Catalog types
catalog_type is required and must be one of the schema-allowed values. The type folder on disk should match.
catalog_type | Folder | Typical contents |
|---|---|---|
| Open data portal | opendata/ | Government and institutional open data |
| Geoportal | geo/ | Spatial data, OGC services, map viewers |
| Scientific data repository | scientific/ | Research data, CRIS, institutional repos |
| Indicators catalog | indicators/ | Statistical indicators, SDMX, dashboards |
| Microdata catalog | microdata/ | Survey / census microdata (NADA, Nesstar, …) |
| Machine learning catalog | ml/ | ML datasets and models |
| Data search engine | search/ | Cross-catalog search / aggregators |
| API Catalog | api/ | API directories |
| Data marketplace | marketplace/ | Commercial data markets |
| Metadata catalog | metadata/ | Metadata registries / MDRs |
| Other | other/ | Uncategorized |
| Datasets list | other/ | Simple lists of datasets |
| General research repository | scientific/ or other/ | Broad research repos |
Controlled list: data/reference/catalog_types.yaml and data/schemes/catalog.json.
Choosing a type
- Government CKAN / Socrata / OpenDataSoft / uData → Open data portal
- GeoNetwork, ArcGIS Hub (GIS-first), Lizmap, NextGIS, MapServer, MapTiler Server, gvSIG Online → Geoportal
- Dataverse, DSpace, Invenio, Pure, Esploro, GBIF IPT, OPUS, PHAIDRA → Scientific data repository
- PxWeb, OpenSDG, Knoema, national indicator sites → Indicators catalog
- NADA, NESSTAR, REDATAM, Colectica → Microdata catalog
- Sites that only search other catalogs → Data search engine (aggregators score lower on trust-score.md; Idra federations use
software.id: idra) - FAIR Data Point, Aristotle MDR, Fusion Registry, Metadata Browser → Metadata catalog
- OpenML-style ML dataset catalogs → Machine learning catalog when that is the primary product (discovery-other.md)
- HTML tables / GitHub lists of files → Datasets list
- Broad IRs that are not Dataverse/DSpace/Invenio → General research repository (or Scientific if that is the primary product)
If a site is both a geoportal and an open data portal, pick the primary user-facing product (map/CSW → geo; dataset catalog → opendata).
Finding catalogs that are not in the registry yet: discovery.md. Harvesting datasets from a catalog API: harvest.md (scientific, opendata, geo, indicators, metadata, other, protocols, incremental, earth observation, biodiversity, viewers, identifiers, output). Platform-specific search queries: discovery-opendata.md, discovery-geoportals.md, discovery-scientific.md, discovery-metadata.md, discovery-indicators.md, discovery-other.md.