NetBeans Turtle File Type Support

A NetBeans module that adds practical editing support for Turtle (.ttl) files.

The plugin provides:

• Turtle MIME type recognition
• Turtle file templates
• File type icon support
• Turtle syntax highlighting
• Code templates for common Turtle and OWL constructs
• Prefix templates for widely used RDF and ontology vocabularies
• Line comment toggling using #

The project is intended to provide lightweight, native Turtle support inside Apache NetBeans without imposing a particular ontology engineering workflow.

Requirements

• JDK 25+
• Apache NetBeans 31+

Installation

Build from Source

Compile the NetBeans module from the project root:

mvn clean package \
    -Dmaven.test.skip=true \
    -Dmaven.compiler.proc=full

Development Installation

For development testing, open the project in NetBeans and run:

Right-click project → Install/Reload in Development IDE

Normal Installation

After building the project, install the generated NetBeans plugin:

target/nbm/NetBeans_MIME_resolver-1.0-SNAPSHOT.nbm

through:

Tools → Plugins → Downloaded → Add Plugins

Restart NetBeans after installation or upgrade.

The NetBeans version used to build the module should match the NetBeans version where the plugin is installed.

Turtle Editing Support

The plugin registers .ttl files as:

text/turtle

This allows Turtle files to participate in the NetBeans editor infrastructure, including syntax highlighting, code templates, file templates, and editor actions.

Code Templates

The plugin provides code templates for frequently used Turtle and OWL constructs.

Type an abbreviation in a Turtle file and press Tab to expand it.

For example:

cls<Tab>

expands to a class declaration such as:

:ClassName
    a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:label "Label"@en .

Template fields can then be edited using the normal NetBeans code-template workflow.

General Templates

Abbreviation	Expands to
pfx	Turtle-style @prefix declaration
pre	SPARQL-style PREFIX declaration
ont	OWL ontology metadata block
cls	OWL class declaration
op	OWL object property declaration
dp	OWL datatype property declaration
ind	Named individual
sub	rdfs:subClassOf axiom
inv	owl:inverseOf axiom
lbl	rdfs:label statement
cmt	rdfs:comment statement
imp	owl:imports statement

OWL Restriction and Axiom Templates

Abbreviation	Expands to
some	owl:someValuesFrom restriction
only	owl:allValuesFrom restriction
value	owl:hasValue restriction
min	owl:minCardinality restriction
max	owl:maxCardinality restriction
exact	owl:cardinality restriction
eqc	owl:equivalentClass axiom
eqp	owl:equivalentProperty axiom
dis	owl:disjointWith axiom
type	RDF type assertion
same	owl:sameAs assertion
diff	owl:differentFrom assertion

The generated templates are intended to produce complete Turtle statements rather than isolated fragments whenever practical.

For example:

some<Tab>

can expand to:

:ClassName
    rdfs:subClassOf [
        a owl:Restriction ;
        owl:onProperty :property ;
        owl:someValuesFrom :Filler
    ] .

Prefix Templates

Two forms of Turtle prefix declaration are supported.

Individual Prefix Declaration

pfx generates the traditional Turtle form:

@prefix ex: <https://example.org/> .

pre generates the SPARQL-style form:

PREFIX ex: <https://example.org/>

The predefined prefix bundles use the SPARQL-style PREFIX syntax.

W3C Core Prefixes

w3c<Tab>

expands to:

PREFIX rdf:  <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX owl:  <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#>
PREFIX xsd:  <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>

Common Vocabulary Prefixes

voc<Tab>

provides commonly used vocabularies including:

• Schema.org
• Dublin Core Terms
• SKOS
• PROV-O

Upper / Foundational Ontology Prefixes

upper<Tab>

expands to:

PREFIX bfo: <http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/BFO_>
PREFIX ro:  <http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/RO_>
PREFIX iao: <http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/IAO_>

This provides convenient access to:

• Basic Formal Ontology (BFO)
• Relation Ontology (RO)
• Information Artifact Ontology (IAO)

Available Prefix Templates

Abbreviation	Prefixes
w3c	RDF, RDFS, OWL, XSD
voc	Schema.org, Dublin Core Terms, SKOS, PROV-O
upper	BFO, RO, IAO
schema	Schema.org
bfo	Basic Formal Ontology
ro	Relation Ontology
iao	Information Artifact Ontology
sh	SHACL

The grouped templates are intended for quickly preparing a Turtle document, while individual templates are useful when only one additional vocabulary is required.

Comment Toggle

Turtle line comments use #.

The plugin integrates this with the NetBeans Toggle Comment editor action.

For example:

:Person
    a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:label "Person"@en .

can be toggled to:

# :Person
#     a owl:Class ;
#     rdfs:label "Person"@en .

The keyboard shortcut can be inspected or changed under:

NetBeans → Preferences → Keymap

Search for:

Toggle Comment

Customizing Code Templates

The registered templates can be inspected or customized through:

NetBeans → Preferences → Editor → Code Templates

Select:

Language: Turtle

The built-in templates are intended to provide concise and syntactically useful starting points rather than encode ontology design decisions.

Domain-specific vocabularies, modeling patterns, and project conventions should normally remain project-local.

Creating a Turtle File

A Turtle file can be created directly from the NetBeans New File wizard:

File → New File... → Turtle → Turtle File

Design Scope

This plugin focuses on lightweight Turtle editing support inside NetBeans.

It does not attempt to replace ontology editors, reasoners, RDF stores, or ontology validation systems. Semantic processing such as reasoning, SHACL validation, SPARQL querying, or project-specific vocabulary management can be provided independently by the surrounding application or ontology engineering toolchain.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

See LICENSE for details.