dcat_fields.md

title	layout
DCAT/data.json fields	default

Introduction

This page describes the technical detail of DCAT and data.json, as recognized by data.gov.uk. DCAT and data.json are metadata formats suitable for harvesting into data.gov.uk, with more details here: Harvesting Data into data.gov.uk - DCAT

Dataset

data.json field	DCAT predicate	Example value	Comments
title	dct:title rdfs:label	Spend over £500	Mandatory
description	dct:description rdfs:comment	Spend transactions published monthly according to the Treasury transparency guidelines.	Mandatory
identifier	(equivalent to RDF object's URI or) dct:identifier	https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/lf24/lms or http://dx.doi.org/10.7927/H4PZ56R2	Mandatory. A string that identifies the dataset now and in the future, ideally even if the dataset's title changes. If the dataset is in a data catalogue, then supply the URL of the dataset page, or some other catalogue identifier. Or if it is not catalogues already you could assign it a random hexademical string of say 24 digits. Ideally the identifier should be globally unique - not just unique to the publisher - so a URI is highly recommended.
license	dct:license	http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ or Open Government Licence	Mandatory. Either a license URI or a title. If a title, it must be exact or may not be recognized as open.
keyword	dcat:keyword	data.json: "keyword": {"geochemistry", "geology"} DCAT: <dcat:keyword>geochemistry</dcat:keyword> <dcat:keyword>geology</dcat:keyword>	Not displayed by data.gov.uk but helps theme categorization
issued	dct:issued	2012-05	Date that the data was first published. Formats allowed are: 'YYYY-MM-DD', 'YYYY-MM', 'YYYY' or 'YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.mmmmmm' (according to ISO8601)
modified	dct:modified	2012-06-10	Date that the data was most recently updated. Formats allowed are: 'YYYY-MM-DD', 'YYYY-MM', 'YYYY' or 'YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.mmmmmm' (according to ISO8601)
publisher	dct:publisher	data.json: "publisher": {"name": "Geological Society", "mbox": "[email protected]"} DCAT: <dct:publisher> <foaf:Organization> <foaf:name>Geological Society</foaf:name> <foaf:mbox>[email protected] </foaf:mbox> </foaf:Organization> </dct:publisher>	Mandatory. However the harvester will attach the dataset to the publisher selected in the harvest source.
distribution	dcat:distribution		A location for accessing/obtaining the data. See "Distribution" table below
landingPage	dcat:landingPage	https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/oil-and-petroleum-products-weekly-statistics	URL of a web page specifically about this dataset and probably has direct links to its resources and further information.
references	foaf:Document	["http://data.dft.gov.uk/road-accidents-safety-data/Brief-guide-to%20road-accidents-and-safety-data.doc"] OR in data.json you can specify more fields like a distribution e.g. [{"url": "https://indicators.ic.nhs.uk/framework.pdf", "title": "Framework specification", "format": "application/pdf"}]	URL of a web page, PDF or other documentation that gives more information about the dataset. (Although use landingPage instead for a URL if that is more appropriate.) Should be an array, to allow multiple references to be specified.
language	dct:language	["en"] or ["http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-1/en"]	Language of the data. Should be an array of values ["en", ...].
frequency	dct:accrualPeriodicity	R/P1Y (=annual) R/P1W (=weekly)	The frequency at which dataset is published. Format: ISO 8601 Repeating Duration (or irregular) See: https://project-open-data.cio.gov/iso8601_guidance/#accrualperiodicity
temporal	dct:temporal	2000-01-15/2000-01-20 2010-01/2010-03 2010/2010	The date period that the data applies to. Formatted as two ISO 8601 dates (or datetimes) separated by a slash. If the period in question is a whole year or whole month, just put the same value for start and finish - eg 2010/2010 or 2010-06/2010-06.
spatial	dct:spatial	{\"type\":\"Polygon\",\"coordinates\":[[[2.072, 49.943],[2.072, 55.816], [-6.236, 55.816], [-6.236, 49.943], [2.072, 49.943]]]}	The geographic location that the data applies to. If not specified, then it is inherited from the dataset's publisher. Formatted as a GeoJSON point, bounding box or polygon.
theme	dcat:theme	http://eurovoc.europa.eu/209416 - Police - Eurovoc COFOG/03.1.0 Police services - COFOG http://id.esd.org.uk/function/20 - Police services - ESD	Main thematic category of the dataset. Preferably expressed as a URI from a known vocabulary: Eurovoc COFOG ESD Service/Function More than one can be specified using a [] list. NB This field is currently ignored by data.gov.uk - use other fields as described in Themes

Local Authorities should ensure they add an ESD service or function URI as the dataset's theme, to ensure good classification.

