Common Questions about Halifax's Open Data

Section 1 - General

1.1 - What is open data?

Open data is the philosophy and practice of providing municipally-generated data to the public in a machine-readable format, without the restrictions of copyright, patent, or other control mechanisms.

It enables entrepreneurs, academics, community groups, other learning communities, developers, and interested citizens to use data to improve the social experience and stimulate economic growth by developing  applications.

Open data is most commonly released as structured data, including:
geographic data
scheduling
statistics
demographic data

1.2 - What is the Halifax Open Data Administrative Order?

The HRM Open Data Administrative Order is a piece of legislation that enables the municipality to open up the doors on its data and make that data available to anyone and everyone, with no control mechanisms to limit its use and reuse.

1.3 - Halifax's Open Data Program

All data in the Open Data Catalogue is provided and maintained by Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) staff. The municipality considers this authoritative data. However, the municipality has partnered with some external organizations to host data within the Open Data Catalogue, these organizations include Halifax Water (HW) and Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE). HW and HRCE are the authority of their data and HRM is providing the means to make the data available to the public.

Datasets within the Open Data Catalogue do not contain any personal information to ensure there are no privacy or sensitivity concerns. The municipality is committed to releasing new datasets throughout the year. 

1.4 - What are the terms of use?

The Halifax Open Data Catalogue has adopted the Common Open Government License (OGL). This brings Halifax in line with the direction recommended by the Canadian federal government and the current global open data movement, making our data even more open and keeping the license simple and clear.


1.5 - How frequently is data refreshed on the site?

Most data in the Open Data Catalogue is refreshed on a weekly basis and takes place on Sunday. Periodically there may be delays due to maintenance.

There are several datasets that need to be updated on a more frequent daily basis due to application support. 

Datasets that are for a set time period (static) are provided within the catalogue for historic purposes and therefore not refreshed.

More information about the refresh frequency can be found within the Open Data Catalogue dataset.

Section 2 - Access

1.2 - How do I search for data on the site?

Content within the site can be searched through the Search Bar by dataset title or using key words (TAGs) to find specific data. At the top of the search results, there are content types (All, Data, Documents, Apps & Maps) which allows content to be filtered in the search results. Open Data datasets are within the Data content type and some of the larger datasets on the Open Data Downloads page come up as Documents because the dataset has a document link. In the search results list, the content type is also displayed above the dataset title to differentiate between data or an app that may be named similarly.  Mapping Applications can all be filtered using the Apps & Maps content filter.

2.2 - How can I view the datasets in the Open Data Catalogue?

Data is available in either spatial or tabular format. Spatial data refers to any data that contains a mapping aspect, meaning it relates to a specific location on the earth's surface. Tabular data is only available in a table or spreadsheet format.

2.3 - How do I download data?

There are a variety of buttons to select to download the data. All of the buttons should open up the Download Options panel and you can choose from a number of data formats. 

Spatial data formats include: CSV, KML, Shapefile, GeoJSON, File Geodatabase.

Tabular data can be downloaded to a CSV or File Geodatabase.

2.4 - Why are there two different Download Options for each of the data formats?

Data is cached on the site. You can choose to download a new file with the latest data or a file that was previously downloaded. The download time will be longer to generate a new file as opposed to the previously generated file which should be instantaneous. The date the previous file was generated is provided to give you an idea of the currency of the data.

2.5 - Can data be filtered to only download specific data?

Data can be filtered by selecting the Filter Data button in the Map/Table view. You can select multiple attributes filters and the options within the attributes will appear in the Filters window. The data in the Map/Table will filter as you select the options to only include the information you have selected. To download only the filtered data, you must select the Toggle Filters button at the top of the Download Options. When selected the number of filtered records shows up in the Download Options. Now when you select the Download button, you will only get the filtered results.

2.6 - Is there an option to access the data through an API?

To view the API options, you need to click on the More Information button in the Map/Table view and then click on the View Full Details button to open up the dataset /about page. Near the bottom of the page there is a list of items under I want to. Select View API Resource to expand the window to view the GeoService and GeoJSON weblinks. These weblinks can be added into applications to get updated data when the open data site is refreshed. To refine the information you want through the JSON, you can Open in API Explorer and only select the Fields and Filters you want to view in the results.

Section 3 - Data Formats

3.1 - What is a CSV?

A comma-separated values (CSV) file is a file where the values are delimited by commas. This file can be opened in Excel or Notepad.

3.2 - What is a File Geodatabase?

A file geodatabase is a GIS file format for storing a collection of files in a folder. Data in a file geodatabase can be either spatial and/or tabular.

3.3 - What is a GeoJSON?

A GeoJSON is an application programming interface (API) used by developers to get regular updated data into applications. A GeoJSON is an open standard geospatial data interchange format that represents simple geographic features and their nonspatial attributes.

3.4 - What is a GeoService?

A GeoService is an application programming interface (API) used by developers to get regular updated data into applications. A GeoService is a Representational State Transfer (REST) based application programming interface that provides developers consistent and complete access to structured data.

3.5 - What is a KML?

Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is an XML file format used to display geographic data in a Earth browser such as Google Earth.

3.6 - What is a shapefile?

The ESRI shapefile, or simply a shapefile, is a popular geospatial data format for geographic information system software. It is developed and regulated by Esri as an open specification for data interoperability among Esri and other geospatial software products.

Or, put plainly: shapefiles spatially describe features like points, lines, and polygons to represent features such as buildings, topography, or roads. Each item usually has attributes that describe it, such as name or size.

Section 4 - Metadata

4.1 - What is metadata? 

Metadata is additional information about the dataset; like description, purpose and a list of the fields or columns that make up the tabular view of the dataset. 

4.2 - How can I view the metadata document for an Open Data dataset?

Each open data dataset has a PDF metadata document link included as part of Summary on the dataset /about page. To view the dataset /about page, click on the More Information button in the Map/Table view and View Full Details button.

4.3 - What is the difference between maintenance frequency and refresh frequency in the metadata?

Maintenance frequency refers to how often the dataset is updated in its source environment, whereas refresh frequency is how often the dataset is updated on the Open Data site.

Section 5 - Feedback/Support

5.1 - Why can’t I read some dataset formats?

Some dataset formats require a special program to view the files. Shapefiles and file geodatabases require GIS software to view the files. ArcGIS Explorer Desktop is a free online GIS viewer for shapefiles. 

5.2 - How do I report an error in the data or request a dataset to be released?

Feedback for our Open Data program can be submitted through our Open Data Feedback Form. You can submit information about a data error, issues with the site, comments about a dataset or suggest a new dataset to be released. All data requests have to go through the open data release process which includes getting approval from the data stewards, review by Access & Privacy and ensuring there is a process put in place to regularly update the data to the Open Data Catalogue.

5.3 - Does Halifax Transit offer technical support for GTFS to the Developer Community (third-party developers)?

Unfortunately, Halifax Transit does not have the resources to offer General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) support. Google does provide detailed documentation for GTFS. Developers may also post questions to the Google Transit Data Feed Developer's Group.  Issues with the actual content of the data provided should be reported to 311.