Creating Data Shares In Fulcrum

Create shareable URLs of your Fulcrum data for publishing and sharing. (Intermediate)

Jacob Payne avatar
Written by Jacob Payne
Updated over a week ago

Creating data shares allows you to create publicly-available URLs for accessing data in your Fulcrum account. This allows you to share data with clients, management team members, or even publicly via your website. When a data share is enabled for an App in Fulcrum, you’ll be able to select the data format type you want to use and Fulcrum will display a URL for accessing that app’s data in that format. There is a limit to the number of data shares that can be enable on your account based on which plan type you are using.

Keep in mind, data shares publish all the fields and records in an app. If you want to specify which fields or records are shared, you will want to use Shared Views instead.

Data sharing supports live data publishing as CSV, KML, JSON, and GeoJSON. Once you have the data share enabled for an App, Fulcrum will display a URL for that dataset. 

For example, this is not a live data share URL, but you would get a URL like this for GeoJSON format:

https://web.fulcrumapp.com/shares/49dfadaaa18d510a.geojson

Any time that URL is accessed, either inside a web browser or from another application or script, Fulcrum will return the latest data for that App in the format requested. This means users can bookmark the URL in their browser to have a readily accessible link to the latest data captured in Fulcrum, or you can write scripts to incorporate the latest version of the data by retrieving it from the URL.

You can also use the link to download the App’s current dataset to your computer to use locally.

You must have a role that allows you to manage Data Shares. The instructions to set up these permissions can be found here.

Enabling Data Shares

Navigate to the App List page. There, click on the 'More' options (three dots icon) to display the available options. Then click the 'Data Shares' option.

Once you do, a modal will be displayed that describes what Data Shares are all about, including a link to the Data Shares Documentation. If you want to continue with this process, click the 'ENABLE DATA SHARES' button.

Enabling Data Share from the Apps page.

Data Share Options

Now that you have enable Data Shares, you will be redirected to the App Dashboard. There, click on the 'More' options (three dots icon) on the right hand side to display the available options. Then click the 'Data Shares' option.

Configuration page for Data Shares.

This will display a modal that includes 3 sections for Data Shares: Data Formats, Disable Data Sharing, and Anonymize Data. Let's review each on in detail.

If your app contains repeatable sections, additional URLs will display below the main Data Share URL for the child record datasets.

Data Formats

This is a powerful feature for transparency and data publishing. It also allows for easy access to specific data in a Fulcrum account for many cases where you may only need the data, and is simpler to use than the full API.

GeoJSON

  • GeoJSON is a common format for geospatial data that makes it easy to work across a variety of software. When using QGIS, for example, one can add and view a vector layer using the GeoJSON data share URL.

CSV

  • A simple format that can be used with common office software like Excel or custom scripts for reporting and analyzing data. Your App’s data can be pulled from a CSV data share URL to automatically pull in your latest data at any time.

KML

  • The well-known KML format is supported by many desktop, mobile, and web clients. KML data shares can be opened in Google Earth for quickly visualizing your App’s data.

  • The feed URL format looks like this, but this is not a live data share URL: https://web.fulcrumapp.com/shares/49dfadaaa18d510a/feed

  • Note: When using KML data shares, there’s an additional option to use a “feed” URL. With this format loaded into Google Earth, panning around the map or refreshing the view automatically reloads the data from Fulcrum, effectively making a real-time feed into your Google Earth environment.

JSON

  • This flexible format is like what you’d receive from the Records API endpoint. Many programming languages have tools to parse and use JSON data, which makes it a good choice for advanced, custom applications.

Map Embed

  • Used to embed a map on your own website. There are options allowing you to display only the record details you want shared, as well as display options like map clustering and different map views.

  • Embed Map Options: You can set the title for the pins, show a legend, set the base map used, map extent, and the data contained in specific fields to display within the record popup (popup properties).

It is not possible to obtain child record data using the map embed option.

Repeatable Sections

If you have Apps that make use of repeatable sections for parent-child data relationships, Fulcrum will generate separate URLs for the child record datasets. When you have a data share enabled on one of these Apps, you’ll see URLs that call out the child data at the end of the URL.

Notes

  • When using the JSON file format, all the data (for parent and child data elements) is included in the body of data through a single URL, so you don’t need separate paths. Since JSON format would typically be used for custom applications or software tools, a JSON parser can be used to determine nested parent-child data relationships.

  • The Map embed option does not support repeatable sections.

Anonymize Data

By default, data shares include information about who created the record, who last updated it, and who the record is assigned to. If you'd like to remove these user identifiable attributes, check the "Anonymize Data" option and click the 'SAVE' button.

Disable Data Sharing

There is also an option to disable the Data Share. When you click the 'DISABLE DATA SHARE' button, the share links that were previously generated will expire, meaning that they won't be accessible anymore and Map embeds won't work.


Accessing Photos, Videos, and Signatures

Data shares automatically include special URL fields for accessing associated media files. This URL field makes it easy to view multiple files that may be associated with a single field, by taking the user to a single landing page.

Developer Documentation

If you’re a developer, you can read the documentation for details about customizing the data returned from the data share URLs.

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