Using the CKAN API

Brief Description

CKAN is an open source data catalogue software (project website: https://ckan.org/ ). We use CKAN for our data collection https://data.opentransportdata.swiss/.

Through the CKAN API, the metadata of our datasets and APIs (e.g. download links, update date, etc.) can be retrieved and used as needed.

Functional Description

We maintain all of our approximately 90 datasets (1000+ resources or files) as well as our APIs in CKAN. CKAN stores a range of metadata about the datasets and resources, including:

• Names (titles) and short descriptions of records and resources
• Creation and updating date and time
• Media types (mime types)
• Permalinks, download links and links to documentation (Cookbook)

This metadata is displayed on the web pages. It can also be accessed via the CKAN API and used in an application.

Technical Description

An API key is required to access the API. See instructions here:

https://opentransportdata.swiss/de/cookbook/development-miscellaneous-cookbook/howto-access-apis/

The API is a simple REST API. Essentially, these two endpoints can be used:

• https://api.opentransportdata.swiss/ckan-api/package_list returns a list of datasets (names, ‘slugs’)
• https://api.opentransportdata.swiss/ckan-api/package_show?id=dataset_name provides detailed metadata for the given dataset_name. In the field ressources the relevant information for each individual resource is listed.

The responses are formatted in JSON. The responses and content are largely self-explanatory.

Please note

• The CKAN API should only be used for occasional queries on individual records, not for frequent full scans, etc.
• Metadata can also be retrieved via DCAT Catalog files:
  • https://data.opentransportdata.swiss/catalog.xml
  • https://data.opentransportdata.swiss/catalog.ttl

Further information

• http://ckan.de/das-open-data-projekt/
• http://docs.ckan.org/latest/api/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Catalog_Vocabulary

 

 

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