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About SEED Metadata

SEED metadata is a standard set of information collected for each dataset.

What is metadata and why is it collected?

Metadata is the information that describes the dataset such as when, how, why it was collected, any limitations on its use and how often it is updated.

You can think of it as the questions you might want to ask the person who collected the data to help you understand it.

By organising information using a common set of terminology, metadata allows datasets to be compared and categorised, not only with one another (such as when you do a search in SEED) but against environmental datasets across Australia.

How is metadata defined?

SEED follows the ANZLIC Metadata Standards for spatial datasets, which defines the minimum (as well as optimal) set of information that will be collected for each dataset. Metadata is provided to SEED by the custodians of each dataset. 

How do I see the metadata?

When you view a dataset in SEED, the information you initially see is a subset of the available metadata. The full set, called the ‘Metadata Statement’, can be accessed:

• from the ‘Export metadata’ button on the SEED Dataset View page if this is available for your dataset, otherwise
• under the 'Metadata Summary' heading on the SEED Dataset View page
• from the SEED map, using the 'Metadata' link when you view a particular data feature. For more information see Finding locations and data on the map.

The Metadata Statement may be available in HTML, PDF, JSON, and/or XML format.

What metadata is collected for SEED?

Here is a list of metadata elements. Not all datasets in SEED will have every metadata element, as some are optional or only required for certain types of data.

Metadata collected for datasets in SEED (as per ANZLIC Metadata Standards)

All mandatory metadata elements are shown on each dataset, other elements are optional.

Title

A concise and descriptive heading that provides information about the content or focus of the dataset. The title should have the “what”, “where” and “when” information relevant to the business use of the dataset. It serves as a brief identifier to help users understand the nature and scope of the data, facilitating easy recognition and retrieval of specific information within the dataset.

Language

The language in which this dataset is presented in.

Parent

A "Parent" dataset refers to a primary dataset within a collection composed of multiple datasets. It serves as the overarching dataset from which other constituent datasets are derived from or are part of.

Contact

A free-text metadata element of the details of the organisation(s) responsible for the establishment, maintenance and distribution of the dataset.

Alternative title

Refers to an additional or substitute name given to a dataset, providing an alternative way to identify or reference the information contained within the dataset.

Edition

A specific version/edition of the data released at a particular time, subject to updates for accuracy and relevance.

Geographic Bounding Box

The geographic bounding box contains values of the approximate longitudes and latitudes that bound the dataset.

Presentation form

Information about the events or the source data used in constructing the data specified by the scope or lack of knowledge about lineage

Publication type

Indicates the specific category or format of the dataset. It provides information necessary for citation purposes and typically includes descriptors such as Annual Report, Checklist, Corporate Plan, Fact Sheet, Media Release, Policy Document, or Research Paper. This classification helps organise and identify the nature of non-geospatial datasets.

Description

A concise overview detailing the content, structure, and key attributes of the dataset.

Purpose

A short free-text summary of the intentions or aims with which the dataset was created.

Status

Indication of the current condition or state of the resource. It provides information on whether the data collection or resource is completed, continually being updated, or in any other relevant state that describes its current status.

Organisation

Refers to the entity, institution, or agency responsible for generating or managing the dataset

Visibility

Refers to the selection of whether the dataset should be accessible to the public (Public) or restricted to authorised users (Private).

Frequency of change

Indication of how often updates or additions occur after the initial creation, specifying intervals such as Daily, Weekly, or Never.

Keywords

Refers to specific terms, words, or phrases that are commonly used to describe and categorise the subject content of the data. These keywords help users quickly identify and retrieve relevant information from the dataset, facilitating efficient search and analysis processes related to environmental topics.

Tags

Uncontrolled terms in metadata, offering flexibility to describe resources with terms outside controlled vocabularies like Keywords or Field of Research.

Field of research

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008 defined field or fields of research relevant to the dataset.

Metadata date

The specific date on which the metadata record associated with the dataset was initially completed or substantially finalised. It serves as a reference point indicating when the metadata information was first prepared, distinct from the date of any subsequent updates or modifications to the metadata.

Date of asset creation

The specific date on which the relevant environmental information or dataset was initially acquired or generated. This date is crucial for tracking the temporal aspect of the dataset and is distinct from other date-related metadata fields, such as the "Created" date for attached resources, providing a clear reference point for the dataset's origination.

