SPARQL Connections

The SPARQL Connections View provides lets you manage all SPARQL endpoints that can be selected in query files or Mentor notebooks to execute queries against local or remote endpoints:

The view is divided into two sections: User and Workspace.

Type	Description
User	User connections are only available to the current user and are typically stored on the user’s local machine.
Workspace	Workspace connections are stored in the .vscode directory and can thus be shared with other users in version controlled repositories.

View Actions

The connections tree offers several actions that are visible as icons in the title bar:

Action	Description
Test All Connections	Executes a connection test on all connections in the view.
Add Connection	Configure a new SPARQL connection.

Connection Actions

When you select or hover a connection in the list view, additional actions will become available in the connection header:

Action	Description
List Graphs	Executes a SPARQL query to list all graphs in the selected connection.
Test Connection	Executes a connection test on the selected connection.
Delete Connection	Deletes the selected SPARQL connection.

Editing Connections

When you select an existing connection in the connections manager or when you click on the ‘Add Connection’ icon, the connection details will be displayed in a new tab.

From here, you can modify the connection settings, such as the SPARQL endpoint URL, authentication credentials, and other parameters. Once you have made your changes, you can save them to update the connection.

Workspace Connection

The workspace is a special SPARQL endpoint that gives you access to Mentor’s internal RDF triple store. The data in this store is recreated every time you open a new workspace and this connection cannot be deleted. It can be queried from SPARQL files and Mentor notebooks.

Authentication

The following authentication methods are supported for SPARQL connections:

Type	Description
None	No authentication.
Basic	Basic HTTP(s) authentication using a username and password.
Bearer Token	Authentication using a bearer token.
Microsoft Entra	Authentication using Microsoft Entra ID provider that is built into Visual Studio Code.

Security

The credentials for SPARQL connections are stored securely in the Visual Studio Code credential store. This means that your sensitive information, such as usernames and passwords, are not stored in plain text and are protected by the operating system’s security features.

They are never stored in the workspace or in any project files and thus cannot be shared with others.

Testing Connections

Once you have configured a connection, you can test it to ensure that it is working correctly. To test a connection, follow these steps:

1. Click on the button on the list item or in the connection detail view.
2. The connection status will be displayed as a notification.

If the test fails, you may need to adjust the connection settings and try again.

Deleting Connections

To delete a connection from the connections view you can either use the icon in the connections manager or click on the same icon in the connection detail view.

When asked, confirm the deletion when prompted. Please keep in mind that once a connection is deleted, it cannot be recovered, so make sure you really want to delete it before confirming.