Package {ctOpenData}

Type:	Package
Title:	A Lightweight Interface to Connecticut Open Data APIs
Version:	0.1.1
Description:	Provides a unified set of helper functions to access datasets from the Connecticut Open Data platform https://data.ct.gov/. Functions return results as tidy tibbles and support optional filtering, sorting, and row limits via the Socrata API. The package provides a consistent interface for discovering and downloading datasets from the Connecticut Open Data Portal using human-readable dataset keys or official Socrata dataset identifiers.
License:	MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding:	UTF-8
RoxygenNote:	8.0.0
Imports:	curl, dplyr, httr, janitor, jsonlite, rlang, tibble
Suggests:	ggplot2, knitr, rmarkdown, scales, testthat (≥ 3.0.0), tidyr, vcr (≥ 0.6.0), webmockr
URL:	https://github.com/gomes-sh/ctOpenData
BugReports:	https://github.com/gomes-sh/ctOpenData/issues
VignetteBuilder:	knitr
Config/testthat/edition:	3
Depends:	R (≥ 4.1.0)
NeedsCompilation:	no
Packaged:	2026-08-24 16:53:10 UTC; magic
Author:	Shelby Lyn Gomes [aut] (GitHub: gomes-sh), Christian Martinez [aut, cre] (GitHub: martinezc1)
Maintainer:	Christian Martinez <c.martinez0@outlook.com>
Repository:	CRAN
Date/Publication:	2026-09-05 13:50:14 UTC

Pull any Connecticut Open Data dataset from a 'Socrata' JSON endpoint

Description

Downloads data from any Connecticut 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 [ct_list_datasets()].

Usage

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

Arguments

Details

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

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

For example, a dataset with the 'Socrata' UID '"ffju-s5c5"' would have the JSON endpoint:

'https://data.ct.gov/resource/ffju-s5c5.json'

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

'ct_any_dataset()' bypasses the package catalog and sends a request directly to the supplied JSON endpoint. Unlike [ct_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 [ct_pull_dataset()].

Value

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

Examples

# Examples that hit the live Connecticut 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 <- "ffju-s5c5"
  endpoint <- paste0("https://data.ct.gov/resource/", uid, ".json")

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

List available Connecticut Open Data datasets

Description

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

Usage

ct_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 Connecticut 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 'ct_list_datasets()', searching the returned catalog for a dataset of interest, and then passing either the 'key' or 'uid' to [ct_pull_dataset()].

Value

A tibble containing available Connecticut 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 Connecticut Open Data.

name

The dataset name from the Connecticut Open Data catalog.

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

Examples

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

  # View available datasets
  catalog

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

Pull a Connecticut Open Data dataset

Description

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

Usage

ct_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

Details

When a catalog 'key' is supplied, 'ct_pull_dataset()' first retrieves the live Connecticut 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.

'ct_pull_dataset()' is designed for common catalog-based workflows. For arbitrary 'Socrata' JSON endpoints that are not included in the package catalog, use [ct_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 Connecticut Open Data dataset.

Examples

if (interactive() && curl::has_internet()) {
  # Pull by human-readable key
  ct_pull_dataset("spill_incidents_from_july_1_2022_to_recent_for_download", limit = 3)

  # Pull by `Socrata` UID
  ct_pull_dataset("ffju-s5c5", limit = 3)

  # Filter to one value
  ct_pull_dataset(
    "ffju-s5c5",
    limit = 3,
    filters = list(incident_type = "Petroleum Incident")
  )

  # Filter to multiple values
  ct_pull_dataset(
    "ffju-s5c5",
    limit = 10,
    filters = list(incident_type = c("Biomedical Incident", "Dielectric Fluid Incident"))
  )

  # Date filtering
  ct_pull_dataset(
    "ffju-s5c5",
    from = "2023-01-01",
    to = "2024-01-01",
    date_field = "reported_date",
    limit = 100
  )

  # Advanced filtering with raw SoQL
  ct_pull_dataset(
    "ffju-s5c5",
    where = "incident_type = 'Petroleum Incident' AND township = 'New Haven'",
    order = "reported_date DESC",
    limit = 100
  )
}