Date of asset revision

The specific date on which changes were made to the dataset. This date indicates when revisions, updates, or amendments were applied to the data, providing users with information about the most recent changes made to the data.

Date of asset publication

The date that the dataset was first published.

Date of next update

Scheduled revision date for the dataset.

License

The licence type applied to assure the protection of privacy or intellectual property, and any special restrictions or limitations or warnings on using the dataset eg CC BY 4.0, 3rd party licence, internal agency use only.

Geospatial topic

A high-level categorisation that facilitates grouping and keyword-based searches for relevant spatial information.Helps users identify and navigate datasets based on geographic themes.

NSW place name

The NSW place name in which the dataset pertains to.

Extent

The geographic and temporal boundaries that define the coverage of the data. It provides essential details about the spatial and temporal scope of the dataset, offering a basic description of the area and time period covered by the data.

South latitude

The south bounding latitude coordinate of the dataset provided in decimal degrees to create the dataset extent.

West longitude

The west bounding latitude coordinate of the dataset provided in decimal degrees to create the dataset extent.

North latitude

The north bounding latitude coordinate of the dataset provided in decimal degrees to create the dataset extent.

East longitude

The east bounding latitude coordinate of the dataset provided in decimal degrees to create the dataset extent.

Temporal coverage from

The start date of a period during which data within an environmental dataset was collected. It provides information about the temporal extent of the dataset's content. 

Temporal coverage to

The end date of a period during which data within an environmental dataset was collected or is applicable.  It provides information about the temporal extent of the dataset's content. 

Supplemental information

Additional details or context provided alongside the dataset, enhancing the understanding and usefulness of the data.

Datum 

A geodetic datum is a global reference for precisely representing the position of locations on Earth. Provided as a standard datum specification e.g. GDA94  or GDA2020

Lineage

A record detailing the data's origin, including source data description, scale, media type, and processing steps. Provides transparency on data history, methodology, and transformation.

About the Data Quality Statement

Every dataset in SEED includes a Data Quality Statement. It is available under the 'Data Quality Statement' heading when you view the dataset details.

What is data quality?

‘Data quality’ is determined by whether the data is suitable for its original intended use. This is generally referred to as being 'fit-for-purpose'. Data is of sufficient quality if it fulfils its intended use (or re-use) in operations, decision making or planning. 

What is the Data Quality Statement?

The Data Quality Statement helps a user understand how a particular dataset could be used, and whether the dataset can be compared with other, similar datasets. It provides a description of the characteristics of the data to help the user decide whether the data will be fit for the user’s specific purpose. 

Users can make different assessments about the fitness of the same data, depending on the way they plan to use the data.

How is the Data Quality Statement prepared?

The Data Quality Statement is prepared by the data custodian (provider of the dataset), using a reporting questionnaire that has been developed in accordance with the NSW Government Standard for Data Quality Reporting. 

The reporting questionnaire assesses the data against a prescribed set of five data quality criteria: 
•    Institutional Environment
•    Accuracy
•    Coherence 
•    Interpretability
•    Accessibility. 

For each question: “yes” = 1 point; “no” = 0 points.
Dimensions with four or five points receive a star.

What is the data quality rating?

A star rating system is included in the Data Quality Statement to quickly indicate the dataset’s comparative strengths and weaknesses against the prescribed criteria.

To achieve a star for a particular criterion, a dataset must achieve at least four out of five possible points.

The data quality rating for the dataset is displayed on the dataset page.

Be aware that the data quality rating needs to be interpreted with some care. For example:

• A dataset which is rated as “Good” for every data quality criterion will have zero stars
• A dataset which is rated as “Poor” for two criteria and “Very Good” for three criteria, will have 3 stars.

Whilst the data quality rating provides a quick indication of a dataset’s strengths, users should refer to the more comprehensive Data Quality Statement for more detailed information. Users may make different assessments about the fitness of the same data, depending on the way they plan to use the data 

About Environmental Categories

Each dataset in SEED is associated with a Geospatial Category such as ‘Farming’ or ‘Oceans’. This makes it possible to quickly find data for a particular topic of interest. Please note, while a single dataset may be relevant to more than one topic (e.g. a dataset may contain relevant information to both Environment and Biota), it may only be associated with one category.

How to see all the datasets in a category

An easy way to see all datasets in a particular category is to make a selection from the ‘Categories’ menu on the left side of the SEED dataset page.

Where do the categories come from?

