bcdata Service Documentation
In bcdata: Search and Retrieve Data from the BC Data Catalogue

DataBC Services used by `bcdata`

This document is an attempt at a comprehensive list of services and API endpoints accessed by the bcdata R package, as well which return values we rely on from those endpoints.

BC Data Catalogue

API version:

PROD: https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/api/3
BETA: https://beta-catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/api/3

Endpoints:

/action/package_show
/action/package_search
- license_id
- download_audience
- res_format
- sector
- organization
/action/package_list
/action/group_show

Response values used:

package:
- title
- name
- id
- license_title
- type
- notes
- layer_name
- resources (see below)
resource:
- id
- package_id
- object_name (This is not always the same as the typeNames parameter in resource.url, as that is sometimes a simplified view - eg., WHSE_ADMIN_BOUNDARIES.ADM_NR_DISTRICTS_SPG vs WHSE_ADMIN_BOUNDARIES.ADM_NR_DISTRICTS_SP)
- details
- column_comments
- column_name
- bcdc_type (not actually using yet but may be useful)
- format
- resource_storage_location
- name
- url
group:
- description
- packages

Web Services

API Version:

TEST: https://test.openmaps.gov.bc.ca
DELIVERY: https://delivery.openmaps.gov.bc.ca
PROD: https://openmaps.gov.bc.ca

Endpoints:

wfs: geo/pub/wfs
wms: geo/pub/wms

Query Parameters for geo/pub/wfs:

query is sent in the body of a POST request (with encode = "form"). If a dataset has > n records (default n = 1000), pagination is used to send sequential requests. Pagination is executed using count, sortBY, and startIndex.
- SERVICE = "WFS"
- VERSION = "2.0.0"
- REQUEST = "GetCapabilities"
- REQUEST = "GetFeature"
- outputFormat = "application/json"
- typeNames (extracted from resource.url and compared against resource.object_name)
- SRSNAME (default EPSG:3005)
- CQL_FILTER
- count
- propertyName
- sortBy
- startIndex