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Data Types

Starting at the base nodes, data in the API is represented as interconnected nodes of various types. This page provides an overview of the nodes.

Another good way to get acquainted with the layout is to use the GraphiQL browser (click Docs in the upper right corner).

Jurisdictions & Sessions

JurisdictionNode

A Jurisdiction is the Open Civic Data term for the top level divisions of the US. Open States is comprised of 52 jurisdictions, one for each state, and two more for D.C. and Puerto Rico.

Each JurisdictionNode has the following attributes & nodes available:

  • id - ocd-jurisdiction identifier, these are permanent identifiers assigned to each Jurisdiction

  • name - human-readable name for the jurisdiction (e.g. Kansas)

  • url - URL of official website for jurisdiction

  • featureFlags - reserved for future use

  • legislativeSessions - Paginated list (see pagination) of LegislativeSessionNode belonging to this jurisdiction's legislature.

  • organizations - Paginated list of OrganizationNode belonging to this jurisdiction.
    • it is also possible to filter the list of children using the classification parameter

  • lastScrapedAt - Time when last scrape finished.

See also: Open Civic Data Jurisdiction reference

LegislativeSessionNode

A legislative session is a convening of the legislature, either a primary or special session.

Each LegislativeSessionNode has the following attributes and nodes available:

  • jurisdiction - JurisdictionNode which this session belongs to.
  • identifier - short identifier by which this session is referred to (e.g. 2017s1 or 121)
  • name - formal name of session (e.g. "2017 Special Session #1" or "121st Session"
  • classification - "primary" or "special"
  • startDate - start date of session if known
  • endDate - end date of session if known

DivisionNode

Divisions represent particular geopolitical boundaries. Divisions exist for states as well as their component districts and are tied closely to political geographies.

  • id - Open Civic Data Division ID
  • name - human-readable name for the division
  • redirect - link to another DivisionNode, only present if division has been replaced
  • country - country code (will be "us") for all Open States divisions
  • createdAt - date at which this object was created in our system
  • updatedAt - date at which this object was last updated in our system
  • extras - JSON string with optional additional information about the object

People & Organizations

PersonNode

People, typically legislators and their associated metadata.

Note that most fields are optional beyond name as often we don't have a reliable given/family name or birthDate for instance.

  • id - Open Civic Data Person ID

  • name - primary name for the person

  • sortName - alternate name to sort by (if known)

  • familyName - hereditary name, essentially a "last name" (if known)

  • givenName - essentially a "first name" (if known)

  • image - full URL to official image of legislator

  • birthDate - see date-format

  • deathDate - see date-format

  • identifiers - list of other known identifiers, IdentifierNode

  • otherNames - list of other known names, NameNode

  • links - official URLs relating to this person, LinkNode

  • contactDetails - ways to contact this person (via email, phone, etc.), contactdetailnode

  • currentMemberships - currently active memberships MembershipNode
    • can be filtered with the classification parameter to only get memberships to certain types of OrganizationNode
  • oldMemberships - inactive memberships MembershipNode
    • can be filtered with the classification parameter to only get memberships to certain types of OrganizationNode

  • sources - URLs which were used in compiling Open States' information on this subject, [LinkNode]

  • createdAt - date at which this object was created in our system

  • updatedAt - date at which this object was last updated in our system

  • extras - JSON string with optional additional information about the object

See also:

OrganizationNode

Organizations that comprise the state legislatures and their associated metdata.

A typical bicameral legislature is comprised of a top-level organization (classification=legislature), two chambers (classification=upper & lower), and any number of committees (classification=committee).

Each Organization is comprised of the following attributes and nodes:

  • id - Open Civic Data Organization ID

  • name - primary name for the person

  • image - full URL to official image for organization

  • classification - the type of organization as described above

  • foundingDate - see date-format

  • dissolutionDate - see date-format

  • parent - parent OrganizationNode if one exists

  • children - paginated list of child OrganizationNode objects
    • it is also possible to filter the list of children using the classification parameter

  • currentMemberships - list of all current members of this Organization

  • identifiers - list of other known identifiers for this organization, IdentifierNode

  • otherNames - list of other known names for this organization, NameNode

  • links - official URLs relating to this person, LinkNode

  • sources - URLs which were used in compiling Open States' information on this subject, [LinkNode]

  • createdAt - date at which this object was created in our system

  • updatedAt - date at which this object was last updated in our system

  • extras - JSON string with optional additional information about the object

See also:

MembershipNode

A MembershipNode represents a connection between a personnode and a organizationnode. A membership may optionally also reference a particular postnode, such as a particular seat within a given chamber.