The SEED categories are taken from the ISO19115 Topic Categories published by the US Geological Survey. The topic categories have been adopted by ANZLIC and provide high-level geographic data thematic classification to assist in the grouping and search of datasets. By using common terminology, we make sure SEED is 'talking the same language' as other sources of environmental data. 

Descriptions of categories

The following list of categories is defined by ISO19115 topic categories; not all of these are related to the environment and so may not be currently used in SEED. 

About the SEED API

The SEED API is a powerful, RPC-style API that exposes all of SEED’s data to external code. For example, using the SEED API your app can:

• get JSON-formatted lists of the SEED datasets
• get a full JSON representation of a dataset or resource
• search for datasets or resources matching a query

• get an activity stream of recently changed datasets on SEED.

   

Making an API request

To call the SEED API, post a JSON dictionary in an HTTP POST request to one of the API URLs. The parameters for the API function should be given in the JSON dictionary. SEED will also return its response in a JSON dictionary.

One way to post a JSON dictionary to a URL is using the command-line HTTP client HTTPie. For example, to get a list of the names of all the organizations within SEED, install HTTPie and then call the organization_list API function by running this command in a terminal:

http https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/organization_list

The JSON response from SEED will look like this:

{
  "help": "https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/help_show?name=organization_list",
  "success": true,
  "result": [
    "doi-department-of-industry",
    "dpe-department-of-planning-and-environment",
    "dpi-department-of-primary-industries-water",
    "dre-nsw-resources-and-energy",
    "epa-environmental-protection-authority",
    "lpi-land-property-information",
    "oeh-office-of-environment-and-heritage",
    "water-new-south-wales"
  ]
}

This response is a JSON dictionary with three keys:

1. "success": true or false.

The API aims to always return 200 OK as the status code of its HTTP response, whether there were errors with the request or not, so it’s important to always check the value of the "success" key in the response dictionary and (if success is false) check the value of the "error" key.

Note: If there are major formatting problems with a request to the API, SEED may still return an HTTP response with a 409, 400 or 500 status code (in increasing order of severity).

2. "result": the returned result from the function you called. The type and value of the result depend on which function you called. For example, in the case of the group_list function it’s a list of strings, which are the names of all the datasets that belong to the specified group.

If there was an error responding to your request, the dictionary will contain an "error" key with details of the error instead of the "result" key. A response dictionary containing an error will look like this:

{
    "help": "Creates a package",
    "success": false,
    "error": {
        "message": "Access denied",
        "__type": "Authorization Error"
    }
}

3. "help": the documentation string for the function you called. This links to documentation about the API call and will provide further information where required.

Authentication and API Keys

By default users of SEED can only access read-only API functions to get data out of the system and view it.

Some more advanced API functions require authorization and a user account for SEED. The API uses the same authorization functions and configuration as the web interface, so if a user is authorized to do something in the web interface they’ll be authorized to do it via the API as well. User accounts will be offered in a future iteration of the portal and are not currently available at this time.

All the API functions listed below are available to all users and cover read-only operations.

REST API

The API functions can also be called via an HTTP GET request. For example, to get the list of datasets (packages) from SEED, open this URL in your browser: https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/package_list

Or, to search for datasets (packages) matching the search query water, on SEED open this URL in your browser: https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/package_search?q=water

Tip: Browser plugins like JSONView for Firefox or Chrome will format and colour SEED's JSON response nicely in your browser.

The search query is given as a URL parameter ?q=water. Multiple URL parameters can be appended, separated by & characters, for example to get only the first 10 matching datasets open this URL: https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/package_search?q=soil&rows=10

When an action requires a list of strings as the value of a parameter, the value can be sent by giving the parameter multiple times in the URL: https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/term_translation_show?terms=water&terms=soil

JSONP support

To cater for scripts from other sites that wish to access the API, the data can be returned in JSONP format, where the JSON data is ‘padded’ with a function call. The function is named in the ‘callback’ parameter. For example:

https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/package_show?id=nsw-forest-agreements&callback=myfunction

Note: this only works for GET requests.

