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Data Flow

Understanding how data flows through the SolidOS architecture.

Overview​

┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
│   User      │────▶│   SolidOS   │────▶│  Solid Pod  │
│   Action    │     │   (Client)  │     │  (Server)   │
└─────────────┘     └─────────────┘     └─────────────┘
                           │
                    ┌──────┴──────┐
                    ▼             ▼
              ┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐
              │  Store  │   │  Panes  │
              │(rdflib) │   │  (UI)   │
              └─────────┘   └─────────┘

Fetch Cycle​

  1. User navigates to a URI
  2. Fetcher requests the resource from the Pod
  3. Parser converts response to RDF triples
  4. Store holds the data in memory
  5. Panes render the data as UI
// 1. Navigate
const uri = 'https://alice.example/profile/card#me'

// 2-4. Fetch and parse into store
await store.fetcher.load(sym(uri))

// 5. Query and render
const name = store.any(sym(uri), FOAF('name'))

Update Cycle​

  1. User edits data in a pane
  2. Pane creates update statements
  3. Updater sends PATCH to Pod
  4. Store updates local cache
  5. UI refreshes
// 1-2. User changes name
const deletions = [st(me, FOAF('name'), oldName, doc)]
const insertions = [st(me, FOAF('name'), newName, doc)]

// 3-4. Send update
await store.updater.update(deletions, insertions)

// 5. UI automatically updates

Subscription Flow​

For real-time updates:

// Subscribe to changes
store.updater.addDownstreamChangeListener(doc, (changes) => {
  // Re-render when data changes
  refreshUI()
})

See Also​