Hello everyone,

This is a breaking change announcement relevant for Wikidata users working with RDF output.

This update will affect the way EntitySchema values are represented in Wikidata’s RDF output. To align with the naming conventions used for other entity type references, we are updating the wikibase:propertyType value for properties with data type EntitySchema from:

http://wikiba.se/ontology#EntitySchema

to 

http://wikiba.se/ontology#WikibaseEntitySchema 

The former URI may one day be reused as the rdf:type of EntitySchema entities when they are exported to RDF. (Compare, for example, wd:Q42 a wikibase:Item vs. wd:P31 wikibase:propertyType wikibase:WikibaseItem)

Additionally, the EntitySchema property type URI will now be defined in the Wikibase ontology at http://wikiba.se/ontology. This change brings consistency with other entity types (Items, Properties, Lexemes, etc.) and will simplify query writing and RDF processing.

Rollout Timeline:

• Test Wikidata: The updated configuration is now deployed on Test Wikidata.

• Full Rollout on Wikidata: The change will go live on Wikidata on 24 April 2025 following the two-week advance notice as required by our Stable Interface Policy.

Impact:

• Users who get the data type of properties via RDF, or who filter for EntitySchema-type properties in SPARQL queries, will need to change the value they look for.

If you have any questions or concerns about this change, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us in this ticket (T371196).

Cheers,