoblin at https://media.consumium.org
Subject-predicate-object database
Subject-predicate-object databases basically construct w:semantic networks from interlinked atomic units called a w:triplet so they are not fundamentally different from graph databases in functionality and utility offered.
These networks may be queried with a suitable query language such as w:SPARQL which in practice allows you to compose semantic queries.
Relevant subject-predicate-object database powered systems to interoperate with
Things to consider in selection of triplestore
A w:triplestore maybe a native implementation from ground up or be standing on the shoulders of a standard RDBMS system where actual w:SQL is formulated by the interpreter and then queried from SQL. This probably has upsides and downsides.