Distribution

These are for data not documentation.

data.json field	DCAT predicate	Example value	Comments
downloadURL	dcat:downloadURL	http://site.gov.uk/river-levels/dec2012.csv	The direct URL that downloads a file with the data
accessURL	dcat:accessURL	http://www.site.gov.uk/api/sparql http://site.gov.uk/river-level-data.html	If there is not a downloadURL, specify the accessURL, which is the URL of an API or other non-downloadable data (NB documentation or other web pages should not be distributions)
title	dct:title	Spend transactions, Dec 2012
description	dct:description		Not currently displayed on DGU
format	dcat:mediaType	text/csv	Currently recognized mime-types are listed here: DGU formats
conformsTo	dct:conformsTo	http://schemas.opendata.esd.org.uk/publictoilets/PublicToilets.json?v=0.41	URL of the machine-readable schema that the data conforms to. See: Harvesting - Local Authority data schemas.
temporal	dct:temporal	2000-01-15/2000-01-20 2010-01/2010-03 2010/2010	The date period that the data applies to. Formatted as two ISO 8601 dates (or datetimes) separated by a slash. If the period in question is a whole year or whole month, just put the same value for start and finish - eg 2010/2010 or 2010-06/2010-06. data.gov.uk only stores the first date of the pair in the "date" field, and if the 2 dates are different, it adds the range into the "name" field.
spatial	dct:spatial	{\"type\":\"Polygon\",\"coordinates\":[[[2.072, 49.943],[2.072, 55.816], [-6.236, 55.816], [-6.236, 49.943], [2.072, 49.943]]]}	The geographic location that the data applies to. If not specified, then it is inherited from the dataset if not its publisher. Formatted as a GeoJSON point, bounding box or polygon.
identifier	(equivalent to RDF object's URI or) dct:identifier	https://data.some.org/catalog/datasets/9df8df51-63db-37a8-e044-0003ba9b0d98/resource/4252f71c-4f2f-4e37-ab4e-b58b4ac255bb	Optional. Use it to help CKAN keep track of a distribution that has changing properties (e.g. a new URL or format), or for DCAT compliance. Must be globally unique - not just unique to the publisher. A URI is highly recommended (ideally one that returns a web page about the distribution).

data.json file structure

The data.json file should be structured as an array "[ ... ]" of dataset objects "{ ... }".

e.g.

[
 {"title": "Live traffic information from the Highways Agency",
  "license": "No license provided",
  "publisher": {"name": "Highways Agency", "mbox": "[email protected]"},
  "distribution": [
    {
      "downloadURL": "https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/lmtesting2810/HATRIS_15MinuteMIDAS_YYYY-MM-DD_0.csv.zip",
      "title": "Hatris 15 Min Midas 0",
      "format": "application/zip"
    }]
 },
 {"title": "Roadworks locations",
   ...
 }
]

Alternatively, you can put this information inside a catalogue object under the key "datasets". Although data.gov.uk doesn't harvest the catalogue data, allowing this structure gives reasonable compatibility with Project Open Data.

Character encoding

The data.json file should have ASCII or UTF-8 character encoding (as per the JSON standard). The harvester now detects this and gives an error if it is not acceptable.

Namespaces

| dcat | http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat# | | dct | http://purl.org/dc/terms/ | | rdfs | http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema# |

Comparison with USA data.json schema

The UK data.json format is based on the Project Open Data data.json schema used by the U.S. Federal Government and agencies: https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/

However there are a few conscious differences that are listed here for reference:

Field	Change	Explanation
bureauCode, programCode, primaryITInvestmentUII, systemOfRecords, dataQuality	not required	They are codes specific to US Federal Government
temporal, spatial	Can be applied to not just a dataset but also distributions.	e.g. Spend data is split up by months
spatial	Formatted with GeoJSON	GeoJSON is analagous to GML but preferred. Place name strings are not preferred as they can be ambiguous.
theme	The values are URIs from known classification vocabularies, rather than simply strings.	A catalogue chooses its own classification vocabularies, so there is little value in simple strings determined by the data publisher. Strings related to the data's topic can go in the keywords field.