Package {nolaOpenData}

Type:	Package
Title:	A Lightweight Interface to New Orleans Open Data APIs
Version:	0.1.1
Description:	Provides a unified set of helper functions to access datasets from the New Orleans Open Data platform https://data.nola.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 San Francisco 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/nolaOpenData
BugReports:	https://github.com/gomes-sh/nolaOpenData/issues
VignetteBuilder:	knitr
Config/testthat/edition:	3
Depends:	R (≥ 4.1.0)
NeedsCompilation:	no
Packaged:	2026-08-21 14:10:27 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:	2026-08-30 10:00:09 UTC

Pull any New Orleans Open Data dataset from a 'Socrata' JSON endpoint

Description

Downloads data from any New Orleans 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 [nola_list_datasets()].

Usage

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

Arguments

Details

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

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

For example, a dataset with the 'Socrata' UID '"r6b2-hfba"' would have the JSON endpoint:

'https://data.nola.gov/resource/r6b2-hfba.json'

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

'nola_any_dataset()' bypasses the package catalog and sends a request directly to the supplied JSON endpoint. Unlike [nola_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 [nola_pull_dataset()].

Value

A tibble containing rows from the requested New Orleans Open Data endpoint.

Examples

# Examples that hit the live New Orleans 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 <- "r6b2-hfba"
  endpoint <- paste0("https://data.nola.gov/resource/", uid, ".json")

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

List available New Orleans Open Data datasets

Description

Retrieves a live catalog of New Orleans Open Data datasets from the New Orleans Open Data Portal catalog table ('r6b2-hfba') and returns dataset metadata that can be used with [nola_pull_dataset()].

Usage

nola_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 New Orleans 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 'nola_list_datasets()', searching the returned catalog for a dataset of interest, and then passing either the 'key' or 'uid' to [nola_pull_dataset()].

Value

A tibble containing available New Orleans 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 New Orleans Open Data.

name

The dataset name from the New Orleans Open Data catalog.

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

Examples

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

  # View available datasets
  catalog

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

Pull a New Orleans Open Data dataset

Description

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

Usage

nola_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, 'nola_pull_dataset()' first retrieves the live New Orleans 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.

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

Examples

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

  # Pull by Socrata UID
  nola_pull_dataset("wx2k-rsac", limit = 3)

  # Filter to one value
  nola_pull_dataset(
    "wx2k-rsac",
    limit = 3,
    filters = list(department = "Safety & Permits")
  )

  # Filter to multiple values
  nola_pull_dataset(
    "wx2k-rsac",
    limit = 10,
    filters = list(department = c("Safety & Permits", "FIRE"))
  )

  # Date filtering
  nola_pull_dataset(
    "wx2k-rsac",
    from = "2025-01-01",
    to = "2026-01-01",
    date_field = "start_date",
    limit = 100
  )

  # Advanced filtering with raw SoQL
  nola_pull_dataset(
    "wx2k-rsac",
    where = "department = 'Safety & Permits' AND list_type = 'Regular'",
    order = "start_date DESC",
    limit = 100
  )
}