Update: CSV2IATI decommissioning

As part of the decommissioning process of CSV2IATI (announced last year), users can no longer register new accounts for this IATI publishing tool.

For now, existing account holders will not be affected by this change and can continue using the tool to convert their CSV files into IATI XML data. The IATI technical team will be contacting users shortly about the next stages of the process.

CSV2IATI is being decommissioned to improve the experience of organisations who share their development and humanitarian activities to IATI. Due to a substantial increase in the number of IATI publishers, the tool is struggling to convert files for a rapidly expanding volume of data and does not support recent changes to the IATI Standard.

CSV2IATI is scheduled to be turned-off in the spring of 2018. The IATI technical team is currently working with a range of providers to ensure alternative options are available and we can support publishers to transition to alternative tools.

Further information on support for existing CSV2IATI users and the timetable of the decommissioning process will be shared in the near future. Any questions should be posted below or emailed to the IATI technical team: support@iatistandard.org.

For general awareness, the Open Ag Partnership is looking at how we can help fill the gap, both the gap left by CSV2IATI’s decommissioning and additional gap created by increased demand from new ag and humanitarian publishers.

As a few examples, Open Data Services are adapting their CoVE platform to IATI with input from Publish What You Fund’s experience; Young Innovations are making some limited enhancements to AidStream, particularly around org identification; and InterAction is making some small additions to its own NGO Aid Map platform to make it slightly more fit-for-IATI-purpose.

However, we don’t expect these relatively small-scale endeavors to completely fill the gap, and there will remain much to be done even with the three providers/tools mentioned above (for instance, additional languages and localization of the UIs, integration with the IATI Registry for a more streamlined user journey, updating with new fields post-2.03 upgrade, etc.).

We’ve had some coordination discussions with the Tech Team and others to keep each other apprised of our activities here, but are still hoping to “crowd-in” some funding for tool developers to completely close the gap.

If you’re interested in picking up where we leave off on any of those tools, please get in touch and we will keep you in the loop.

Following up on @reidmporter’s post, @bjwebb and @stevieflow do you have an update on how CoVE and IATI Studio are coming along? Do you have a timeframe of when publishers will be able to use these tools to create their xml files?

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BUMP for @amys’ question. CSV2IATI is due to be decommissioned at the end of March 2018 (according to the website) so this seems fairly pressing.

Would be great to have a update here @stevieflow @robredpath @siemvaessen

In the meantime a couple more tools/services have entered the market

There are still 10 (med-large) organisations using CSV2IATI

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We’ve created a wrapper around CoVE and OIPA (DHT) - but no immediate plans to launch that ‘as a service’. Could definitely be re-used though.

Re: IATI Technical Team update, 15th March 2018

@amys can you confirm this means the tool will be SWITCHED OFF, meaning no more access to models/data? Or, is something else planned?

@stevieflow we are turning off the current site. This will stop users from logging in. However, the tech team will still have access to the software and current models/data.

Great, thanks for the confirmation @amys

@stevieflow Here’s a dump of all CSV2IATI models, organised by org IDs: https://github.com/andylolz/CSV2IATI-dump

Since CSV2IATI is now readonly, I guess this is the final list.

Hi @amys - in discussing this, @andylolz generated a list of 34 datasets from 12 publishers, that all seem to be published via CSV2IATI - the links are all published on the Registry.

When the tool is switched off, will these datasets (and publishers) be lost too?

@JohnAdams @r_clements @rbesseling might be interested to see that an important dataset for DFID GEC traceability is included in this corpus.

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Hi @stevieflow, for the time-being the datasets will remain as they are, with the same links on the IATI Registry. However, organisations will not be able to log in or update their data by CSV2IATI.

We are in touch with all the organisations on @andylolz’s list, actively supporting and encouraging them to find another process to create and host their data.

Excellent - thanks again for the confirmation @amys

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As the CSV2IATI tool is now decommissioned this topic has been closed.

All users were informed about the decommissioning and are now prevented from logging in. However, the IATI Technical Team still have access to the site.

If you have any questions please contact the IATI technical team using: support@iatistandard.org

The CSV2IATI site no longer exists, therefore no access to it is possible.

Any links on the Registry which pointed to a file hosted by CSV2IATI have been updated. The registry links now point to the data held in this IATI GitHub repo.

All relevant publishers have been notified.