Each membership has the following attributes and nodes:

  • id - Open Civic Data Membership ID
  • personName the raw name of the person that the membership describes (see name-matching
  • person - personnode
  • organization - organizationnode
  • post - postnode
  • label - label assigned to this membership
  • role - role fulfilled by this membership
  • startDate - start date of membership if known
  • endDate - end date of membership if known
  • createdAt - date at which this object was created in our system
  • updatedAt - date at which this object was last updated in our system
  • extras - JSON string with optional additional information about the object

See also:

PostNode

A PostNode represents a given position within an organization. The most common example would be a seat such as Maryland's 4th House Seat.

It is worth noting that some seats can have multiple active memberships at once, as noted in maximumMemberships.

Each post has the following attributes and nodes:

  • id - Open Civic Data Post ID
  • label - label assigned to this post (e.g. 3)
  • role - role fulfilled by this membership (e.g. 'member')
  • division - related divisionnode if this role has a relevant division
  • startDate - start date of membership if known
  • endDate - end date of membership if known
  • maximumMemberships - typically 1, but set higher in the case of multi-member districts
  • createdAt - date at which this object was created in our system
  • updatedAt - date at which this object was last updated in our system
  • extras - JSON string with optional additional information about the object

See also:

Bills & Votes

BillNode

A BillNode represents any legislative instrument such as a bill or resolution.

Each node has the following attributes and nodes available:

  • id - Internal ocd-bill identifier for this bill.
  • legislativeSession - link to LegislativeSessionNode this bill is from
  • identifier - primary identifier for this bill (e.g. HB 264)
  • title - primary title for this bill
  • fromOrganization - organization (typically upper or lower chamber) primarily associated with this bill
  • classification - list of one or more bill types such as "bill" or "resolution"
  • subject - list of zero or more subjects assigned by the state
  • abstracts - list of abstracts provided by the state, BillAbstractNode
  • otherTitles - list of other titles provided by the state, BillTitleNode
  • otherIdentifiers - list of other identifiers provided by the state, BillIdentifierNode
  • actions - list of actions (such as introduction, amendment, passage, etc.) that have been taken on the bill, BillActionNode
  • sponsorships - list of bill sponsors, BillSponsorshipNode
  • relatedBills - list of related bills as provided by the state, RelatedBillNode
  • versions - list of bill versions as provided by the state, BillDocumentNode
  • documents - list of related documents (e.g. legal analysis, fiscal notes, etc.) as provided by the state, BillDocumentNode
  • votes - paginated list of VoteEventNode related to the bill
  • sources - URLs which were used in compiling Open States' information on this subject, linknode
  • openstatesUrl - URL to bill page on OpenStates.org
  • createdAt - date at which this object was created in our system
  • updatedAt - date at which this object was last updated in our system
  • extras - JSON string with optional additional information about the object

BillAbstractNode

Represents an official abstract for a bill, each BillAbstractNode has the following attributes:

  • abstract - the abstract itself
  • note - optional note about origin/purpose of abstract
  • date - optional date associated with abstract

BillTitleNode

Represents an alternate title for a bill, each BillTitleNode has the following attributes:

  • title - the alternate title
  • note - optional note about origin/purpose of this title

BillIdentifierNode

Represents an alternate identifier for a bill, each BillIdentifierNode has the following attributes:

  • identifier - the alternate identifier
  • scheme - a name for the identifier scheme
  • note - optional note about origin/purpose of this identifier

BillActionNode

Represents an action taken on a bill, each BillActionNode has the following attributes and nodes:

  • organization - OrganizationNode where this action originated, will typically be either upper or lower chamber, or perhaps legislature as a whole.
  • description - text describing the action as provided by the jurisdiction.
  • date - date action took place (see date-format)
  • classification - list of zero or more normalized action types (see action-categorization)
  • order - integer by which actions can be sorted, not intended for display purposes
  • extras - JSON string providing extra information about this action
  • vote - if there is a known associated vote, pointer to the relevant VoteEventNode
  • relatedEntities - a list of RelatedEntityNode with known entities referenced in this action

RelatedEntityNode

Represents an entity that is related to a BillActionNode.

