cityofnewyork-us/benefits-and-programs-multilingual-dataset-yjpx-srhp
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Query the Data Delivery Network

Query the DDN

The easiest way to query any data on Splitgraph is via the "Data Delivery Network" (DDN). The DDN is a single endpoint that speaks the PostgreSQL wire protocol. Any Splitgraph user can connect to it at data.splitgraph.com:5432 and query any version of over 40,000 datasets that are hosted or proxied by Splitgraph.

For example, you can query the benefits_and_programs_multilingual_dataset table in this repository, by referencing it like:

"cityofnewyork-us/benefits-and-programs-multilingual-dataset-yjpx-srhp:latest"."benefits_and_programs_multilingual_dataset"

or in a full query, like:

SELECT
    ":id", -- Socrata column ID
    "program_category", -- Type of program.
    "get_help_by_email", -- How to get help/questions answered by email from the administering agency.
    "how_to_apply_or_enroll_online", -- Instructions for how to apply to the program online.
    "office_locations_url", -- Link to location finder on ACCESS NYC - where map of in-person application centers is available.
    "heads_up", -- List of key program attributes/common questions (e.g. facts, application formats, citizenship status, deadlines).
    "url_of_online_application", -- Link to the online application for the program.
    "get_help_in_person", -- How to get help in person, with a link to the administering agency's in-person centers (ACCESS NYC locations page), or the address for the center.
    "population_served", -- Target population for program.
    "how_to_apply_or_enroll_by", -- Instructions for how to apply to the program by mail.
    "how_to_apply_or_enroll_in", -- Instructions for how to apply to the program in person.
    "page_type", -- Type of information.
    "get_help_online", -- How to get help online, with link(s) to the administering agency's website.
    "language", -- Language of program information.
    "url_of_pdf_application_forms", -- Link to download the PDF application form.
    "how_to_apply_or_enroll_by_1", -- Instructions for how to apply to the program by phone.
    "program_description", -- Plain language description of what the program is and how it works.
    "get_help_summary", -- A summary of the different ways you can get help with this program.
    "unique_id_number", -- Unique identifier.
    "brief_excerpt", -- One sentence description of program.
    "program_acronym", -- Acronym for program (e.g. SNAP).
    "get_help_by_calling_other", -- How to get help by calling the administering agency, and the phone number.
    "program_name", -- Official name of program (e.g. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
    "government_agency", -- Name of administering government agency(ies).
    "plain_language_eligibility", -- Plain language overview of the eligibility requirements for the program.
    "program_code", -- Code used for screening in ACCESS NYC ONLY.
    "age_group", -- Target age group for program.
    "plain_language_program_name", -- A plain language name for the program that describes what it is or does (e.g. SNAP = Money to buy food).
    "how_to_apply_summary", -- Summary of the different ways to apply for the program.
    "apply_online_call_to_action", -- Call to action phrase for applying online (e.g. "Apply online," "File online"). 
    "apply_by_mail_call_to_action", -- Call to action phrase for applying by mail (usually "Download the form").
    "apply_in_person_call_to_action", -- Call to action phrase for applying in person (e.g. "Find a location").
    "required_documents_summary", -- A summary of the documents required to apply for this program.
    "get_help_by_calling_311", -- How to get help by calling 311 and what to ask for, or 911 for emergencies.
    "updated_at"
FROM
    "cityofnewyork-us/benefits-and-programs-multilingual-dataset-yjpx-srhp:latest"."benefits_and_programs_multilingual_dataset"
LIMIT 100;

Connecting to the DDN is easy. All you need is an existing SQL client that can connect to Postgres. As long as you have a SQL client ready, you'll be able to query cityofnewyork-us/benefits-and-programs-multilingual-dataset-yjpx-srhp with SQL in under 60 seconds.

This repository is an "external" repository. That means it's hosted elsewhere, in this case at data.cityofnewyork.us. When you querycityofnewyork-us/benefits-and-programs-multilingual-dataset-yjpx-srhp:latest on the DDN, we "mount" the repository using the socrata mount handler. The mount handler proxies your SQL query to the upstream data source, translating it from SQL to the relevant language (in this case SoQL).

We also cache query responses on the DDN, but we run the DDN on multiple nodes so a CACHE_HIT is only guaranteed for subsequent queries that land on the same node.

Query Your Local Engine

Install Splitgraph Locally
bash -c "$(curl -sL https://github.com/splitgraph/splitgraph/releases/latest/download/install.sh)"
 

Read the installation docs.

Splitgraph Cloud is built around Splitgraph Core (GitHub), which includes a local Splitgraph Engine packaged as a Docker image. Splitgraph Cloud is basically a scaled-up version of that local Engine. When you query the Data Delivery Network or the REST API, we mount the relevant datasets in an Engine on our servers and execute your query on it.

It's possible to run this engine locally. You'll need a Mac, Windows or Linux system to install sgr, and a Docker installation to run the engine. You don't need to know how to actually use Docker; sgrcan manage the image, container and volume for you.

There are a few ways to ingest data into the local engine.

For external repositories (like this repository), the Splitgraph Engine can "mount" upstream data sources by using sgr mount. This feature is built around Postgres Foreign Data Wrappers (FDW). You can write custom "mount handlers" for any upstream data source. For an example, we blogged about making a custom mount handler for HackerNews stories.

For hosted datasets, where the author has pushed Splitgraph Images to the repository, you can "clone" and/or "checkout" the data using sgr cloneand sgr checkout.

Mounting Data

This repository is an external repository. It's not hosted by Splitgraph. It is hosted by data.cityofnewyork.us, and Splitgraph indexes it. This means it is not an actual Splitgraph image, so you cannot use sgr clone to get the data. Instead, you can use the socrata adapter with the sgr mount command. Then, if you want, you can import the data and turn it into a Splitgraph image that others can clone.

First, install Splitgraph if you haven't already.

Mount the table with sgr mount

sgr mount socrata \
  "cityofnewyork-us/benefits-and-programs-multilingual-dataset-yjpx-srhp" \
  --handler-options '{
    "domain": "data.cityofnewyork.us",
    "tables": {
        "benefits_and_programs_multilingual_dataset": "yjpx-srhp"
    }
}'

That's it! Now you can query the data in the mounted table like any other Postgres table.

Query the data with your existing tools

Once you've loaded the data into your local Splitgraph engine, you can query it with any of your existing tools. As far as they're concerned, cityofnewyork-us/benefits-and-programs-multilingual-dataset-yjpx-srhp is just another Postgres schema.