JSON for Linking Data

JSON-LD, or JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data, is a method of transporting Linked Data using JSON. It was a goal to require as little effort as possible from developers to transform their existing JSON to JSON-LD. This allows data to be serialized in a way that is similar to traditional JSON. It is a World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation that has been developed by the JSON for Linking Data Community Group before it has been transferred to the RDF Working Group for review, improvement, and standardization.

JSON-LD is designed around the concept of a "context" to provide additional mappings from JSON to an RDF model. The context links object properties in a JSON document to concepts in an ontology. In order to map the JSON-LD syntax to RDF, JSON-LD allows values to be coerced to a specified type or to be tagged with a language. A context can be embedded directly in a JSON-LD document or put into a separate file and referenced from different documents (from traditional JSON documents via an HTTP Link header).