Meta:External access to OpenCongress wiki data

Much of the semantic information in the OpenCongress wiki is available via API thanks to the Semantic MediaWiki extension. (See below for how to view what information is available.)

We could use some help making the below methods more elegant and easy to use. If you're interested contact [mailto:ckenny@sunlightfoundation.com Conor Kenny].

Available data
The semantic data available can be accessed in a number of ways:


 * View any page's data via the "Special:Browse" page.
 * Browse the entire wiki's data via the "Special:BrowseData" page.
 * Create filters for BrowseData via the "Special:CreateFilter" page or access existing filters at "Special:Filters."
 * Search for semantic data via the "Special:SearchByProperty" page.
 * Run a semantic query via the "Special:Ask" page.

You can also see what information is available by clicking the "browse data" link in the bottom-right corner of most page. For example:


 * Here is Nancy Pelosi's data.
 * Here's the RaceTracker data on Colorado's 4th congressional district candidates.

Also, much of the information used in the wiki is actually from the Sunlight Labs API, which has documentation here.

Export to RDF
Use the "Special:ExportRDF" page to export data in RDF format.

API interface for semantic data
Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) provides an API interface to all semantic data. Here, for instance, you can see a CSV-format output of all congressional districts and their 2010 incumbent: file link

API interface for csv data
The External Data extension provides an API to access data entered into the wiki via CSV.

For example, for the article Americans for Democratic Action 2007 House Scorecard:
 * CSV-formatted data is used from Americans for Democratic Action 2007 House Scorecard data
 * The data for that entire scorecard is available via API at this page
 * (For no good reason, the CSV data displayed by "Special:GetData" just displays as HTML in the browser, instead of being downloaded to a spreadsheet, but informationally it's the same thing.)
 * The data for just one member of Congress, Al Green, is here: http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/Special:GetData/Americans_for_Democratic_Action_2007_House_Scorecard_data?wiki_name=%5B%5BAl_Green%5D%5D