public-data-api

Exposes datasets stored in S3-compatible object storage with a light-touch API.

Does not use a database
Data can be published via data.gov.uk
Data can be accessed by an API, or downloaded
Promotes immutable and versioned datasets
Includes GOV.UK Design System-styled documentation, exposed on the same domain as the API itself
Department-specific content in the documentation is populated from environment variables
Low memory usage even for large datasets - responses are streamed to the client
Data is gzipped and transparently uncompressed by clients when possible
HTTP Range requests are supported when possible to allow clients to resume interrupted downloads
The HTTP Content-Length header is returned when possible to allow clients to estimate download time remaining
HTTP Cookies are not used

Running tests

pip install -r requirements_test.txt  # Only required once
./start-services.sh                   # Only required once
./test_app.sh

Running locally

Most development can be done from tests. However, it can be useful to run the front end of the application locally to work on the documentation. The below results in the documentation being visible at http://localhost:8888/

pip install -r requirements.txt  # Only required once
PORT=8888 \
READONLY_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=any \
READONLY_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=any \
AWS_S3_ENDPOINT=http://any/ \
AWS_S3_REGION=any \
APM_SECRET_TOKEN=any \
APM_SERVER_URL=any \
ENVIRONMENT=any \
DOCS_DEPARTMENT_NAME='Department for International Trade' \
DOCS_SERVICE_NAME='Data API' \
DOCS_GITHUB_REPO_URL=https://github.com/uktrade/public-data-api \
    python3 -m app

Environment variables

Variable	Description and examples
AWS_S3_REGION	The AWS region of the S3 bucket `eu-west-2`
AWS_S3_ENDPOINT	The URL to the bucket, optionally including a key prefix, and will typically end in a slash. Supports both path and domain-style bucket-access. `https://my-bucket.s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/key-prefix/` `https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/my-bucket/key-prefix/`
READONLY_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	The AWS access key ID that has GetObject, and optionally ListBucket, permissions - used by the API
READONLY_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	The secret part of the readonly AWS access key
READ_AND_WRITE_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	The AWS access key ID that has write permissions on the S3 bucket (for the csv-generating worker)
READ_AND_WRITE_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	The secret part of the read+write AWS access key
ENVIRONMENT	The current environment where the application is running `develop`
GA_ENDPOINT (deprecated)	The endpoint to send analytics info to
GA_TRACKING_ID (deprecated)	The unique identifier for the google analytics property
GA4_API_SECRET	The API secret for Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
GA4_MEASUREMENT_ID	The measurement ID for Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Environment variables used for serving API documentation.

Variable	Description and examples
DOCS_DEPARTMENT_NAME	The name of the department the data is hosted by `A Government Department`
DOCS_SERVICE_NAME	The name of this service `Data API`
DOCS_GITHUB_REPO_URL	The URL for this github repository `https://github.com/uktrade/public-data-api`
DOCS_SECURITY_EMAIL	The email address security vulnerabilities should be reported to `security@example.com`

The below environment variables are also used, but typically populated by the hosting environment.

Variable	Description and examples
PORT	The port for the application to listen on `8080`
GIT_COMMIT	The git commit ID to show what version of the code is running `c79c3d630152b42b98e97b73552e0bdc7b54ae51`

Permissions and 404s

If the AWS user has the ListBucket permission, 404s are proxied through to the user to aid debugging.

Shutdown

On SIGTERM any in-progress requests will complete before the process exits.

Worker health

A basic CLI is included to check the health of the backend worker that converts between data formats.

python -m app_heartbeat

A zero exit codes means the worker is healthy, otherwise the worker is not healthy.