README

Stable beta branch. Test about-to-be-released features in a stable pre-release build before it is submitted to CRAN.

“Nightly” alpha branch. Test the latest features and bug fixes – enjoy at your own risk.

A tool for downloading and uploading Socrata datasets

Provided with a URL to a dataset resource published on a Socrata webserver, or a Socrata SoDA (Socrata Open Data Application Program Interface) web API query, or a Socrata “human-friendly” URL, read.socrata() returns an R data frame. Converts dates to POSIX format. Supports CSV and JSON download file formats from Socrata. Manages the throttling of data returned from Socrata and allows users to provide an application token. Supports SoDA query parameters in the URL string for further filtering, sorting, and queries. Upload data to Socrata data portals using “upsert” and “replace” methods.

Installation

install.packages("RSocrata")

The most recent beta with soon-to-be-released changes can be installed from GitHub:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("Chicago/RSocrata")

The “nightly” version with the most recent bug fixes and features is also available. This version is always an alpha and may contain significant bugs. You can install it from the dev branch from GitHub:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("Chicago/RSocrata", ref="dev")

Examples

Reading SoDA valid URLs

earthquakesDataFrame <- read.socrata("http://soda.demo.socrata.com/resource/4334-bgaj.csv")
nrow(earthquakesDataFrame) # 1007 (two "pages")
class(earthquakesDataFrame$Datetime[1]) # POSIXlt

Reading “human-readable” URLs

earthquakesDataFrame <- read.socrata("https://soda.demo.socrata.com/dataset/USGS-Earthquakes-for-2012-11-01-API-School-Demo/4334-bgaj")
nrow(earthquakesDataFrame) # 1007 (two "pages")
class(earthquakesDataFrame$Datetime[1]) # POSIXlt

Using API key to read datasets

token <- "ew2rEMuESuzWPqMkyPfOSGJgE"
earthquakesDataFrame <- read.socrata("http://soda.demo.socrata.com/resource/4334-bgaj.csv", app_token = token)
nrow(earthquakesDataFrame)

Download private datasets from portal

# Store user email and password
socrataEmail <- Sys.getenv("SOCRATA_EMAIL", "mark.silverberg+soda.demo@socrata.com")
socrataPassword <- Sys.getenv("SOCRATA_PASSWORD", "7vFDsGFDUG")

privateResourceToReadCsvUrl <- "https://soda.demo.socrata.com/resource/a9g2-feh2.csv" # dataset

read.socrata(url = privateResourceToReadCsvUrl, email = socrataEmail, password = socrataPassword)

List all datasets on portal

allSitesDataFrame <- ls.socrata("https://soda.demo.socrata.com")
nrow(allSitesDataFrame) # Number of datasets
allSitesDataFrame$title # Names of each dataset

Upload data to portal

# Store user email and password
socrataEmail <- Sys.getenv("SOCRATA_EMAIL", "mark.silverberg+soda.demo@socrata.com")
socrataPassword <- Sys.getenv("SOCRATA_PASSWORD", "7vFDsGFDUG")

datasetToAddToUrl <- "https://soda.demo.socrata.com/resource/xh6g-yugi.json" # dataset
 
# Generate some data
x <- sample(-1000:1000, 1)
y <- sample(-1000:1000, 1)
df_in <- data.frame(x,y)
 
# Upload to Socrata
write.socrata(df_in,datasetToAddToUrl,"UPSERT",socrataEmail,socrataPassword)

RSocrata