API Examples

Tags (not in a vocabulary)

A list of all tags:

• browser: https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/tag_list
• curl: curl https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/tag_list

Top 10 tags used by datasets:

• browser: https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/package_search?facet.field=[%22tags%22]&facet.limit=10&rows=0
• curl:curl 'https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/package_search?facet.field=\["tags"\]&facet.limit=10&rows=0'

All datasets that have tag ‘soil’:

• browser: https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/action/package_search?fq=tags:soil
• curl: curl 'https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/3/action/package_search?fq=tags:soil'

Tag Vocabularies

Top 10 tags and vocabulary tags used by datasets:

• browser: https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/package_search?facet.field=[%22tags%22]&facet.limit=10&rows=0
• curl:curl 'https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/api/action/package_search?facet.field=\["tags"\]&facet.limit=10&rows=0'

API Reference

API functions for searching for and getting data from CKAN.

ckan.logic.action.get.site_read

Return True

Return Type Boolean

ckan.logic.action.get.package_list

Return a list of the names of the site’s datasets (packages).

Parameters

• limit (int) – if given, the list of datasets will be broken into pages of at most limit datasets per page and only one page will be returned at a time (optional)
• offset (int) – when limit is given, the offset to start returning packages from

Return Type

list of strings

ckan.logic.action.get.current_package_list_with_resources

Return a list of the site’s datasets (packages) and their resources.

The list is sorted most-recently-modified first.

Parameters

• limit (int) – if given, the list of datasets will be broken into pages of at most limit datasets per page and only one page will be returned at a time (optional)
• offset (int) – when limit is given, the offset to start returning packages from
• page (int) – when limit is given, which page to return, Deprecated: use offset

Return Type

list of dictionaries

ckan.logic.action.get.revision_list

Return a list of the IDs of the site’s revisions. They are sorted with the newest first.

Since the results are limited to 50 IDs, you can page through them using parameter since_id.

Parameters

• since_id – the revision ID after which you want the revisions
• since_time – the timestamp after which you want the revisions
• sort (string) – the order to sort the related items in, possible values are ‘time_asc’, ‘time_desc’ (default). (optional)

Return Type

list of revision IDs, limited to 50

Return a dataset (package)’s revisions as a list of dictionaries.
ckan.logic.action.get.package_revision_list

Parameters

id (string) - the id or name of the dataset

ckan.logic.action.get.member_list

Return the members of a group.

The user must have permission to ‘get’ the group.

Parameters

• id (string) – the id or name of the group
• object_type (string) – restrict the members returned to those of a given type, e.g.'user' or 'package' (optional, default: None)
• capacity (string) – restrict the members returned to those with a given capacity, e.g.'member', 'editor', 'admin', 'public', 'private' (optional, default: None)

Return Type

list of (id, type, capacity) tuples

Raises

ckan.logic.notfound : if the group does not exist

ckan.logic.action.get.group_list

Return a list of the names of the site’s groups.

Parameters

• order_by (string) – the field to sort the list by, must be 'name' or 'packages'(optional, default: 'name') Deprecated use sort.
• sort (string) – sorting of the search results. Optional. Default: “name asc” string of field name and sort-order. The allowed fields are ‘name’, ‘package_count’ and ‘title’
• limit (int) – if given, the list of groups will be broken into pages of at most limit groups per page and only one page will be returned at a time (optional)
• offset (int) – when limit is given, the offset to start returning groups from
• groups (list of strings) – a list of names of the groups to return, if given only groups whose names are in this list will be returned (optional)
• all_fields (boolean) – return group dictionaries instead of just names. Only core fields are returned - get some more using the include_* options. Returning a list of packages is too expensive, so the packages property for each group is deprecated, but there is a count of the packages in the package_count property. (optional, default: False)
• include_extras (boolean) – if all_fields, include the group extra fields (optional, default: False)
• include_tags (boolean) – if all_fields, include the group tags (optional, default:False)
• include_groups (boolean) – if all_fields, include the groups the groups are in (optional, default: False).
• include_users (boolean) – if all_fields, include the group users (optional, default:False).

Return Type

list of strings

ckan.logic.action.get.organization_list

Return a list of the names of the site’s organizations.

Parameters

• order_by (string) – the field to sort the list by, must be 'name' or 'packages'(optional, default: 'name') Deprecated use sort.
• sort (string) – sorting of the search results. Optional. Default: “name asc” string of field name and sort-order. The allowed fields are ‘name’, ‘package_count’ and ‘title’
• limit (int) – if given, the list of organizations will be broken into pages of at mostlimit organizations per page and only one page will be returned at a time (optional)
• offset (int) – when limit is given, the offset to start returning organizations from
• organizations (list of strings) – a list of names of the groups to return, if given only groups whose names are in this list will be returned (optional)
• all_fields (boolean) – return group dictionaries instead of just names. Only core fields are returned - get some more using the include_* options. Returning a list of packages is too expensive, so the packages property for each group is deprecated, but there is a count of the packages in the package_count property. (optional, default: False)
• include_extras (boolean) – if all_fields, include the organization extra fields (optional, default: False)
• include_tags (boolean) – if all_fields, include the organization tags (optional, default:False)
• include_groups – if all_fields, include the organizations the organizations are in (optional, default: False)
• include_users (boolean) – if all_fields, include the organization users (optional, default: False).

