Feature Request: Download Data UI

[clhenrick]

It would be great if the front-end web app had a "download data" button or similar, to allow a user to download the NOAA data being viewed as a JSON or CSV file.

Nice work btw!

[decentral1se]

Nice work btw!

👍 👍 👍

Hey @clhenrick, please see this docstring for links directly to the CSV. You're also free to consume the JSON from the back-end API over at https://api.carbondoomsday.com/!

Let me know if we can make this any clearer on the site or somewhere else.

Any issues, just shout.

[clhenrick]

@lwm thanks, I'm aware of the links in the doc and that you have an API for retrieving the data. My suggestion here is geared towards non-technical users / non-programmers. A "download the data" button would make it easy for these types of users to have easy access to the data. I think it would augment your current mission statement of making the data more accessible to the general public.

As an example, I created a similar UI/UX for a web application that allows people to map and filter vehicle collision data for New York City called NYC Crash Mapper. The "download data" button allows a user to retrieve the data through the app in a format of their choosing with any filters applied.

IMO a UI like this helps makes the data more "open" to the general public. There are a lot of people who work with data for research and policy but aren't programmers and who don't understand API's or Github who would benefit from this.

[titojankowski]

Cool idea, @clhenrick! The "non-programmer scientist" audience -- perhaps they would use these web tools to enhance charting abilities besides simply downloading the data, similar to what you've done with the Crash mapper. I'm curious to see who wants to download the carbon doixide data and what they want to do with it.

FWIW, here's the link to download all our data through the API in CSV format:
https://api.carbondoomsday.com/api/co2/?limit=1000000

A "Download Data" button that links to this might be useful, but I hear ya that doesn't cover all the filters and file formats or have any instructions.

[titojankowski]

@clhenrick how did you find users for NYC Crash Mapper? We have had 0 scientists come in and want to use the data, would be super exciting to connect with some!

[clhenrick]

@titojankowski that project was built specifically for a non-profit organization that does transportation safety advocacy in NYC, so they are the primary user and I'm not sure if they have user tested with other transportation safety advocates in NYC.

In another project I worked on (https://amirentstabilized.com) I worked with tenants rights groups in NYC to get their feedback and user test.

I think finding groups or organizations related to climate science and policy who you might want to partner with would be one way to engage more people in the sciences. Sharing your project with educational institutions would be another. Attending conferences to demo and talk about it is yet another. But yes, it can be difficult to engage people, that part can take a lot of non-dev work!