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ONS Geo Portal Explorer

The ONS Geo Portal Explorer provides access to the Office for National Statistics Open Geography Portal via the DCAT-AP API.

Overview​

The ONS Geo Portal contains geographic datasets from the UK's Office for National Statistics, including boundary files, UPRN directories, and other statistical geography products.

Basic Usage​

import HerdingCats as hc

# Create a session
with hc.CatSession(hc.ONSGeoPortal.ONS_GEO) as session:
    # Create an explorer
    explorer = hc.ONSGeoExplorer(session)

    # Check site health - will return True if healthy
    explorer.check_site_health()

Searching Datasets​

# Search for ONSUD datasets
results = explorer.search_datasets("ONSUD")
print(results)

Search with Sorting​

# Search with sorting by date created (descending)
results = explorer.search_datasets(
    q="ONSUD",
    sort="Date Created|created|desc"
)

Get Dataset Summary​

The get_datasets_summary() method returns a clean list of just IDs, titles, and descriptions:

# Get summary without descriptions (lightweight)
summary = explorer.get_datasets_summary("ONSUD", description=False)

for dataset in summary:
    print(f"ID: {dataset['id']}")
    print(f"Title: {dataset['title']}")
    print("-" * 50)
# Get summary with descriptions (default)
summary = explorer.get_datasets_summary("ONSUD")

for dataset in summary:
    print(f"ID: {dataset['id']}")
    print(f"Title: {dataset['title']}")
    print(f"Description: {dataset['description'][:200]}...")
    print("-" * 50)

Getting Download Information​

Once you have a dataset ID, you can get detailed resource metadata and download links:

# Get the dataset ID from search results
summary = explorer.get_datasets_summary("ONSUD")
dataset_id = summary[0]['id']  # e.g., "b28cd21f0f274c77a2d556f0ee9ba594"

# Get detailed download information
download_info = explorer.get_download_info(dataset_id)

print(f"Title: {download_info['title']}")
print(f"Size: {download_info['size']} bytes")
print(f"Type: {download_info['type']}")
print(f"Created: {download_info['created']}")
print(f"Modified: {download_info['modified']}")
print(f"Download URL: {download_info['download_url']}")

Complete Example​

import HerdingCats as hc

def explore_ons_geo_portal():
    """Example of exploring the ONS Geo Portal."""

    with hc.CatSession(hc.ONSGeoPortal.ONS_GEO) as session:
        explorer = hc.ONSGeoExplorer(session)

        print("Searching for ONSUD datasets...")
        summary = explorer.get_datasets_summary(
            q="ONSUD",
            sort="Date Created|created|desc",
            description=True
        )

        for i, dataset in enumerate(summary, 1):
            print(f"\n{i}. {dataset['title']}")
            print(f"   ID: {dataset['id']}")
            print(f"   Description: {dataset['description'][:150]}...")

        if summary:
            first_id = summary[0]['id']
            print(f"\nGetting download info for: {first_id}")

            download_info = explorer.get_download_info(first_id)
            print(f"\nDownload Details:")
            print(f"  Title: {download_info['title']}")
            print(f"  Size: {download_info['size']:,} bytes")
            print(f"  Download URL: {download_info['download_url']}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    explore_ons_geo_portal()

Available Methods​

  • check_site_health() - Check if the portal is accessible
  • get_datasets_summary() - Get clean list of ID, title, description
  • get_download_info() - Get download URLs and file information

Common Datasets​

Some commonly searched datasets in the ONS Geo Portal:

  • ONSUD - ONS UPRN Directory
  • Boundaries - Statistical boundary files
  • Lookups - Geographic lookups

Notes​

  • The ONS Geo Portal uses DCAT-AP 3.0.0 format
  • Download URLs point to ArcGIS REST API endpoints
  • Some large datasets may require authentication for download
  • File sizes can be substantial (100+ MB for some datasets)