Return Type

list of strings

Return a group’s revisions.ckan.logic.action.get.group_revision_list

Parameters

id (string) – the name or id of the group

Return Type

list of dictionaries

ckan.logic.action.get.organization_revision_list

Return an organization's revisions.

Parameters

id (string) – the name or id of the organization

Return Type

list of dictionaries

ckan.logic.action.get.tag_list

Return a list of the site’s tags.

By default, only free tags (tags that don’t belong to a vocabulary) are returned. If the vocabulary_id argument is given, then only tags belonging to that vocabulary will be returned instead.

Parameters

• query (string) – a tag name query to search for, if given only tags whose names contain this string will be returned (optional)
• vocabulary_id (string) – the id or name of a vocabulary, if give only tags that belong to this vocabulary will be returned (optional)
• all_fields (boolean) – return full tag dictionaries instead of just names (optional, default: False)

Return Type

list of dictionaries

ckan.logic.action.get.package_show

Return the metadata of a dataset (package) and its resources.

Parameters

• id (string) – the id or name of the dataset
• use_default_schema (bool) – use default package schema instead of a custom schema defined with an IDatasetForm plugin (default: False)
• include_tracking (bool) – add tracking information to dataset and resources (default: False)

Return Type

dictionary

ckan.logic.action.get.resource_show

Return the metadata of a resource.

Parameters

• id (string) – the id of the resource
• include_tracking (bool) – add tracking information to dataset and resources (default: False)

Return Type

dictionary

Parameters

• id (string) – the id of the resource
• include_tracking (bool) – add tracking information to dataset and resources (default: False)

Return Type

dictionary

ckan.logic.action.get.resource_view_show

Return the metadata of a resource_view.

Parameters

id (string) – the id of the resource_view

Return Type

dictionary

ckan.logic.action.get.resource_view_list

Return the list of resource views for a particular resource.

Parameters

id (string) – the id of the resource

Return Type

list of dictionaries

ic.action.get.revision_show

Return the details of a revision.

Parameters

id (string) – the id of the revision

Return Type

dictionary

ckan.logic.action.get.group_show

Return the details of a group.

Only its first 1000 datasets are returned.

Parameters

• id (boolean) – the id or name of the group
• include_datasets – include a list of the group’s datasets (optional, default: False)
• include_extras – include the group’s extra fields (optional, default: True)
• include_users – include the group’s users (optional, default: True)
• include_groups – include the group’s sub groups (optional, default: True)
• include_tags – include the group’s tags (optional, default: True)
• include_followers – include the group’s number of followers (optional, default:True)

Return Type

dictionary

ckan.logic.action.get.organization_show

Return the details of an organization.

Only its first 1000 datasets are returned.

Parameters

• id (boolean) – the id or name of the organization
• include_datasets – include a list of the organization’s datasets (optional, default:False)
• include_extras – include the organization’s extra fields (optional, default: True)
• include_users – include the organization’s users (optional, default: True)
• include_groups – include the organization’s sub groups (optional, default: True)
• include_tags – include the organization’s tags (optional, default: True)
• include_followers – include the organization’s number of followers (optional, default: True)

Return Type

dictionary

ckan.logic.action.get.tag_show

Return the details of a tag and all its datasets.

Parameters

• d (string) – the name or id of the tag
• vocabulary_id (string) – the id or name of the tag vocabulary that the tag is in - if it is not specified it will assume it is a free tag. (optional)
• include_datasets (bool) – include a list of the tag’s datasets. (Up to a limit of 1000 - for more flexibility, use package_search - see package_search() for an example.) (optional, default: False)

Returns

the details of the tag, including a list of all of the tag’s datasets and their details

Return Type

dictionary

ckan.logic.action.get.package_autocomplete

Return a list of datasets (packages) that match a string.

Datasets with names or titles that contain the query string will be returned.

