Two client libraries have been written for accessing the Enigma API which extends the ability to access data, metadate and stats on the government datasets held by Enigma.

Enigma gathers and cleans the data from public data sources and makes it available via the Enigma API. This lets you download datasets, query metadata, or perform server side operations on tables in Enigma via a RESTful protocol over HTTPS. The data has been gathered from over 100,000 data sources.

Data from public sources, including the US government, is imported, cross-referenced and linked by a proprietary relational engine. The data is thoroughly cleansed, linked and geocoded. Enigma also adds ‘context’ around the data, and believes that the systematic linking, alongside the use of heuristics to identify contextual clues, makes the data much more useful for helping data discovery.

The data can be searched, analyzed and exported through Enigma’s web user interface or via the Enigma API. This provides metadata and stats on each of the datasets.

The client libraries are both available on GitHub. The R client has been developed by Scott Chamberlain, while the Ruby client has been developed by Stephen Pike. The Ruby client supports versions of Ruby from 1.9.3 onwards.

You can try Enigma’s data, including a sandboxed version of the API, with its free Public plan targeted at non-commercial and open-source use. Its commercial service, which removes the restrictions on data export, starts at $195.00 per month

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