Launch of DATA.GOV.IE version 3

We are delighted to have launched a new and improved version of the national Open Data portal, data.gov.ie, in March 2018, which is the third iteration of the portal.  The previous version of data.gov.ie had been in place since June 2015 and was due an overhaul given the amount of Open Data developments that have occurred in the intervening years. Data.gov.ie version 3 is built using CKAN version 2.8, upgraded from v2.2b.

It was important for us to maintain a familiar look & feel for users, while making substantial upgrades including to the backend, processes, harvesting and usability of the site.  This has resulted in a portal that is more user-friendly, responsive and secure than the previous version. Data.gov.ie is now more aligned with core CKAN and facilitates an improved administrative flow and more efficient development.

For people who are browsing and accessing data on the data.gov.ie, there are a number of improvements to the overall user experience, including:

• Improved GeoSpatial previews for many data types including for WMS, WFS, KML, Shapefiles, shp.zip. 

• Downloadable CSV exports from JSON-STAT datasets

• Better Search Facility

• Easily see and sort datasets by the number of dataset views

• Updated Publisher page

• Updated Showcase page

Similarly, for organisations publishing Open Data on the portal, there are a number of improvements, including:

• All existing harvesters have been updated, resulting in the addition of over 700 datasets. It is also easier to add new harvesters to data.gov.ie.

• 5-star ratings are assigned as soon as a new dataset is added to the portal, as opposed to on a nightly basis

Being able to find out more about how Open Data from data.gov.ie is being used is very important for us, so that we can continue to improve the quality and relevance of the datasets being published. We have therefore recently added a survey to the portal which can be completed by those downloading datasets.  This is to capture information on who is using data.gov.ie, what they are using it for and also to capture user experience and feedback – all optional.  Please take the time to complete the survey as we value all feedback received and it helps us to improve the service. 

We look forward to hearing your comments and any questions you might have!