Parameters

• q (string) – the string to search for
• limit (int) – the maximum number of resource formats to return (optional, default: 10)

Return Type

list of dictionaries

ckan.logic.action.get.format_autocomplete

Return a list of resource formats whose names contain a string.

Parameters

• q (string) – the string to search for
• limit (int) – the maximum number of resource formats to return (optional, default: 5)

Return Type

list of strings

ckan.logic.action.get.organization_autocomplete

Return a list of organization names that contain a string.

Parameters

• q (string) – the string to search for
• limit (int) – the maximum number of organizations to return (optional, default: 20)

Return Type

a list of organization dictionaries each with keys 'name', 'title', and 'id'

ckan.logic.action.get.package_search

Searches for packages satisfying a given search criteria.

This action accepts solr search query parameters (details below), and returns a dictionary of results, including dictized datasets that match the search criteria, a search count and also facet information.

Parameters

• q (string) – the solr query. Optional. Default: "*:*"
• fq (string) – any filter queries to apply. Note: +site_id:{ckan_site_id} is added to this string prior to the query being executed.
• sort (string) – sorting of the search results. Optional. Default:'relevance asc, metadata_modified desc'. As per the solr documentation, this is a comma-separated string of field names and sort-orderings.
• rows (int) – the number of matching rows to return. There is a hard limit of 1000 datasets per query.
• start (int) – the offset in the complete result for where the set of returned datasets should begin.
• facet (string) – whether to enable faceted results. Default: True.
• facet.mincount (int) – the minimum counts for facet fields should be included in the results.
• facet.limit (int) – the maximum number of values the facet fields return. A negative value means unlimited. This can be set instance-wide with the search.facets.limit config option. Default is 50.
• facet.field (list of strings) – the fields to facet upon. Default empty. If empty, then the returned facet information is empty.
• include_drafts (boolean) – if True, draft datasets will be included in the results. A user will only be returned their own draft datasets, and a sysadmin will be returned all draft datasets. Optional, the default is False.
• use_default_schema (bool) – use default package schema instead of a custom schema defined with an IDatasetForm plugin (default: False)

Returns

a dictionary with the following keys:

• count (int) – the number of results found. Note, this is the total number of results found, not the total number of results returned (which is affected by limit and row parameters used in the input).
• results (list of dictized datasets.) – ordered list of datasets matching the query, where the ordering defined by the sort parameter used in the query.
• facets (DEPRECATED dict) – DEPRECATED. Aggregated information about facet counts.
• search_facets (nested dict of dicts.) – aggregated information about facet counts. The outer dict is keyed by the facet field name (as used in the search query). Each entry of the outer dict is itself a dict, with a “title” key, and an “items” key. The “items” key’s value is a list of dicts, each with “count”, “display_name” and “name” entries. The display_name is a form of the name that can be used in titles.

Searches for resources satisfying a given search criteria.ckan.logic.action.get.resource_search

It returns a dictionary with 2 fields: count and results. The count field contains the total number of Resources found without the limit or query parameters having an effect. The results field is a list of dictized Resource objects.

The ‘query’ parameter is a required field. It is a string of the form {field}:{term} or a list of strings, each of the same form. Within each string, {field} is a field or extra field on the Resource domain object.

If {field} is "hash", then an attempt is made to match the {term} as a prefix of the Resource.hashfield.

If {field} is an extra field, then an attempt is made to match against the extra fields stored against the Resource.

Note: The search is limited to search against extra fields declared in the config settingckan.extra_resource_fields.

Note: Due to a Resource’s extra fields being stored as a json blob, the match is made against the json string representation. As such, false positives may occur:

If the search criteria is:

query = "field1:term1"

Then a json blob with the string representation of:

 {"field1": "foo", "field2": "term1"}

will match the search criteria. This is a known short-coming of this approach.

All matches are made ignoring case; and apart from the "hash" field, a term matches if it is a substring of the field’s value.

Finally, when specifying more than one search criteria, the criteria are AND-ed together.

The order parameter is used to control the ordering of the results. Currently only ordering one field is available, and in ascending order only.

The fields parameter is deprecated as it is not compatible with calling this action with a GET request to the action API.

The context may contain a flag, search_query, which if True will make this action behave as if being used by the internal search api. ie - the results will not be dictized, and SearchErrors are thrown for bad search queries (rather than ValidationErrors).

