Write APIs

Government Admin users can use Write APIs to automatically and programmatically publish data to data.gov.sg without needing to log into the UI

Prerequisites

If you're testing on staging, use the https://api-staging.data.gov.sg/ domain instead of the https://api-production.data.gov.sg/ domain listed in the documentation below

You must be a government officer
Your email has admin permissions to manage datasets

Step 1 - Generate API Keys:

Create an API key from the admin dashboard.
Store the API key in a secure location. It will be used later.
Step by step details can be found here: How to generate API keys

Step 2 - Verify API Connectivity:

Who Am I

get

Header parameters

x-dgs-admin-api-keystringOptionalExample: your-api-key

Responses

200

Successful response

application/json

Responseobject

get

GET /v2/admin/api/auth/whoami HTTP/1.1
Host: api-production.data.gov.sg
Accept: */*

200

Successful response

{
  "user": {
    "userId": "167",
    "email": "[email protected]"
  }
}

Run a get request against the above endpoint, using your admin api key in the header:

https://api-production.data.gov.sg/v2/admin/api/auth/whoami

A 200 response means that you're connected.

Common issues:

Check your API URL - did you use the correct URL above?
Check your API key - did you use the correct API key? Try regenerating the API key and testing again
Are the network configurations set up to connect to the internet? data.gov.sg is an internet platform and require internet connectivity

Step 3 - Publish Dataset:

To push data, an existing dataset must exist. The dataset can be created from the admin dashboard.
The dataset must already contain existing data.
The dataset must be published.
For more details on publishing data: How to publish data

Using Write APIs involves three steps:

Generating upload link
Uploading file to link
Polling for upload status

Step 4 - Create Upload / Append URL:

There are two types of links you can create depending on your use case:

Note that the pre-signed url generated will expire after 1 hour

If you're replacing an existing dataset completely, use the get create upload URL method
If you are appending rows to an existing dataset, use the get create append URL method.
1. Please ensure the column data types and names are all the same and no new columns have been added. This append API only supports appending rows to an existing dataset and not appending columns

Get Create Upload URL

get

Path parameters

datasetIdstringRequiredExample: d_263ee33e4d309a0bba75a1fd30ab7035

Header parameters

x-dgs-admin-api-keystringOptionalExample: your-api-key

Responses

201

Created

application/json

Responseobject

get

GET /v2/admin/api/datasets/{datasetId}/upload-link HTTP/1.1
Host: api-production.data.gov.sg
Accept: */*

201

Created

{
  "url": "https://s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/attachments.data.gov.sg/c/6047/private/d_2a6070fa301695904e1a626434189e59/VW50aXRsZWQgRGF0YXNldA/d_2a6070fa301695904e1a626434189e59.csv?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAU7LWPY2WH4V4RGEJ%2F20231129%2Fap-southeast-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20231129T053810Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEHYaDmFwLXNvdXRoZWFzdC0xIkYwRAIgdQy7ZfOZaDbQIEsS5VqAd76mSGitIgNSHxm3C6sP9SwCIFS5kaaPMcCYQpVv9UdgGzwLZyujx1S844oiCHZxT3yhKqcDCM%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEQBBoMMzQyMjM1MjY4NzgwIgxKiGm5wh31GOszXoIq%2BwLwXu11Ykcov8rg20fsos4%2FcGfR8JtKuUvTtjKC4IBP46v5FzBKPIlMT%2ByfrMvOYZV4kqSiN5%2F%2FeOuGMwk6tfNGY0PphSWfTnWCEVT5wap%2BFRsW7OTPFy9G3ih0X1h7NDYpK%2F1Jkh9pM3%2FyW4x7FQUnXaptNP3k%2FWArdBG3kIvH2kaOiBU9TlqvRhP0xd7dEXoqARY%2BZiOIFBoA2WknNPxQU82mzavOFj9hmeSyi5rvsFa%2BG47m02g6F46vIicnDzQSDgO7UAusH9pQPO40jXvspYAYknW7BQ6EnMcUL61fUWPCaS8zaLdvRNnb6gisasL8RC6gJsJeAPLRhijUxD8KsVDWtt3ZBho7YR5tQbdg%2FAIVmPL4xQe%2B05N9dHt5wG9ws8A2789F3SgF0yZW9tzc5IfNIxsixotOrLkZRUBXmzujAVe51sQM98dx93Y2%2B%2F9mGbQY7700ShGjAyErYvdl2CYJutJ9jI1yswaJkFyR8MkxmSf26vUY7Of0MMCcm6sGOp4BNi7cp9OFj6enS%2Fn7jhlhdFbkn4zBa%2F0e4ywK05Vqzr7mRguUmMawsUh9i%2Booc%2Bnn90PA7C6YvzZ3IBxyJLWxmzkRDpdlThbkQwxpREJ2c%2FzaPNPdUTrDvp28qAPV3bUe%2FWJTKY7Lh72U2AIRFlKUoTCpQ6ihvgIZH1GGPJsomcajXaguK%2F5yLAqFxY%2B7org%2FJlFwMXfZUSzuObK%2BHsE%3D&X-Amz-Signature=c3444a1b8e9d73d8ac7fd64da4a963860a3e9353ae956f08687a78640dedb834&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&x-id=PutObject"
}

Get Create Append URL

get

Path parameters

datasetIdstringRequiredExample: d_263ee33e4d309a0bba75a1fd30ab7035

Query parameters

md5stringOptional

(Optional) MD5 hash of the file to be uploaded. The MD5 Hash should be encoded in base64. The base64, MD5 hash should then be URI encoded.

