Killing Two Birds with One Stone – Querying Property Graphs using SPARQL via GREMLINATOR

Knowledge graphs have become popular over the past decade and frequently rely on the Resource Description Framework (RDF) or Property Graph (PG) databases as data models. However, the query languages for these two data models – SPARQL for RDF and the PG traversal language Gremlin – are lacking interoperability. We present Gremlinator, the first translator from SPARQL – the W3C standardized language for RDF – and Gremlin – a popular property graph traversal language. Gremlinator translates SPARQL queries to Gremlin path traversals for executing graph pattern matching queries over graph databases. This allows a user, who is well versed in SPARQL, to access and query a wide variety of Graph Data Management Systems (DMSs) avoiding the steep learning curve for adapting to a new Graph Query Language (GQL). Gremlin is a graph computing system-agnostic traversal language (covering both OLTP graph database or OLAP graph processors), making it a desirable choice for supporting interoperability for querying Graph DMSs. Gremlinator currently supports the translation of a subset of SPARQL 1.0, specifically the SPARQL SELECT queries.