  • name - raw (source-provided) name of entity
  • entityType - either organization or person
  • organization - if entityType is 'organization', the resolved OrganizationNode
  • person - if entityType is 'person', the resolved PersonNode

See name-matching for details on how name relates to organiation and person.

BillSponsorshipNode

Represents a sponsor of a bill.

  • name - raw (source-provided) name of sponsoring person or organization
  • entityType - either organization or person
  • organization - if entityType is 'organization', the resolved OrganizationNode
  • person - if entityType is 'person', the resolved PersonNode
  • primary - boolean, true if sponsorship is considered by the jurisdiction to be "primary" (note: in many states multiple primary sponsors may exist)
  • classification - jurisdiction-provided type of sponsorship, such as "author" or "cosponsor". These meanings typically vary across states, which is why we provide primary as a sort of indicator of the degree of sponsorship indicated.

See name-matching for details on how name relates to organiation and person.

RelatedBillNode

Represents relationships between bills.

  • identifier - identifier of related bill (e.g. SB 401)
  • legislativeSession - identifier of related session (in same jurisdiction)
  • relationType - type of relationship such as "companion", "prior-session", "replaced-by", or "replaces"
  • relatedBill - if the related bill is found to exist in our data, link to the BillNode

BillDocumentNode

Representation of documents and versions on bills. A given document can have multiple links representing different manifestations (e.g. HTML, PDF, DOC) of the same content.

  • note - note describing the purpose of the document or version (e.g. Final Printing)
  • date - optional date associated with the document
  • links - list of one or more MimetypeLinkNode with actual URLs to bills.

MimetypeLinkNode

Represents a single manifestation of a particular document.

  • mediaType - media type (aka MIME type) such as application/pdf or text/html
  • url - URL to official copy of the bill
  • text - text describing this particular manifestation (e.g. PDF)

VoteEventNode

Represents a vote taken on a bill.

  • id - Internal ocd-vote identifier for this bill.
  • identifier - Identifier used by jurisdiction to uniquely identify the vote.
  • motionText - Text of the motion being voted upon, such as "motion to pass the bill as amended."
  • motionClassification - List with zero or more classifications for this motion, such as "passage" or "veto-override"
  • startDate - Date on which the vote took place. (see date-format
  • result - Outcome of the vote, 'pass' or 'fail'.
  • organization - Related OrganizationNode where vote took place.
  • billAction - Optional linked BillActionNode.
  • votes - List of PersonVoteNode for each individual's recorded vote. (May not be present depending on jurisdiction.)
  • counts - List of VoteCountNode with sums of each outcome (e.g. yea/nay/abstain).
  • sources - URLs which were used in compiling Open States' information on this subject, [LinkNode]
  • createdAt - date at which this object was created in our system
  • updatedAt - date at which this object was last updated in our system
  • extras - JSON string with optional additional information about the object

See also: Open Civic Data vote format.

PersonVoteNode

Represents an individual person's vote (e.g. yea or nay) on a given bill.

  • option - Option chosen by this individual. (yea, nay, abstain, other, etc.)
  • voterName - Raw name of voter as provided by jurisdiction.
  • voter - Resolved PersonNode representing voter. (See name-matching
  • note - Note attached to this vote, sometimes used for explaining an "other" vote.

VoteCountNode

Represents the sum of votes for a given option.

  • option - Option in question. (yea, nay, abstain, other, etc.)
  • value - Number of individuals voting this way.

Other Nodes

IdentifierNode

Represents an alternate identifier, each with the following attributes:

  • identifier - the alternate identifier
  • scheme - a name for the identifier scheme

NameNode

Represents an alterante name, each with the following attributes:

  • name - the alternate name
  • note - note about usage/origin of this alternate name
  • startDate - date at which this name began being valid (blank if unknown)
  • endDate - date at which this name stopped being valid (blank if unknown or still active)

LinkNode

Represents a single link associated with a person or used as a source.

  • url - URL
  • text - text describing the use of this particular URL

ContactDetailNode

Used to represent a contact method for a given person.

  • type - type of contact detail (e.g. voice, email, address, etc.)
  • value - actual phone number, email address, etc.
  • note - used to group contact data by location (e.g. Home Address, Office Address)
  • label - human-readable label for this contact detail