The 10 Basics of Uploading Datasets to

data.cookcountyil.gov

A step-by-step guide

Step 1: What to PostWe want to post datasets that demonstrate the impact of your department to the residents of Cook County.

This could include data on:1. Output—transactations, customers served, services rendered and by area, $$$

collected and by area, permits, violations, etc2. Historical information—one time upload3. Performance measures—post a subset of PM data, activity summary for a

period of time; not to supersede performance management data4. Anonymous statistical information based on licenses, permits, services, etc5. Reports and studies—upload applicable reports and data from internal and

third-party studies6. Mainframe reports and queries– The ME and Animal Control use reports and

queries generated from the mainframe

Step 2: Preparing your datasetFor our uses, Socrata accepts 3 types of files:1. CSV or other tab-separated value2. Excel XLS3. Excel XLSX

What about formatting?

Step 2: Preparing your datasetFormatting the dataset:1. No images2. No equations (csv), or be prepared to lose background equations (xls/x)3. No blank rows or columns to separate data4. One report per dataset

It is OK to keep some report formatting as seen above, but remember, for XLS/X files Socrata will delete the formatting. If you upload a .csv file, the formatting will delete anyway.

Step 3: Login using your username/password

Your username and password combination was emailed to you. Your username is your Cook County email address, you can customize your password. Most of you will have the ability to

upload data, but not post.

Step 4: Uploading Data

Click “Create a New Dataset” Click “Import a Data File”

Click “On my Computer Click to Browse/Select a File

Step 5: Setting rules for import

1. Plain Text—cell information is text2. Email– cell information is email

address3. Web link/URL– cell info is a URL4. Number—cell info is number with

commas5. Money—cell info is in dollars and

cents6. Percent—cell info is in percent form7. Date & Time—cell info is date and

time, with time zone if selected8. Location—to follow

Data Type Drop-downs

Headers

You can adjust for more complex header information by excluding rows

Step 6: Metadata, or data information

Dataset naming convention: Date posted (mm/dd/yy)-Filename (employee-enrollment-2007-present)-Department initials (drm) or 071112-employee-enrollment-2007-present-drm

TagsA tag describes what the dataset is about. For this dataset the tags would be “Risk management,” “employee enrollment,” “employee healthcare,” and “finance and administration”

Licensing & Attribution and PrivacySet Licensing to “Public Domain.” Enter contact person and department name into “Data Provided.” Set Privacy to “My Data is Public.”

Step 7: Success!

Step 8: Make some last-minute changes with Working Copy

Working Copy allows you to see the dataset live, but before you make it public. When it’s ready, click on the “Publish Dataset” button

Step 9: Use Append or Replace to update data

Once a dataset is public, it should only be updated, not changed. One big reason is that if a member of the public makes a map or visualization with a dataset, it will no longer work if you change or delete it.

When it is time to update the dataset, there are 2 ways to do it: Append or Replace. “Append” adds new data to the end of the existing dataset, ie adds “4, 5, 6” to the end of “1, 2, 3.” “Replace” is just that, it replaces the data in the dataset. Columns and rows must stay

the same for both.

Step 10: Still doesn’t look right? Delete and start again

Click the button to delete, and start again.