fecfile 0.4.0

a python parser for the .fec file format

This is a library for converting campaign finance filings stored in the .fec format into native python objects. It maps the comma/ASCII 28 delimited fields to canonical names based on the version the filing uses and then converts the values that are dates and numbers into the appropriate int, float, or datetime objects.

This library is in relatively early testing. I've used it on a couple of projects, but I wouldn't trust it to work on all filings. That said, if you do try using it, I'd love to hear about it!

Why?

The FEC makes a ton of data available via the "export" links on the main site and the developer API. For cases where those data sources are sufficient, they are almost certainly the easiest/best way to go. A few cases where one might need to be digging into raw filings are:

• Getting information from individual itemizations including addresses

• Getting data as soon as it has been filed, instead of waiting for it to be coded. (The FEC generally codes all filings received by 7pm eastern by 7am the next day. However, that means that a filing received at 11:59pm on Monday wouldn't be available until 7am on Wednesday, for example.)

• Getting more data than the rate-limit on the developer API would allow

• Maintaining ones own database with all relevant campaign finance data, perhaps synced with another data source

Raw filings can be found by either downloading the bulk data zip files or from http requests like this. This library includes helper methods for both.

Installation

To get started, install from pypi by running the following command in your preferred terminal:

pip install fecfile

Usage

For the vast majority of filings, the easiest way to use this library will be to load filings all at once by using the from_http(file_number), from_file(file_path), or loads(input) methods.

These methods will return a Python dictionary, with keys for header, filing, itemizations, and text. The itemizations dictionary contains lists of itemizations grouped by type (Schedule A, Schedule B, etc.).

Examples:

import fecfile

import json



filing1 = fecfile.from_file('1229017.fec')

print(json.dumps(filing1, sort_keys=True, indent=2, default=str))



filing2 = fecfile.from_http(1146148)

print(json.dumps(filing2, sort_keys=True, indent=2, default=str))



with open('1229017.fec') as file:

    parsed = fecfile.loads(file.read())

    print(json.dumps(parsed, sort_keys=True, indent=2, default=str))



url = 'http://docquery.fec.gov/dcdev/posted/1229017.fec'

r = requests.get(url, headers={'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'})

parsed = fecfile.loads(r.text)

print(json.dumps(parsed, sort_keys=True, indent=2, default=str))

Note #1: the default=str parameter allows serializing to json for dictionaries like the ones returned by the fecfile library that contain datetime objects.

Note #2: the docquery.fec.gov urls cause problems with the requests library when a user-agent is not supplied. There may be a cleaner fix to that though.

Advanced Usage

For some large filings, loading the entire filing into memory like the above examples do would not be a good idea. For those cases, the fecfile library provides methods for parsing filings one line at a time.

import fecfile



version = None



with open('1263179.fec') as file:

    for line in file:

        if version is None:

            header, version = fecfile.parse_header(line)

        else:

            parsed = fecfile.parse_line(line, version)

            save_to_db(parsed)

API Reference

loads

loads(input)

Deserialize input (a str instance

containing an FEC document) to a Python object.

parse_header

parse_header(hdr)

Deserialize a str or a list of str instances containing

header information for an FEC document. Returns an Python object, the

version str used in the document, and the number of lines used

by the header.

The third return value of number of lines used by the header is only

useful for versions 1 and 2 of the FEC file format, when the header

was a multiline string beginning and ending with /*. This allows

us to pass in the entire contents of the file as a list of lines and

know where to start parsing the non-header lines.

parse_line

parse_line(line, version, line_num=None)

Deserialize a line (a str instance

containing a line from an FEC document) to a Python object.

version is a str instance for the version of the FEC file format

to be used, and is required.

line_num is optional and is used for debugging. If an error or

warning is encountered, whatever is passed in to line_num will be

included in the error/warning message.

from_http

from_http(file_number)

Utility method for getting a parsed Python representation of an FEC

filing when you don't already have it on your computer. This method takes

either a str or int as a file_number and requests it from

the docquery.fec.gov server, then parses the response.

from_file

from_file(file_path)

Utility method for getting a parsed Python representation of an FEC

filing when you have the .fec file on your computer. This method takes

a str of the path to the file, and returns the parsed Python object.

print_example

print_example(parsed)

Utility method for debugging - prints out a representative subset of

the Python object returned by one of the deserialization methods. For

filings with itemizations, it only prints the first of each type of

itemization included in the object.

Developing locally

Assuming you already have Python3 and the ability to create virtual environments installed, first clone this repository from github and cd into it:

git clone https://github.com/esonderegger/fecfile.git

cd fecfile

Then create a virtual environment for this project (I use the following commands, but there are several ways to get the desired result):

python3 -m venv ~/.virtualenvs/fecfile

source ~/.virtualenvs/fecfile/bin/activate

Next, install the dependencies:

python setup.py

Finally, make some changes, and run:

python tests.py

Thanks

This project would be impossible without the work done by the kind folks at The New York Times Newsdev team. In particular, this project relies heavily on fech although it actually uses a transformation of this fork.

Contributing

I would love some help with this, particularly with the mapping from strings to int, float, and datetime types. Please create an issue or make a pull request. Or reach out privately via email - that works too.

To do:

Almost too much to list:

• Handle files from before v6 when they were comma-delimited

• create a dumps method for writing .fec files for round-trip tests

• add more types to the types.json file

• elegantly handle errors

Changes

0.4.0

• Updated documentation

• add paper versions for schedule F