Tools to parse and analyze Virginia Department of Health restaurant inspection reports.
This data is presently available at http://www.healthspace.com/Clients/VDH/vdh_website.nsf, though not in bulk or in any machine-readable format. This project is awaiting a bulk release of this data from the Virginia Department of Health.
A pair of sample files are available. They were provided in response to a FOIA request for a complete dump of all records for a single Department of Health district for one year. A single Excel file was provided, with data in two worksheets. Each of those worksheets is provided as a CSV file, titled as the worksheet was titled: FoodInspection.csv and CombInspWithViolationsLong.csv. The bulk data provided by VDH is likely to resemble substantially these files.
Planned tasks:
- Create a parser to for the provided data to (inevitably) turn it into friendlier formats—JSON, XML, YAML, etc.
- Install repository software (probably CKAN) to host the data, display it on screen, and provide an API.
- Write an algorithm to analyze inspection data and assign some kind of a quantitative indicator of the restaurant's cleanliness. (Virginia does not grade or otherwise rank restaurants, making this a useful function.)
- Create an exporter to render data per Yelp's specs, and syndicate inspection data to Yelp.
Pronounced RYE-chil.