The Search API supports the same searching, sorting, and faceting operations as the Dataverse web interface.
Unlike the web interface, this new API is limited to published data until issue 1299 is resolved.
The parameters and JSON response are partly inspired by the GitHub Search API.
Please note that in Dataverse 4.3 and older the “citation” field wrapped the persistent ID URL in an <a> tag but this has been changed to plaintext. If you want the old value with HTML in it, a new field called “citationHtml” can be used.
The search API can be used from scripts running in web browsers, as it allows cross-origin resource sharing (CORS).
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| q | string | The search term or terms. Using “title:data” will search only the “title” field. “*” can be used as a wildcard either alone or adjacent to a term (i.e. “bird*”). For example, https://demo.dataverse.org/api/search?q=title:data |
| type | string | Can be either “dataverse”, “dataset”, or “file”. Multiple “type” parameters can be used to include multiple types (i.e. type=dataset&type=file). If omitted, all types will be returned. For example, https://demo.dataverse.org/api/search?q=*&type=dataset |
| subtree | string | The identifier of the dataverse to which the search should be narrowed. The subtree of this dataverse and all its children will be searched. For example, https://demo.dataverse.org/api/search?q=data&subtree=birds |
| sort | string | The sort field. Supported values include “name” and “date”. See example under “order”. |
| order | string | The order in which to sort. Can either be “asc” or “desc”. For example, https://demo.dataverse.org/api/search?q=data&sort=name&order=asc |
| per_page | int | The number of results to return per request. The default is 10. The max is 1000. See iteration example. |
| start | int | A cursor for paging through search results. See iteration example. |
| show_relevance | boolean | Whether or not to show details of which fields were matched by the query. False by default. See advanced search example. |
| show_facets | boolean | Whether or not to show facets that can be operated on by the “fq” parameter. False by default. See advanced search example. |
| fq | string | A filter query on the search term. Multiple “fq” parameters can be used. See advanced search example. |
https://demo.dataverse.org/api/search?q=trees
{
"status":"OK",
"data":{
"q":"trees",
"total_count":4,
"start":0,
"spelling_alternatives":{
"trees":"[tree]"
},
"items":[
{
"name":"Trees",
"type":"dataverse",
"url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/dataverse/trees",
"image_url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/api/access/dvCardImage/7",
"identifier":"trees",
"description":"A tree dataverse with some birds",
"published_at":"2016-05-10T12:53:38Z"
},
{
"name":"Chestnut Trees",
"type":"dataverse",
"url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/dataverse/chestnuttrees",
"image_url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/api/access/dvCardImage/9",
"identifier":"chestnuttrees",
"description":"A dataverse with chestnut trees and an oriole",
"published_at":"2016-05-10T12:52:38Z"
},
{
"name":"trees.png",
"type":"file",
"url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/api/access/datafile/12",
"image_url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/api/access/fileCardImage/12",
"file_id":"12",
"description":"",
"published_at":"2016-05-10T12:53:39Z",
"file_type":"PNG Image",
"file_content_type":"image/png",
"size_in_bytes":8361,
"md5":"0386269a5acb2c57b4eade587ff4db64",
"dataset_citation":"Spruce, Sabrina, 2016, \"Spruce Goose\", http://dx.doi.org/10.5072/FK2/NFSEHG, Root Dataverse, V1"
},
{
"name":"Birds",
"type":"dataverse",
"url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/dataverse/birds",
"image_url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/api/access/dvCardImage/2",
"identifier":"birds",
"description":"A bird dataverse with some trees",
"published_at":"2016-05-10T12:57:27Z"
}
],
"count_in_response":4
}
}
In this example, show_relevance=true matches per field are shown. Available facets are shown with show_facets=true and of the facets is being used with fq=publication_date_s:2015. The search is being narrowed to the dataverse with the identifier “birds” with the parameter subtree=birds.
{
"status":"OK",
"data":{
"q":"finch",
"total_count":2,
"start":0,
"spelling_alternatives":{
},
"items":[
{
"name":"Finches",
"type":"dataverse",
"url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/dataverse/finches",
"image_url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/api/access/dvCardImage/3",
"identifier":"finches",
"description":"A dataverse with finches",
"published_at":"2016-05-10T12:57:38Z",
"matches":[
{
"description":{
"snippets":[
"A dataverse with <span class=\"search-term-match\">finches</span>"
]
}
},
{
"name":{
"snippets":[
"<span class=\"search-term-match\">Finches</span>"
]
}
}
],
"score": 3.8500118255615234
},
{
"name":"Darwin's Finches",
"type":"dataset",
"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.5072/FK2/G2VPE7",
"image_url":"https://demo.dataverse.org/api/access/dsCardImage/2",
"global_id":"doi:10.5072/FK2/G2VPE7",
"description": "Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about fifteen species of passerine birds.",
"published_at":"2016-05-10T12:57:45Z",
"citationHtml":"Finch, Fiona, 2016, \"Darwin's Finches\", <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.5072/FK2/G2VPE7\" target=\"_blank\">http://dx.doi.org/10.5072/FK2/G2VPE7</a>, Root Dataverse, V1",
"citation":"Finch, Fiona, 2016, \"Darwin's Finches\", http://dx.doi.org/10.5072/FK2/G2VPE7, Root Dataverse, V1",
"matches":[
{
"authorName":{
"snippets":[
"<span class=\"search-term-match\">Finch</span>, Fiona"
]
}
},
{
"dsDescriptionValue":{
"snippets":[
"Darwin's <span class=\"search-term-match\">finches</span> (also known as the Galápagos <span class=\"search-term-match\">finches</span>) are a group of about fifteen species"
]
}
},
{
"title":{
"snippets":[
"Darwin's <span class=\"search-term-match\">Finches</span>"
]
}
}
],
"score": 1.5033848285675049,
"authors":[
"Finch, Fiona"
]
}
],
"facets":[
{
"subject_ss":{
"friendly":"Subject",
"labels":[
{
"Medicine, Health and Life Sciences":2
}
]
},
"authorName_ss": {
"friendly":"Author Name",
"labels": [
{
"Finch, Fiona":1
}
]
},
"publicationDate":{
"friendly":"Publication Date",
"labels":[
{
"2016":2
}
]
}
}
],
"count_in_response":2
}
}
Be default, up to 10 results are returned with every request (though this can be increased with the per_page parameter). To iterate through many results, increase the start parameter on each iteration until you reach the total_count in the response. An example in Python is below.
#!/usr/bin/env python
import urllib2
import json
base = 'https://demo.dataverse.org'
rows = 10
start = 0
page = 1
condition = True # emulate do-while
while (condition):
url = base + '/api/search?q=*' + "&start=" + str(start)
data = json.load(urllib2.urlopen(url))
total = data['data']['total_count']
print "=== Page", page, "==="
print "start:", start, " total:", total
for i in data['data']['items']:
print "- ", i['name'], "(" + i['type'] + ")"
start = start + rows
page += 1
condition = start < total
Output from iteration example
=== Page 1 ===
start: 0 total: 12
- Spruce Goose (dataset)
- trees.png (file)
- Spruce (dataverse)
- Trees (dataverse)
- Darwin's Finches (dataset)
- Finches (dataverse)
- Birds (dataverse)
- Rings of Conifers (dataset)
- Chestnut Trees (dataverse)
- Sparrows (dataverse)
=== Page 2 ===
start: 10 total: 12
- Chestnut Sparrows (dataverse)
- Wrens (dataverse)