Getting dataset breadcrumbs (containing dataverses) via API · troubleshooting

I'd like to use the Native API to find the (finest) dataverse that a dataset is contained in. I don't think that information is given in the JSON metadata export, and I couldn't find an endpoint to query directly for this question in the documentation. Have I missed something, or is there no such API function available?

If there is no simple way, I might have to resort to scraping it from the "breadcrumbs" in the HTML of the web page, but I'd rather not...

Oliver Bertuch (Jul 16 2025 at 12:43):

I suspect you'd need to construct this information by retrieving the parent collection information recursively. I'm not aware of any API endpoint that immediately gives you the information you're looking for.

Oliver Bertuch (Jul 16 2025 at 12:44):

If you think such an endpoint should be added (it might be relevant for the SPA work), please feel free to create an issue. Ideally propose how you think the JSON for this should look like.

Oliver Bertuch (Jul 16 2025 at 12:45):

My 2 cents: essentially, this is a graph, so maybe it should use a knowledge graph representation to also have more metadata available from a single query.

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jul 16 2025 at 13:06):

There are breadcrumbs in the new React frontend. https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse-frontend/pull/297 might be a good place to start looking. I'm sure @Ellen K @Cheng Shi @Germán Saracca or @Guillermo Portas would know more.

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jul 16 2025 at 13:20):

"schema:isPartOf": {
  "schema:name": "UG Faculty of Medical Sciences & UMCG",
  "@id": "https://dataverse.nl/dataverse/RUGFMScUMCG",
  "schema:description": "Faculty of Medical Sciences and UMCG",
  "schema:isPartOf": {
    "schema:name": "University of Groningen",
    "@id": "https://dataverse.nl/dataverse/groningen",
    "schema:isPartOf": {
      "schema:name": "DataverseNL",
      "@id": "https://dataverse.nl/dataverse/root",
      "schema:description": "<H1>Welcome to DataverseNL</H1>..."
    }
  }
},

Germán Saracca (Jul 16 2025 at 14:06):

Hi :wave: , exactly as @Philip Durbin 🚀 is saying, returnOwners=true is doing the trick, it will return the isPartOf property. Open this URL in the browser and check the isPartOf property.

Remie Janssen (Jul 17 2025 at 08:00):

The returnOwners parameter is exactly what I was looking for! The idea of using a different (or even custom) exporter might also come in handy, but I'm glad it doesn't seem necessary in this case :)

Oliver Bertuch (Jul 17 2025 at 08:03):

I was completely unaware of this new query parameter! Feeds into my argument that our API docs are increasingly unreadable... :grimacing:

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jul 17 2025 at 13:31):

6.2-release-notes.md:The API endpoints for getting datasets, Dataverse collections, and datafiles have been extended to support the following optional 'returnOwners' query parameter.

Philip Durbin 🚀 (Jul 17 2025 at 13:32):

But yeah, I hear you. Please feel free to kick off a topic in #docs about the API Guide!

Stream: troubleshooting

Topic: Getting dataset breadcrumbs (containing dataverses) via API

Remie Janssen (Jul 16 2025 at 12:14):