You need to have Java servlets container running in order to install RDF Model Browser. Open Source implementations Tomcat or Jetty can be used for that. After you downloaded the package, visualrdf.war file needs to be deployed as a web application. For Tomcat it can be done by simply dropping the war file into its webapps directory and starting (restarting) the server. For Jetty its configuration file should be modified as described here. At this point you may want to modify web application description file and properties files in /WEB-INF/ to change log output or switch from default in memory model representation to database backed models. Make sure servlets container is started and point your browser to the url where you deployed RDF Model Browser. This is what you should see in web browser after web application is successfully deployed.

Choose File|Model Upload in main menu. You will be presented a screen for uploading models. A model can be uploaded from either local file or url. Check "Add to workspace" checkmark if you want this model to be added to the current visualization, rather than replace it. Put local file path into "RDF Model File" box or url into "RDF Model URL" box and click appropriate "Load Model" button. The application will load the model now. If the model cannot be loaded the error message will appear. This release uses in memory representation for models and therefore can not load larger models. This is what you should see upon successful loading of the animals.rdf sample.

Use the Tree view on the left side to navigate the model. When you click a resource or property in the tree view you will see its detailed HTML representation in the Resource view on the right. Literals are not shown in the Tree view, they are only available in the Resource view. You can also use hyperlinks in the Resource view for navigation. Literals which are valid urls are shown as hyperlinks. When clicked they will open up in a new browser window.

Choose Properties|Model Inverse in the main menu to see the inverted view of the model. This view is more appropriate to see the inheritance structure of the model. This is how animals.rdf sample looks inverted. Choose Properties|Model Inverse again to return to the regular view.

Choose Properties|Select Properties in the main menu to bring property selection screen. Use this screen to select which properties you want to see in the Tree view. If you only leave one property the Tree view will omit the property and resources will be connected directly. Resource view is not affected by property screening. This is how animals.rdf sample looks with only rdfs:subClassOf property chosen. Property selection may be freely combined with inversion. Together they provide a powerful tool for interactive visualization of RDF models of reasonable size.

Choose File|Save Model in the main menu. This will open a new browser window with plain text XML/RDF of the model currently being visualized. If more than one model was loaded into the workspace, the result will be the union of these models.