The Data Access API provides programmatic download access to the files stored under Dataverse. More advanced features of the Access API include format-specific transformations (thumbnail generation/resizing for images; converting tabular data into alternative file formats) and access to the data-level metadata that describes the contents of the tabular files.
Contents:
The “download by dataset” API downloads as many files as possible from a dataset as a zipped bundle.
By default, tabular files are downloaded in their “archival” form (tab-separated values). To download the original files (Stata, for example), add format=original
as a query parameter.
There are a number of reasons why not all of the files can be downloaded:
In the curl example below, the flags -O
and J
are used. When there are no errors, this has the effect of saving the file as “dataverse_files.zip” (just like the web interface). The flags force errors to be downloaded as a file.
Please note that in addition to the files from dataset, an additional file call “MANIFEST.TXT” will be included in the zipped bundle. It has additional information about the files.
There are two forms of the “download by dataset” API, a basic form and one that supports dataset versions.
The basic form downloads files from the latest accessible version of the dataset. If you are not using an API token, this means the most recently published version. If you are using an API token with full access to the dataset, this means the draft version or the most recently published version if no draft exists.
A curl example using a DOI (no version):
export API_TOKEN=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
export SERVER_URL=https://demo.dataverse.org
export PERSISTENT_ID=doi:10.70122/FK2/N2XGBJ
curl -O -J -H "X-Dataverse-key:$API_TOKEN" $SERVER_URL/api/access/dataset/:persistentId/?persistentId=$PERSISTENT_ID
The fully expanded example above (without environment variables) looks like this:
curl -O -J -H X-Dataverse-key:xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx https://demo.dataverse.org/api/access/dataset/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.70122/FK2/N2XGBJ
The second form of the “download by dataset” API allows you to specify which version you’d like to download files from. As with the datasets
API endpoints described in the Native API section, the following identifiers can be used.
:draft
the draft version, if any:latest
either a draft (if exists) or the latest published version.:latest-published
the latest published versionx.y
a specific version, where x
is the major version number and y
is the minor version number.x
same as x.0
A curl example using a DOI (with version):
export API_TOKEN=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
export SERVER_URL=https://demo.dataverse.org
export PERSISTENT_ID=doi:10.70122/FK2/N2XGBJ
export VERSION=2.0
curl -O -J -H "X-Dataverse-key:$API_TOKEN" $SERVER_URL/api/access/dataset/:persistentId/versions/$VERSION?persistentId=$PERSISTENT_ID
The fully expanded example above (without environment variables) looks like this:
curl -O -J -H X-Dataverse-key:xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx https://demo.dataverse.org/api/access/dataset/:persistentId/versions/2.0?persistentId=doi:10.70122/FK2/N2XGBJ
Basic access URI:
/api/access/datafile/$id
Note
Files can be accessed using persistent identifiers. This is done by passing the constant :persistentId
where the numeric id of the file is expected, and then passing the actual persistent id as a query parameter with the name persistentId
.
Example: Getting the file whose DOI is 10.5072/FK2/J8SJZB
GET http://$SERVER/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.5072/FK2/J8SJZB
format
the following parameter values are supported (for tabular data files only):
Value | Description |
---|---|
original | “Saved Original”, the proprietary (SPSS, Stata, R, etc.) file from which the tabular data was ingested; |
RData | Tabular data as an R Data frame (generated; unless the “original” file was in R); |
prep | “Pre-processed data”, in JSON. |
subset | Column-wise subsetting. You must also supply a comma separated list of variables in the “variables” query parameter. In this example, 123 and 127 are the database ids of data variables that belong to the data file with the id 6: curl 'http://localhost:8080/api/access/datafile/6?format=subset&variables=123,127' . |
noVarHeader
(supported for tabular data files only; ignored for all other file types)
Value | Description |
---|---|
true|1 | Tab-delimited data file, without the variable name header (added to tab. files by default) |
imageThumb
the following parameter values are supported (for image and pdf files only):
Value | Description |
---|---|
true | Generates a thumbnail image by rescaling to the default thumbnail size (64 pixels wide). |
N |
Rescales the image to N pixels wide. imageThumb=true and imageThumb=64 are equivalent. |
/api/access/datafiles/$id1,$id2,...$idN
Alternate Form: POST to /api/access/datafiles
with a fileIds
input field containing the same comma separated list of file ids. This is most useful when your list of files surpasses the allowed URL length (varies but can be ~2000 characters).