Example: FkXeisMYBP6UpdSiY8kOsA%3D%3D

Header parameters

x-dgs-admin-api-keystringOptionalExample: your-api-key

Responses

201

Created

application/json

Responseobject

get

GET /v2/admin/api/datasets/{datasetId}/append-link HTTP/1.1
Host: api-production.data.gov.sg
Accept: */*

201

Created

{
  "url": "https://s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/attachments.data.gov.sg/c/6047/private/d_2a6070fa301695904e1a626434189e59/VW50aXRsZWQgRGF0YXNldA/d_2a6070fa301695904e1a626434189e59.csv?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAU7LWPY2WH4V4RGEJ%2F20231129%2Fap-southeast-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20231129T053810Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEHYaDmFwLXNvdXRoZWFzdC0xIkYwRAIgdQy7ZfOZaDbQIEsS5VqAd76mSGitIgNSHxm3C6sP9SwCIFS5kaaPMcCYQpVv9UdgGzwLZyujx1S844oiCHZxT3yhKqcDCM%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEQBBoMMzQyMjM1MjY4NzgwIgxKiGm5wh31GOszXoIq%2BwLwXu11Ykcov8rg20fsos4%2FcGfR8JtKuUvTtjKC4IBP46v5FzBKPIlMT%2ByfrMvOYZV4kqSiN5%2F%2FeOuGMwk6tfNGY0PphSWfTnWCEVT5wap%2BFRsW7OTPFy9G3ih0X1h7NDYpK%2F1Jkh9pM3%2FyW4x7FQUnXaptNP3k%2FWArdBG3kIvH2kaOiBU9TlqvRhP0xd7dEXoqARY%2BZiOIFBoA2WknNPxQU82mzavOFj9hmeSyi5rvsFa%2BG47m02g6F46vIicnDzQSDgO7UAusH9pQPO40jXvspYAYknW7BQ6EnMcUL61fUWPCaS8zaLdvRNnb6gisasL8RC6gJsJeAPLRhijUxD8KsVDWtt3ZBho7YR5tQbdg%2FAIVmPL4xQe%2B05N9dHt5wG9ws8A2789F3SgF0yZW9tzc5IfNIxsixotOrLkZRUBXmzujAVe51sQM98dx93Y2%2B%2F9mGbQY7700ShGjAyErYvdl2CYJutJ9jI1yswaJkFyR8MkxmSf26vUY7Of0MMCcm6sGOp4BNi7cp9OFj6enS%2Fn7jhlhdFbkn4zBa%2F0e4ywK05Vqzr7mRguUmMawsUh9i%2Booc%2Bnn90PA7C6YvzZ3IBxyJLWxmzkRDpdlThbkQwxpREJ2c%2FzaPNPdUTrDvp28qAPV3bUe%2FWJTKY7Lh72U2AIRFlKUoTCpQ6ihvgIZH1GGPJsomcajXaguK%2F5yLAqFxY%2B7org%2FJlFwMXfZUSzuObK%2BHsE%3D&X-Amz-Signature=c3444a1b8e9d73d8ac7fd64da4a963860a3e9353ae956f08687a78640dedb834&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&x-id=PutObject"
}

Find the datasetId within the dataset url For example, for this url: https://beta.data.gov.sg/datasets/d_07c63be0f37e6e59c07a4ddc2fd87fcb/view The datasetId is the following: d_07c63be0f37e6e59c07a4ddc2fd87fcb Hence, the endpoint used would be: https://api-production.data.gov.sg/v2/admin/api/datasets/d_07c63be0f37e6e59c07a4ddc2fd87fcb/upload-link

Step 5 - Upload Tabular File:

You'll need to make a direct PUT request to the S3 pre-signed url returned in the response of the previous step to upload your CSV file.

The url should start with https://s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/

For example: https://s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/attachments.data.gov.sg/c/6047/private/d_2a6070fa301695904e1a626434189e59/VW50aXRsZWQgRGF0YXNldA/d_2a6070fa301695904e1a626434189e59.csv?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAU7LWPY2WH4V4RGEJ%2F20231129%2Fap-southeast-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20231129T053810Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&...

