openrefine-client v0.3.7

[Felix Lohmeier]

There is a new release of the openrefine-client (command line interface for OpenRefine) available at GitHub:

https://github.com/opencultureconsulting/openrefine-client/releases/tag/v0.3.7

The openrefine-client is distributed as a one file executable for Windows, macOS and Linux. It is also available via Docker Hub, PyPI and Binder.

• Bash demo notebook: https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/felixlohmeier/openrefineder/master?urlpath=/tree/openrefine-client-bash.ipynb
• Python2 demo notebook: https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/felixlohmeier/openrefineder/master?urlpath=/tree/openrefine-client-python.ipynb
  

bugfixes:

• fixed bug #1 (option columnWidths broken) which was introduced in v0.3.2
• fixed bug #3 (commands create and export templating broken) which was introduced in v0.3.5
  

features:

• new command --download to download files from URL (e.g. to download example data)
• extended --info command to list all available metadata and columns of a project
• improved performance of --export command
• improved error handling and user feedback
  

known issues:

• create project from xls, xlsx and ods broken with OpenRefine >=2.8: https://github.com/opencultureconsulting/openrefine-client/issues/4

I have revised the docs substantially and added usage instructions with examples for command line, docker and native python. Despite the high number of GitHub forks and stars for the original Python Client Library (refine-client-py, upon which the openrefine-client CLI is based) I found only a few documented use cases. I wrote down some examples in the README on how to use the pure python library:

https://github.com/opencultureconsulting/openrefine-client/blob/v0.3.7/README.md#option-3-the-upstream-way.

I also found the Notebook by Tony Hirst very helpful:

https://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/ouseful-PR/openrefineder/blob/4cef25a4ca6077536c5f49cafb531499fbcad96e/notebooks/OpenRefine%20Demos.ipynb.

By the way, there is also some recent activity in refine-client-py:

https://github.com/paulmakepeace/refine-client-py/issues/19#issuecomment-518426234.

Maybe someone wants to join the efforts to build "a working python 3 version that's passing tests and runs correctly in OpenRefine 3.2 with the least amount of shenanigans" (citing Paul Makepeace)? Daniel Butler's fork is already well advanced, but not yet compatible with OpenRefine >3.1 and not fully downward compatible.

There is only one core feature of the openrefine-client that the Python Client Library does not support itself: Templating Export https://github.com/opencultureconsulting/openrefine-client#advanced-templating
I have created a pull request for this. All other functionalities of the openrefine-client are meant to increase the user convenience and make it accessible for people who doesn't know Python.

Please let me know if you miss some features in the command line interface or if you have tracked a bug. And you are welcome to ask any questions!