Returns the files listed, zipped.
Note
If the request can only be completed partially - if only some of the requested files can be served (because of the permissions and/or size restrictions), the file MANIFEST.TXT included in the zipped bundle will have entries specifying the reasons the missing files could not be downloaded. IN THE FUTURE the API will return a 207 status code to indicate that the result was a partial success. (As of writing this - v.4.11 - this hasn’t been implemented yet)
Note
If any of the datafiles have the DirectoryLabel
attributes in the corresponding FileMetadata
entries, these will be added as folders to the Zip archive, and the files will be placed in them accordingly.
format
the following parameter values are supported (for tabular data files only):
Value | Description |
---|---|
original | “Saved Original”, the proprietary (SPSS, Stata, R, etc.) file from which the tabular data was ingested; |
/api/access/datafile/bundle/$id
This is a convenience packaging method available for tabular data files. It returns a zipped bundle that contains the data in the following formats:
These methods are only available for tabular data files. (i.e., data files with associated data table and variable objects).
/api/access/datafile/$id/metadata/ddi
In its basic form the verb above returns a DDI fragment that describes the file and the data variables in it.
The DDI returned will only have two top-level sections:
fileDscr
, with the basic file information plus the numbers of variables and observations and the UNF of the file.dataDscr
section, with one var
section for each variable.Example:
http://localhost:8080/api/access/datafile/6/metadata/ddi
<codeBook version="2.0">
<fileDscr ID="f6">
<fileTxt>
<fileName>_73084.tab</fileName>
<dimensns>
<caseQnty>3</caseQnty>
<varQnty>2</varQnty>
</dimensns>
<fileType>text/tab-separated-values</fileType>
</fileTxt>
<notes level="file" type="VDC:UNF" subject="Universal Numeric Fingerprint">UNF:6:zChnyI3fjwNP+6qW0VryVQ==</notes>
</fileDscr>
<dataDscr>
<var ID="v1" name="id" intrvl="discrete">
<location fileid="f6"/>
<labl level="variable">Personen-ID</labl>
<sumStat type="mean">2.0</sumStat>
<sumStat type="mode">.</sumStat>
<sumStat type="medn">2.0</sumStat>
<sumStat type="stdev">1.0</sumStat>
<sumStat type="min">1.0</sumStat>
<sumStat type="vald">3.0</sumStat>
<sumStat type="invd">0.0</sumStat>
<sumStat type="max">3.0</sumStat>
<varFormat type="numeric"/>
<notes subject="Universal Numeric Fingerprint" level="variable" type="VDC:UNF">UNF:6:AvELPR5QTaBbnq6S22Msow==</notes>
</var>
<var ID="v3" name="sex" intrvl="discrete">
<location fileid="f6"/>
<labl level="variable">Geschlecht</labl>
<sumStat type="mean">1.3333333333333333</sumStat>
<sumStat type="max">2.0</sumStat>
<sumStat type="vald">3.0</sumStat>
<sumStat type="mode">.</sumStat>
<sumStat type="stdev">0.5773502691896257</sumStat>
<sumStat type="invd">0.0</sumStat>
<sumStat type="medn">1.0</sumStat>
<sumStat type="min">1.0</sumStat>
<catgry>
<catValu>1</catValu>
<labl level="category">Mann</labl>
</catgry>
<catgry>
<catValu>2</catValu>
<labl level="category">Frau</labl>
</catgry>
<varFormat type="numeric"/>
<notes subject="Universal Numeric Fingerprint" level="variable" type="VDC:UNF">UNF:6:XqQaMwOA63taX1YyBzTZYQ==</notes>
</var>
</dataDscr>
</codeBook>
fileMetadataId
Value | Description |
---|---|
ID | Exports file with specific file metadata ID . For example for data file with id 6 and file metadata id 2: curl 'http://localhost:8080/api/access/datafile/6/metadata/ddi?fileMetadataId=2' |
More information on DDI is available in the Tabular Data, Representation, Storage and Ingest section of the User Guide.