Parameters

• query (string or list of strings of the form {field}:{term1}) – The search criteria. See above for description.
• fields (dict of fields to search terms.) – Deprecated
• order_by (string) – A field on the Resource model that orders the results.
• offset (int) – Apply an offset to the query.
• limit (int) – Apply a limit to the query.

Returns

dictionary with a count field, and a results field.

Return Type

dictionary

ckan.logic.action.get.tag_search

Return a list of tags whose names contain a given string.

By default only free tags (tags that don’t belong to any vocabulary) are searched. If the vocabulary_id argument is given then only tags belonging to that vocabulary will be searched instead.

Parameters

• query (string or list of strings) – the string(s) to search for
• vocabulary_id (string) – the id or name of the tag vocabulary to search in (optional)
• fields (dictionary) – deprecated
• offset (int) – when limit is given, the offset to start returning tags from
• limit (int) – the maximum number of tags to return

Returns

A dictionary with the following keys:

• 'count' - The number of tags in the result.
• 'results' - The list of tags whose names contain the given string, a list of dictionaries.

Return Type

dictionary

ckan.logic.action.get.tag_autocomplete

Return a list of tag names that contain a given string.

By default only free tags (tags that don’t belong to any vocabulary) are searched. If the vocabulary_id argument is given then only tags belonging to that vocabulary will be searched instead.

Parameters

• query (string) – the string to search for
• vocabulary_id (string) – the id or name of the tag vocabulary to search in (optional)
• fields (dictionary) – deprecated
• limit (int) – the maximum number of tags to return
• offset (int) – when limit is given, the offset to start returning tags from

Return Type

list of strings

ckan.logic.action.get.vocabulary_list

Return a list of all the site’s tag vocabularies.

Return Type 

list of dictionaries

ckan.logic.action.get.vocabulary_show

Return a single tag vocabulary.

Parameters

id (string) – the id or name of the vocabulary

Returns

the vocabulary

Return Type

dictionary

ckan.logic.action.get.recently_changed_packages_activity_list

Return the activity stream of all recently added or changed packages.

Parameters

• offset (int) – where to start getting activity items from (optional, default: 0)
• limit (int) – the maximum number of activities to return (optional, default: 31, the default value is configurable via the ckan.activity_list_limit setting)

Return Type

list of dictionaries

ckan.logic.action.get.package_activity_list_html

Return a package’s activity stream as HTML.

The activity stream is rendered as a snippet of HTML meant to be included in an HTML page, i.e. it doesn’t have any HTML header or footer.

Parameters

• id (string) – the id or name of the package
• offset (int) – where to start getting activity items from (optional, default: 0)
• limit (int) – the maximum number of activities to return (optional, default: 31, the default value is configurable via the ckan.activity_list_limit setting)

Return Type

string

ckan.logic.action.get.help_show

Return the help string for a particular API action.

Parameters

name (string) – Action function name (eg user_create, package_search)

Returns

The help string for the action function, or None if the function does not have a docstring.

Return Type

string

Raises

ckan.logic.NotFound : if the action function doesn’t exist

Data software and Resource formats

Expandable Headings on datasets

Resources for viewing the data can be found under various expandable headings underneath a dataset’s description. To display the resources, click on the ‘expand’ icon next to the relevant heading.

Similar resource formats are grouped together under the same heading. For example, resources in spreadsheet or zip formats will appear under the heading “Dataset Packages”.  The headings that display will vary from dataset to dataset, depending on what has been provided by the data custodian.

The possible expandable headings on datasets are:

How to use software resources

Some of the data files and resources provided in SEED require specific software to view them. This page lists free versions of software (usually with some restrictions on use) that you can download from the Internet for this purpose.

Please note:

• The inclusion of a software product on this page DOES NOT constitute an endorsement by the Department of Planning and Environment or NSW Government. This page only provides suggestions.  Other, equally good, alternatives may exist.
• The use of some software listed here requires specialist skills. The NSW Government is not responsible for inaccurate conclusions drawn from improper use of software.

Mapping and data software

Using web map services

To use Web Map Services (WMS) and Web Feature Services (WFS) from SEED:

To use ArcGIS REST Services on any platform, please follow the steps in this link.

For additional information on GIS data and software, refer to ‘Working with GIS data?’. This page provides information on geographic information systems and access to open-source software resources for building GIS maps.

