Socrata

About Socrata

Socrata provides the SODA (Socrata Open Data API), a RESTful API for programmatically accessing open data published by governments, non-profits, and NGOs. The API supports querying through SoQL (Socrata Query Language), multiple data formats including JSON, GeoJSON, and CSV, and geospatial and other structured datatypes such as points, lines, and polygons.

The developer site offers documentation covering API endpoints, authentication via application tokens, response codes, and CORS/JSONP support, along with SDKs and libraries for languages and platforms including Java, JavaScript, Python, R, Ruby, PHP, Swift, .NET, and Scala. It also documents APIs for data publishers, including a SODA Producer API and Dataset Management API for adding, updating, or deleting data and metadata within Socrata datasets, plus connectors and ETL tools such as Pentaho Kettle, RSocrata, and Safe FME.

The platform serves both application developers building on open data and data publishers who manage and update datasets programmatically. Socrata was acquired by Tyler Technologies in 2018 and now operates as the Data and Insights division of Tyler, with the underlying platform unchanged.

Key features

• Programmatic access to open data via the SODA REST API
• SoQL query language for filtering and transforming datasets
• APIs for publishing, updating, and deleting data programmatically (SODA Producer API, Dataset Management API)
• SDKs and libraries for languages including Java, Python, R, PHP, Ruby, Swift, and JavaScript
• Support for multiple data formats including JSON, GeoJSON, and CSV
• Discovery API for browsing and searching data catalog metadata

Frequently asked questions