Python Forum

I'm thinking about spending some time to learn socrata SODA Consumer API: https://dev.socrata.com/
, for getting open data. Before I spend lots of hours learning, I was curious to see if anyone has experience with the developer API, and if it's worth the effort, or if I should stick with the standard tools (lxml, BeautifulSoup and Selenium)

It looks like it might be a big time saver.

Getting the data through an API should always be the preferred solution.

It's the intended way to access the data programmatically, very likely simpler, and more reliable.
You should only resort to scraping if the data can't be obtained in an easier way.

So Far, I'm not impressed.
I've found many links using old fashioned scraping techniques, and only one or two show up using this api.
I'll continue playing before making a final decision.