2017 ESIP Summer Meeting

The Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) data repository is a platform that allows ecological  researchers to archive data. However, while the repository provides search, download, and other data cataloging functions that facilitate data discoverability and access, research groups are often required to maintain a local catalog featuring those same data but on a project-specific website. Meeting this need is traditionally addressed by running two parallel systems: (1) the data submitted to the EDI repository, and (2) maintaining a local copy of the data catalog. This approach is inefficient and invites inconsistencies between systems. Although most repositories and DataONE provide APIs to access data in this breakout session, we will discuss and demonstrate how data within the EDI repository may be accessed using the PASTA+ API. The API may be used to harvest data associated with a particular research group, project, or station, which can then be branded and styled for display on a project website. Using this approach, a research group can generate a local catalog of project data by capitalizing on EDI data repository functionality, and avoid the overhead of maintaining two separate data catalogs.