Advanced options/Parameters:
It is possible to request only specific subsets of, rather than the
full file-level DDI record. This can be a useful optimization, in
cases such as when an application needs to look up a single variable;
especially with data files with large numbers of variables. See
variables=123,127
in the example above.
/api/access/datafile/$id/metadata/preprocessed
This method provides the “preprocessed data” - a summary record that describes the values of the data vectors in the tabular file, in JSON. These metadata values are used by TwoRavens, the companion data exploration utility of the Dataverse application. Please note that this format might change in the future.
Data Access API supports both session- and API key-based authentication.
If a session is available, and it is already associated with an authenticated user, it will be used for access authorization. If not, or if the user in question is not authorized to access the requested object, an attempt will be made to authorize based on an API key, if supplied.
All of the API verbs above support the key parameter key=...
as well as the newer X-Dataverse-key
header. For more details, see “Authentication” in the Introduction section.
All of the following endpoints take the persistent identifier as a parameter in place of ‘id’.
Allow or disallow users from requesting access to restricted files in a dataset where id is the database id of the dataset or pid is the persistent id (DOI or Handle) of the dataset to update.
A curl example using an id
:
curl -H "X-Dataverse-key:$API_TOKEN" -X PUT -d true http://$SERVER/api/access/{id}/allowAccessRequest
A curl example using a pid
:
curl -H "X-Dataverse-key:$API_TOKEN" -X PUT -d true http://$SERVER/api/access/:persistentId/allowAccessRequest?persistentId={pid}
/api/access/datafile/$id/requestAccess
This method requests access to the datafile whose id is passed on the behalf of an authenticated user whose key is passed. Note that not all datasets allow access requests to restricted files.
A curl example using an id
:
curl -H "X-Dataverse-key:$API_TOKEN" -X PUT http://$SERVER/api/access/datafile/{id}/requestAccess
/api/access/datafile/{id}/grantAccess/{identifier}
This method grants access to the datafile whose id is passed on the behalf of an authenticated user whose user identifier is passed with an @ prefix. The key of a user who can manage permissions of the datafile is required to use this method.
A curl example using an id
:
curl -H "X-Dataverse-key:$API_TOKEN" -X PUT http://$SERVER/api/access/datafile/{id}/grantAccess/{@userIdentifier}
/api/access/datafile/{id}/rejectAccess/{identifier}
This method rejects the access request to the datafile whose id is passed on the behalf of an authenticated user whose user identifier is passed with an @ prefix. The key of a user who can manage permissions of the datafile is required to use this method.
A curl example using an id
:
curl -H "X-Dataverse-key:$API_TOKEN" -X PUT http://$SERVER/api/access/datafile/{id}/rejectAccess/{@userIdentifier}
/api/access/datafile/{id}/revokeAccess/{identifier}
This method revokes previously granted access to the datafile whose id is passed on the behalf of an authenticated user whose user identifier is passed with an @ prefix. The key of a user who can manage permissions of the datafile is required to use this method.
A curl example using an id
:
curl -H "X-Dataverse-key:$API_TOKEN" -X DELETE http://$SERVER/api/access/datafile/{id}/revokeAccess/{@userIdentifier}
/api/access/datafile/{id}/listRequests
This method returns a list of Authenticated Users who have requested access to the datafile whose id is passed. The key of a user who can manage permissions of the datafile is required to use this method.
A curl example using an id
:
curl -H "X-Dataverse-key:$API_TOKEN" -X GET http://$SERVER/api/access/datafile/{id}/listRequests