How to use the Open Data Portal

Open data is a great resource, but what if you are new to the open data world or the tool we use for open data? The article below has a quick overview to help you get started on your open data journey.

Open data is any data set that has been prepared for release to the public and in an open, machine readable format. Anyone is free to use this data however they wish. The City of Glendale Resolution 17-51 established the City's Open data program and the Data Governance Team works to get data sets that are of interest to the public published. For more information on the resolution or the data governance program see our  Data Governance website .

The city of Glendale's Open data site can be found  here. 

First, go to the  Open Data website . At the very top of the page there is a box that says "Search Data" if you know what you are looking for just click in the box and type your search.

If you are not sure what you are looking for just scroll down and you will see the categories for out data. Select the category you are interested in.

Once you have searched or selected a category the data sets that match will be displayed.

1. Don't see what you were looking for? use the filter and search options on the left hand side of the search results screen. Here are a few suggestions:
2. Apply filters under “Filter By” on the left. You can easily narrow your search by selecting relevant tags (the keywords of a particular data set), or the source/content type, if you have that information.
3. Sort your results by relevance, name, or recency using the menu at the upper right.
4. Pick a date range, this will help you find the most updated data.
5. The tabs at the top, of "All" "Data", "Documents" and "Apps& Maps" will help you find data by format.

Once you have found the data set you want to work with just click on the name. This will take you to the data set.

When you first open the data set you will be on the overview page. This page will give you details like the date the data set was last updated, the attributes of the data, and a listing of the fields contained in the data set.

Across the top there are a few buttons that will also help you.

When you click on the data button it will take you to the actual data in the data set. This page allows you to look at each value as well as filter by any of the fields.

Want to connect directly to our data source? the API explorer tab will give you the information you need to connect.

Want to work with our data offline? Download it in a variety of data types. These data types will vary depending on the data set you are working with. Options are commonly, spreadsheet, KML, and Shapefile. Click click on the download button on the right of the data set screen and select the file format you need.

If you need more information on the data set here are a few things to try.

• Look at the "About" section on the "Overview page". This has links to the meta data and information about where the data came from
• Look for the "Related Data" at the bottom of the "Overview page" this will show you similar data sets that might be a better fit for what you need.
• Still stuck? email our GIS department at gis@glendaleaz.com

Yes! we would love to hear from users who have analysis or make cool things with our data. Please submit your information at our  Your Data Stories  site. Tell us a little about what you did with our data.

We are working to add more data sets all the time but if you have a need we want to hear about it. Please visit our  Open Data Feedback Survey  and tell us what you are looking for.

Please reach out to our GIS department at gis@glendaleaz.com and they will be happy to assist you.