How to speed up the sharing and management of your data with the Explore API

Every time a dataset is published on an Opendatasoft data marketplace, an exploration API is automatically generated, without requiring additional configuration. This RESTful API is immediately up and running, accompanied by an interactive console and clear documentation.

This allows immediate access to data by all types of user, without requiring any coding or development. Business teams, partners or customers can test queries, filter data or retrieve targeted snippets, simply by navigating through the marketplace interface. As a result, it is much easier to share, explore, and reuse datasets.

The Explore API offers three main types of interactions:

1. Explore: query the necessary fields within a dataset, filter records, perform granular searches, and combine results according to your criteria. All without writing a single line of code! 
2. Analyze: perform simple calculations, groupings, or sorting directly via the API, using the SQL-like ODSQL language. 
3. Export: retrieve data in a multitude of formats designed to match your business tools (CSV, XLSX, JSON, GeoJSON, Shapefile, Parquet, KML, etc.).
   

This flexibility allows every user, whether a developer, analyst or business person, to integrate and work with the data asset in their preferred way, in their preferred environment.

•   For marketplace administrators, the Explore API allows them to better monitor data usage, reduce incoming requests and save precious time.
•   For technical users, it provides a robust and flexible interface that is compatible with third-party tools thanks to its RESTful architecture.
•   For non-technical users, it offers a simple gateway to data, without the need for advanced training.
•  For partners and customers, it ensures reliable, continuous and personalized access to relevant datasets.

Thanks to the Explore API, data sharing becomes industrialized and seamless. Datasets published in your data marketplace can be:

•   Integrated with internal or external applications
•   Connected to partner platforms
•   Displayed in dynamic visualizations
•   Or automatically reused by customers or suppliers

For example, a local authority can use the Explore API to share its mobility or road data with multiple technology partners, with each one only accessing the relevant data they want via adapted requests.

Another use case – a company in the energy or urban services sector can publish real-time updated datasets (network states, sensors, alerts) in its marketplace and expose them through automated interfaces. This reduces manual requests and ensures fast and reliable delivery of data.

One of the strengths of the Explore API lies in its ease of use. Each interaction in the marketplace can generate a tailored API URL, which can then be used in:

•   A connected file (spreadsheet, BI tool)
•   An app or web dashboard
•   A script or analytics platform

This allows the user to test, copy, and exploit a request without having to know the API syntax. This low-code approach democratizes access to data, while still enabling advanced technical use cases.

At the same time, access control, paging and quota mechanisms ensure controlled distribution, in accordance with corporate data governance rules and expected performance.

With the Explore API, your data marketplace becomes more than a space for publishing. It becomes an active, open, reliable, and customizable network for circulating and sharing data.

• You reduce manual dissemination tasks
• You promote user independence and self-service
• You create dynamic connections between your data and your business tools

By making access more seamless, accelerating reuse, and ensuring interoperability, the Explore API is a key tool for maximizing value from your data.

Opendatasoft’s Explore API is much more than just a technical tool. It accelerates the circulation, use and value of data. Accessible, intuitive and powerful, it makes it possible to multiply internal and external data uses while ensuring rigorous governance.

Combined with the Automation API, it automates the entire data lifecycle, from creation to publishing, updates and sharing. Together, they form an essential pairing for any organization that wants to deploy an ambitious, scalable and results-oriented data strategy.