Stream: python

Topic: setting a license with EasyDataverse

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jan 14 2025 at 17:30):

Hmm, it seems like it isn't possible to set a license with EasyDataverse: https://github.com/gdcc/easyDataverse/issues/29

For me, datasets are being created with "Custom Dataset Terms" and a blank "Terms of Use". This is suboptimal because its an invalid state. Terms of Use are required when Custom Dataset Terms is selected.

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jan 14 2025 at 17:30):

Screenshot 2025-01-14 at 12.29.52 PM.png

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jan 14 2025 at 17:31):

What's the easiest workaround I wonder? Hit the dataset with requests to flip the license to CC0? That's the license I'd like to use. :thinking:

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jan 14 2025 at 19:58):

Bah. I couldn't figure out how to set a license easily with requests. So I flipped the whole thing around. I'm creating a dataset with requests and then using EasyDataverse to pull down that dataset and set the metadata fields I need.

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jan 14 2025 at 20:00):

# Strangely, datasets created with EasyDataverse have
# Custom Terms rather than CC0, which is the default,
# and it's not possible to change the license afterward
# using EasyDataverse: https://github.com/gdcc/easyDataverse/issues/29
# So, we create a basic dataset using requests and
# then update the fields later with EasyDataverse.
with open('initial-dataset.json') as f:
    r = requests.post(server_url + "/api/dataverses/" + collection + "/datasets", data=f, headers={"X-Dataverse-key": api_token})
    # We'll use this pid later to update the dataset
    pid = r.json()['data']['persistentId']
dataset = dataverse.load_dataset(pid)
dataset.citation.title = title
dataset.update()

Jan Range (Jan 15 2025 at 12:43):

I am happy to implement this to the Dataset class. This has been on my list for far too long now :-D About to schedule a new release this week and it would be a good opportunity to sneak it in.

Jan Range (Jan 15 2025 at 12:46):

In terms of how to tackle this some questions:

• Is there a fixed set of licenses given by Dataverse or can users add others dynamically?
• Can the licenses be acquired via API?
• Can we specify a default license or is it it bad practice?

In general I would opt for an Enum approach to handle licenses. We either create them dynamically, similar to the metadata blocks, or we bake them into EasyDataverse.

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jan 15 2025 at 12:49):

Yes, you can them from https://demo.dataverse.org/api/licenses

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jan 15 2025 at 12:50):

And yes, you can add new licenses and change what the default license is: https://guides.dataverse.org/en/6.5/installation/config.html#configuring-licenses

Jan Range (Jan 15 2025 at 12:52):

Great, thanks! Thats a good start :-)

Last updated: Nov 01 2025 at 14:11 UTC