Stop writing repetitive code! Scaffolding a semantic data access layer to abstract developers from semantic technologies

Semantic web technologies are sometimes perceived as difficult to adopt and use, and when developing data-driven applications a significant portion of the overall effort involves the writing of data access code. We propose, therefore, a technique to automatically generate data access layer code from data in semantic formats, abstracting away from developers data querying concerns. We also explore its use inside the EHRI project in order to support cultural heritage institutions in publishing their data in a systematic and sustainable way and we compare it against other libraries covering a similar purpose by means of a subjective analysis and a quantitative performance evaluation. Our results show how their design choices affect the overall usability and ultimately the final performance when integrated in larger applications. As a result, we deliver some recommendations of use for each of the tools depending on the developers’ needs. Thus, we see this work as a first step in exploring the benefits that these libraries can provide in abstracting semantic technologies and, thereby, promoting their adoption for data-driven applications.