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Finding shareable download URLs

A sharable download link, or pre-signed URL, is necessary for data.world to pull in files from external sources. This is the URL that will trigger the file download for anyone with the link.

Depending on the source, these can sometimes be tricky to find, so we'll do our best to keep these how-to's accurate. Please let us know if you see something missing, or have other sources you'd like us to add!

How to find the sharable download URL for files on Google Drive

We offer a secure, direct integration with Google Drive that will allow you to connect files to data.world without leaving our platform. For more information on that, see the Google Drive integration page.

If you would prefer not setting up that integration, you can add files one at a time by generating a public URL for each file.

You can find that URL by doing the following:

  1. With the file open within Google Drive, click File > Publish to the web.

  2. Select the file and format from the dropdown menus under Link.

    shareable-url-google-drive-2.png

  3. Click the Publish button.

  4. Copy the resulting link. This is the URL to use when adding files via URL to your data.world dataset.

GitHub: how to find the sharable download URL for files on GitHub

GitHub can be a great source to find interesting data - but how can we get that data into data.world?

First, we need to find the data file in GitHub. That's simply a matter of navigating through the directory tree in a repository until we're able to open up a preview of the contents. Then, right click (or control-click) on the Raw button on the top right, and save the link address.

Screen_Recording_2019-08-07_at_04.21_PM.gif

In the cases where a data file is too large to preview, then there won't be a Raw button - instead, right click on the Download button and save the link address.

github-how-to-find-url.png

Now that you've copied the address of the data source, follow the instructions for adding files via URL to import the data into a project or dataset.

S3: how to find the sharable download URL for files on S3

To upload files you have stored on S3, you can either make the file public or, if that's not an option, you can create a presigned URL.

To make your file public on S3, navigate to the file, right-click and select Make Public. After doing so, go to the Properties for the file, and the Link value can be used to upload to data.world.

If your file is private on S3, you still have the option to generate a presigned URL for sharing or uploading to data.world. First, you will need to install and configure the AWS CLI. Once that is in place, use the following command to generate the URL for each file:

aws s3 presign <S3URI> --expires-in <expireTimeInSeconds>

Where S3 URI is in the format s3://mybucket/myfile.

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