Convert Schema JSON-LD into tabular formats?

[cboettig]

Currently we have some nice functions (write_spice()) to go from tables -> json-ld. Seems like it would be handy to be able to easily reverse this process as well (e.g. someone gives you a bunch schema.org JSON-LD and you want it as tables where you can filter by geographic coverage and do automated unit conversions based on the measuredVariable metadata etc).

What would such a function be called? read_spice()? What would the return object be? (i.e. a list of data.frames? .csv files on disk? Something else?

[khondula]

This would be great! read_spice() makes sense to me as json-ld --> csv since write_spice() does the opposite (csv --> json-ld).

Maybe a separate get_spice() function could load in the csvs as data frames?

[amoeba]

I am never one to willingly miss an opportunity to push strained metaphors to their logical breaking points, but perhaps despice/unspice? Maybe then we could rename create_spice to spice()? Not that you can really despice things cooking.

[cboettig]

I am all for exaggerated metaphors! Also a good chance for us to think carefully about our namespace — eg we have create_spice which really creates spreadsheet templates, and write_spice which turns those templates into JSON —kinda confusing. If the spice is the JSONLD form, than perhaps the templates are more like salt shakers?