How to use data.gov.il CKAN API — a practical guide

If you're here, you probably want working code in five minutes. That's exactly what this guide does.

Five steps to get started

1
Browse data.gov.il and find the dataset you need (e.g. "Vehicle Registration").
2
Copy the resource_id from the dataset's API tab.
3
GET /api/3/action/datastore_search with the resource_id.
4
Parse the records field from the JSON — that's the actual data.
5
Cache results daily — it avoids rate limiting and speeds up your product.

curl "https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=053cea08-09bc-40ec-8f7a-156f0677aff3&limit=5"

Don't call the API from the client directly — it couples your product to upstream changes. Go through your backend and cache.

When using a new field, guard against it disappearing in a refresh.

The vehicle-registration resource (053cea08-...) is the largest and most-used — consider building a dedicated lookup around it.