Javascript

// Upload CSV file to presigned URL
const uploadCsv = async (presignedUrl, csvContent) => {
  const response = await fetch(presignedUrl, {
    method: 'PUT',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'text/csv'
    },
    body: csvContent
  });
  
  if (response.ok) {
    console.log('Upload successful!');
  } else {
    console.error('Upload failed:', response.statusText);
  }
};

// Usage
const csvData = `name,title,email
janedoe,SWE,[email protected]
johnsmith,PM,[email protected]`;

await uploadCsv(presignedUrl, csvData);

Python

import requests

# Upload CSV file to presigned URL
def upload_csv(presigned_url, csv_content):
    headers = {'Content-Type': 'text/csv'}
    
    response = requests.put(presigned_url, headers=headers, data=csv_content)
    response.raise_for_status()
    
    return response

# Usage
csv_data = """name,title,email
janedoe,SWE,[email protected]
johnsmith,PM,[email protected]"""

upload_response = upload_csv(presigned_url, csv_data)
print("Upload successful!" if upload_response.status_code == 200 else "Upload failed")

It’s important to ensure that you are sending a PUT request with only the file data. While POST-ing form-data is allowed, the file received will not be the same and may cause errors.

Common issues:

Check that you're using a PUT request
Check that you're using the generated S3 pre-signed url, instead of the one above
Set the header as Content-Type: text/csv when uploading the CSV file
The pre-signed URLs expire after 1 hour, so you'd need to generate them again

Reference:

Generating a presigned URL to upload an object - Amazon Simple Storage ServiceAmazon Simple Storage Service

Step 6 - Get Latest Ingestion Status:

Get Latest Ingestion Status

get

Path parameters

datasetIdstringRequiredExample: d_263ee33e4d309a0bba75a1fd30ab7035

Header parameters

x-dgs-admin-api-keystringOptionalExample: your-api-key

Responses

200

Legend

Order	Ingestion status	Description
1	Pending	The dataset validation and ingestion process has been started.
2	Pending Validation	The dataset has been queued for validation.
2.1	Validation Failed	The dataset contains invalid values causing validation failure. Please review the reported errors, make the necessary changes and try again.
2.2	Validation Passed	The dataset has been validated successfully, but not yet ingested.
3	Pending Ingestion	The dataset has been queued for ingestion.
3.1	Ingestion Failed	The dataset failed to be ingested. Please try again later.
3.2	Ingestion Success	The dataset has been ingested successfully.

application/json

Responseobject

get

GET /v2/admin/api/datasets/{datasetId}/ingestion-status HTTP/1.1
Host: api-production.data.gov.sg
Accept: */*

200

Legend

Order	Ingestion status	Description
1	Pending	The dataset validation and ingestion process has been started.
2	Pending Validation	The dataset has been queued for validation.
2.1	Validation Failed	The dataset contains invalid values causing validation failure. Please review the reported errors, make the necessary changes and try again.
2.2	Validation Passed	The dataset has been validated successfully, but not yet ingested.
3	Pending Ingestion	The dataset has been queued for ingestion.
3.1	Ingestion Failed	The dataset failed to be ingested. Please try again later.
3.2	Ingestion Success	The dataset has been ingested successfully.

{
  "version": 0,
  "userId": 1,
  "updatedAt": 1699953464415,
  "status": "NA",
  "failures": null
}

The validation and ingestion process of data.gov.sg is asynchronous. The upload request from the previous section will return before the process is complete. In order to get the status for validation and ingestion, manual polling is required.

Here are the possible validation and ingestion statuses:

Order

Status

Description

Pending

The validation and ingestion process has been started

Pending Validation

The dataset has been queued for validation

2.1

Validation Failed

The dataset contains invalid values causing validation failures. Please review the reported errors, make the necessary changes and try again.

2.2

Validation Passed

The dataset has been validated successfully, but not yet ingested.

Pending Ingestion

The dataset has been queued for ingestion.

3.1

Ingestion Failed

The dataset failed to be ingested. Please try again later.

3.2

Ingestion Success

The dataset has been ingested successfully.

Common questions:

What happens when there are concurrent writes?
1. If there is an existing dataset upload that has not completed, subsequent dataset uploads will automatically fail. This is to prevent multiple writes happening at the same time, that will cause unexpected behaviour
What happens if there is one or more rows that fail validation?
1. We currently take the conservative approach and will reject the dataset upload if any of the rows fail validation. In these cases, we recommend to fix the dataset before retrying.
2. The API will not return detailed explanations on the validation error. For further debugging and investigation, please try uploading the dataset via the UI, which will show more explicit error messages to help with debugging.
What is the dataset upload limit?
1. 5GB

Raw API Schema:

Updated as of 20th June 2024

16KB

v2-write-api-specification.yml

For further queries feel free to reach out to us: Contact the Data.gov.sg team

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Last updated 16 hours ago

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