Package {ausOpenData}

Type: Package
Title: A Lightweight Interface to the Austin, Texas Open Data APIs
Version: 0.1.0
Description: Provides a unified set of helper functions to access datasets from the Austin, Texas Open Data platform https://data.austintexas.gov/. Functions return results as tidy tibbles and support optional filtering, sorting, and row limits via the Socrata API.
License: MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding: UTF-8
RoxygenNote: 7.3.3
Imports: httr, jsonlite, tibble, janitor, curl, dplyr, rlang
Suggests: ggplot2, knitr, rmarkdown, scales, testthat (≥ 3.0.0), tidyr, vcr (≥ 0.6.0), webmockr
URL: https://martinezc1.github.io/ausOpenData/, https://github.com/martinezc1/ausOpenData
BugReports: https://github.com/martinezc1/ausOpenData/issues
VignetteBuilder: knitr
Config/testthat/edition: 3
Depends: R (≥ 4.1.0)
NeedsCompilation: no
Packaged: 2026-07-19 06:10:55 UTC; christianmartinez
Author: Christian Martinez ORCID iD [aut, cre] (GitHub: martinezc1), Emma Tupone [ctb] (GitHub: emmatup0205)
Maintainer: Christian Martinez <c.martinez0@outlook.com>
Repository: CRAN
Date/Publication: 2026-07-28 16:20:15 UTC

Pull any Austin Open Data dataset from a Socrata JSON endpoint

Description

Downloads data from any Austin Open Data Socrata JSON endpoint and returns the result as a tibble. This function is useful for datasets that are not included in the curated catalog returned by [aus_list_datasets()].

Usage

aus_any_dataset(
  json_link,
  limit = 10000,
  timeout_sec = 30,
  clean_names = TRUE,
  coerce_types = TRUE
)

Arguments

json_link

A single Socrata dataset JSON endpoint URL, such as '"https://data.austintexas.gov/resource/9t4d-g238.json"'.

limit

Number of rows to retrieve. Defaults to 10,000.

timeout_sec

Request timeout in seconds. Defaults to 30.

clean_names

Logical. If 'TRUE', column names are converted to snake_case using [janitor::clean_names()]. Defaults to 'TRUE'.

coerce_types

Logical. If 'TRUE', the package attempts lightweight, heuristic-based type coercion after downloading the data. Columns are converted only when at least 95 percent of non-missing values can be parsed as the target type. This helps avoid unsafe conversions when source data are inconsistent.

Details

Austin Open Data datasets have Socrata JSON endpoints that usually follow this pattern:

'https://data.austintexas.gov/resource//<dataset_uid>.json'

For example, a dataset with the Socrata UID '"9t4d-g238"' would have the JSON endpoint:

'https://data.austintexas.gov/resource/9t4d-g238.json'

Users can find a dataset's UID from the Austin Open Data Portal URL, the API documentation page for the dataset, or the output of [aus_list_datasets()].

'aus_any_dataset()' bypasses the package catalog and sends a request directly to the supplied JSON endpoint. Unlike [aus_pull_dataset()], it does not look up defaults such as catalog keys, date fields, or default ordering.

This function is intended for direct endpoint access. For catalog-based workflows using readable keys or Socrata UIDs, use [aus_pull_dataset()].

Value

A tibble containing rows from the requested Austin Open Data endpoint.

Examples

# Examples that hit the live Austin Open Data API are guarded so CRAN
# checks do not fail when the network is unavailable or slow.
if (interactive() && curl::has_internet()) {
  # Build a JSON endpoint from a Socrata UID
  uid <- "abcd-1234"
  endpoint <- paste0("https://data.austintexas.gov/resource", uid, ".json")

  out <- try(aus_any_dataset(endpoint, limit = 3), silent = TRUE)
  if (!inherits(out, "try-error")) {
    head(out)
  }
}

List available Austin Open Data datasets

Description

Retrieves a live catalog of Austin Open Data datasets from the Austin Open Data Portal catalog table ('CATALOG_DATASET_ID') and returns dataset metadata that can be used with [aus_pull_dataset()].

Usage

aus_list_datasets()

Details

The returned tibble includes both the official Socrata dataset 'uid' and a human-readable 'key'. The 'uid' is the stable identifier used by the Austin Open Data Portal and Socrata API, while the 'key' is generated from the dataset name using [janitor::make_clean_names()] to make datasets easier to reference in R code, especially in classroom and reproducible research settings.

Most users will begin by calling 'aus_list_datasets()', searching the returned catalog for a dataset of interest, and then passing either the 'key' or 'uid' to [aus_pull_dataset()].

Value

A tibble containing available Austin Open Data datasets. Important columns include:

key

A human-readable dataset key generated from the dataset name.

uid

The official Socrata dataset identifier used by Austin Open Data.

name

The dataset name from the Austin Open Data catalog.

Additional metadata columns from the Austin Open Data catalog may also be returned.