Document and web software

SEED has a built-in Preview pane that allows you to view Microsoft Office and PDF documents without requiring the software on your computer. However, if you wish to open the documents outside of SEED, the following downloads are available:

Power BI desktop keyboard shortcuts

For data dashboards on SEED that are developed using Microsoft Power BI software, keyboard shortcuts are helpful for moving around in Power BI reports using a keyboard.

When using Power BI Desktop, you can press Shift + ? to show keyboard shortcuts.

A detailed list of commands and keyboard shortcuts can be found on this page.

Supported browsers for Power BI

Power BI supports the following browsers on all platforms where they're available:

• Microsoft Edge Chromium.
• Chrome desktop latest version.
• Safari Mac latest version.
• Firefox desktop latest version. Note - Firefox may change the fonts used in Power BI. 

If you are having issues using a dashboard, ensure you are using the latest version of your browser. For more information please see the Microsoft help page.

Please note: Internet Explorer is no longer supported by Power BI.

Adding a Dashboard to SEED

The following steps describe the high-level process to add a pre-existing PowerBI or Tableau Dashboard on SEED.

Current Dashboards available on SEED are here.

Steps to build a Dashboard with SEED

1. Contact the SEED team ([email protected]) with either a PowerBI or Tableau link to a Dashboard you want to publish through SEED.

2. Organise a discussion to talk through the requirements of what content you want on the page supplementing your Dashboard frame. For this consider:

• If you can, create a dataset for your Dashboard and/or the output data. It is best practice to link to at least a dataset of the Dashboard output as you cannot export data from embedded PowerBI dashboards. You will need to complete a metadata statement and a data quality statement. Please contact us for assistance with this.
• Whatever page content you want, refer to our current Dashboards and the SEED content block examples. Click here for more block examples.
• Whether your Dashboard has undergone accessibility testing and adheres to external branding guidelines.
• Your release timelines and whether you want to organise communications and/or implement metrics to accompany the release of your Dashboard.

3. Provide SEED with the desired page content along with a completed dataset metadata statement and data quality statement.

4. SEED will then provide a mock-up of the page and organise a review session. SEED will make alterations if required and then iteratively review with you.

5. When ready to publish, first publish the associated IAR record. Let SEED know when the dataset has been published and we will link this to the Dashboard and publish the Dashboard.

NOTE: Contact SEED at any time with questions. SEED will need 3-4 weeks lead time to connect a Dashboard. This is outside any branding, accessibility testings and approvals which is the responsibility of the Dashboard owner. SEED is not responsible for maintaining the Dashboard at any point; the Dashboard therefore requires a clear product owner for maintenance and any enquiry response.

Downloading and Exporting Data

Downloading data from SEED

For some of the datasets in SEED the GIS data is available for download, usually in ESRI Shapefile or Geodatabase format. For these datasets there will be a ‘Download Package’ listed under Data and Resources. Please note – ESRI Shapefiles/Geodatabases can be viewed in QGIS.

For some of the SEED datasets, the data needs to be requested from the data custodian. Details, including the email address, are usually included in the dataset’s Description and /or under Data and Resources. Send an email to the address listed to request the data.

Many of the datasets have the option for viewing in Google Earth and/or using the ArcGIS Online map viewer. This functionality is available either via a KML/KMZ link under Data and Resources, or via the ESRI Web Service link. If the dataset has an ESRI / ArcGIS Web Service link, follow that link, and the options available will be displayed at the top of the page under “View In”. If Google Earth is listed, you can either open the data directly in Google Earth or download and save the kmz file. Go to the software resources section for more information.

Exporting data

You can export part of a dataset to CSV, XLSX or Shapefile from the SEED map. To do this, display the dataset on the SEED map and then select the required features using ‘I want to’ > ‘Find data on the map’. Click the Panel Actions Menu button (depicted by four horizontal lines), and select either Export to CSV, Export to XLSX or Export to Shapefile.

Layer Catalogue Basics

Explore the SEED Map Layer Catalogue in this quick 1-minute video. Learn how to add data layers to the map and search using keywords. You’ll also discover how to toggle data layers on and off, adjust their transparency, and easily remove layers when finished.

How to Navigate the SEED Map 

SEED Map Navigation Made Simple

Explore how to navigate the SEED map and data in this 1-minute video. Learn how to zoom in and out to visualise data at different scales. Discover how to explore and remove data layers and reposition the map to focus on areas of interest.

How to Create Custom Links for SEED Map Datasets

Creating a custom link lets you load and save your frequently used data layers for quick access with just one click. Follow the steps below to create your own custom links.