> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.openg2p.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.openg2p.org/platform/platform-services/master-data-service/public-catalogue.md). # Public Catalogue The opt-in, anonymous, read-only public catalogue of MDS: what it shows, visibility and licence, downloads, DCAT and SKOS, and how to switch it on MDS has no public website: its UI is for administrators. What it can do is make its catalogue **openly readable** by other websites and open-data portals (a national data portal, CKAN, a ministry site) through an anonymous, read-only API, with downloads and standard metadata they can harvest. Everything public is **opt-in, and off by default**, twice over: 1. The deployment switches the public catalogue on. While it is off, nothing is served. An operator turns it on in the MDS chart and, to reach it from outside, gives it its own host; the settings are on [Deployment: public catalogue host](/platform/platform-services/master-data-service/deployment.md#public-catalogue-host). 2. An administrator marks each dataset, and the geography, **public**. Everything is **private** by default, including what a country pack loads. Whatever the settings, only **published versions** are shown. Drafts, private datasets, the change feed, who made or approved a version, and the sample people are never reachable. A private dataset and one that does not exist get the same "not found", so the API does not reveal what exists behind it. Authenticated callers, such as registries, are not affected: their API ignores visibility. ## Visibility and licence Each dataset, and the geography, has: * a **visibility**: *Private* (default) or *Public*; * an optional **data licence**: a label and a URL, for example *CC BY 4.0*. Both are set in the admin UI and apply at once; they are not part of a version. Making the geography public makes all its published versions readable. A public dataset is listed once it has a published version in effect. The country-pack loader never makes anything public. The steps are in the [Admin Guide](/platform/platform-services/master-data-service/admin-guide.md#make-a-dataset-public). ### Data licence The licence of a dataset or of the geography is the **terms under which others may reuse that data** once it is public. It is shown with the data in the public catalogue and its downloads, as open-data catalogues (DCAT) expect. * It often follows the **source's licence**. A country's boundaries from OCHA COD-AB, for example, are CC BY-IGO, which requires attribution wherever they are shown. The country-pack loader therefore sets the geography's licence from the pack's manifest when none is set; see [Sources and licence](/platform/platform-services/master-data-service/country-packs.md#sources-and-licence). * It is set per dataset by the catalogue administrator, who knows the terms of each source. * It is **not** the licence of OpenG2P's code (MPL 2.0). {% hint style="info" %} Staff data policies do not apply to the public catalogue: marking a dataset public is the decision to show all of it. {% endhint %} ## What it offers | | | | ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Datasets** | Each public dataset with its entries, at the latest version, a pinned version or as of a date | | **Geography** | Levels and units, and each level's boundaries | | **Releases** | Published releases, with their public members only | | **Downloads** | CSV and JSON per dataset version; CSV and GeoJSON per geography level | | **DCAT** | A catalogue description that open-data portals can harvest | | **SKOS** | Each dataset as a concept scheme | Responses can be cached (they carry `ETag` and `Last-Modified`), can be read from any website (CORS), and are rate limited per client. Every operation, with its parameters, is in the [API Reference: Public API](/platform/platform-services/master-data-service/api-reference.md#public-api). ### DCAT catalogue The DCAT catalogue (JSON-LD) lists each public dataset with a published version in effect, and the geography when it is public, each with its licence, theme, version and one download per format. CKAN's DCAT harvester and other portals can harvest it. See [Standards](/platform/platform-services/master-data-service/standards.md#catalogue-metadata-public-catalogue). ### SKOS concept schemes Each public dataset can be read as a SKOS concept scheme (JSON-LD): one concept per active entry, with its code, labels per language and parent. A concept's address does not include the version, so a code keeps the same address across versions. See [Standards](/platform/platform-services/master-data-service/standards.md#datasets-and-entries). --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. 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