Examples

if (interactive() && curl::has_internet()) {
  catalog <- aus_list_datasets()

  # View available datasets
  catalog

  # Search for datasets containing a keyword
  catalog[
    grepl("KEYWORD", catalog$name, ignore.case = TRUE),
    c("key", "uid", "name")
  ]
}

Pull a Austin Open Data dataset

Description

Downloads a dataset from the Austin Open Data Socrata API using either a human-readable catalog 'key' or the official Socrata dataset 'uid' returned by [aus_list_datasets()].

Usage

aus_pull_dataset(
  dataset,
  limit = 10000,
  filters = list(),
  date = NULL,
  from = NULL,
  to = NULL,
  date_field = NULL,
  where = NULL,
  order = NULL,
  timeout_sec = 30,
  clean_names = TRUE,
  coerce_types = TRUE
)

Arguments

dataset

A single dataset 'key' or Socrata dataset 'uid' from [aus_list_datasets()]. For example, a key may look like '"example_dataset_name"', while a UID may look like '"abcd-1234"'.

limit

Number of rows to retrieve. Defaults to 10,000.

filters

Optional named list of exact-match filters. Each list name should be a field name in the dataset, and each value should be the value or values to match. Vector values are translated into SQL-style 'IN' conditions in the generated SoQL query. For example, 'filters = list(FILTER_FIELD = c("VALUE_1", "VALUE_2"))' returns rows where 'FILTER_FIELD' is either '"VALUE_1"' or '"VALUE_2"'.

date

Optional single date used to match all records from that day. Requires 'date_field'.

from

Optional start date, inclusive. Requires 'date_field'.

to

Optional end date, exclusive. Requires 'date_field'.

date_field

Optional date or datetime column to use with 'date', 'from', or 'to'. This must be supplied when any date filter is used. Users can identify available date columns by inspecting the dataset on the Austin Open Data Portal or by pulling a small sample with 'limit'.

where

Optional raw SoQL 'WHERE' clause for advanced filtering. SoQL is the Socrata Query Language used by Austin Open Data. If 'date', 'from', or 'to' are also supplied, their generated conditions are combined with 'where' using 'AND'.

order

Optional raw SoQL 'ORDER BY' clause, such as '"DATE_FIELD DESC"'.

timeout_sec

Request timeout in seconds. Defaults to 30.

clean_names

Logical. If 'TRUE', column names are converted to snake_case using [janitor::clean_names()]. Defaults to 'TRUE'.

coerce_types

Logical. If 'TRUE', the package attempts lightweight, heuristic-based type coercion after downloading the data. Columns are converted only when at least 95 percent of non-missing values can be parsed as the target type. This helps avoid unsafe conversions when source data are inconsistent.

Details

When a catalog 'key' is supplied, 'aus_pull_dataset()' first retrieves the live Austin Open Data catalog to look up the corresponding Socrata 'uid', then sends a second request to download the dataset itself. Supplying a 'uid' directly is more stable and avoids ambiguity, while keys are provided for readability and classroom-friendly workflows.

Dataset keys are generated from dataset names using [janitor::make_clean_names()]. Because keys are derived from live catalog metadata, Socrata UIDs are the most stable identifiers.

'aus_pull_dataset()' is designed for common catalog-based workflows. For arbitrary Socrata JSON endpoints that are not included in the package catalog, use [aus_any_dataset()].

The 'filters' argument is intended for simple exact-match filtering. For more complex conditions, use the 'where' argument with raw SoQL syntax.

Internally, filter field names are wrapped in 'TRIM()' when constructing SoQL queries to reduce mismatches caused by leading or trailing whitespace in source data.

Type coercion is intentionally conservative. When 'coerce_types = TRUE', the package attempts to infer common R column types from the API response, but columns with inconsistent values may remain character columns.

Datetime coercion is also conservative. Timezone offsets and sub-second precision may not always be preserved during automatic parsing, and columns with inconsistent datetime formats may remain character columns.

Value

A tibble containing rows from the requested Austin Open Data dataset.

Examples

if (interactive() && curl::has_internet()) {
  # Pull by human-readable key
  aus_pull_dataset("example_dataset_name", limit = 3)

  # Pull by Socrata UID
  aus_pull_dataset("9t4d-g238", limit = 3)

  # Filter to one value
  aus_pull_dataset(
    "9t4d-g238",
    limit = 3,
    filters = list(animal_type = "Other")
  )

  # Filter to multiple values
  aus_pull_dataset(
    "abcd-1234",
    limit = 10,
    filters = list(animal_type = c("Other", "Bird"))
  )

  # Date filtering
  aus_pull_dataset(
    "abcd-1234",
    from = "2023-01-01",
    to = "2024-01-01",
    date_field = "date_of_birth",
    limit = 100
  )

  # Advanced filtering with raw SoQL
  aus_pull_dataset(
    "abcd-1234",
    where = "animal_type = 'Other' AND outcome_type = 'Partner'",
    order = "date_of_birth DESC",
    limit = 100
  )
}