GovTrack Data Feed

GovTrack enables its users to track the bills and members of the United States Congress. Users can add trackers to certain bills thereby narrowing the scope of the information they receive. The website collects data on members of Congress, allowing the users to check voting records and attendance relative to peers. It propagates the ideology of increasing transparency in the government and building better communication between the general public and the government.

The GovTrack and Archer integration allows you to centralize the RSS feeds from the GovTrack site and store the data in a searchable, standardized format within Archer. It captures and stores an abstract of the issue and a link to an external site (such as the regulatory news article) that helps to analyze regulatory news and alerts as they pertain to your organization's critical business processes.

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Release notes

Release Date

Version

Comment

July 2024

2024.03

Recertified on Archer platform release 2024.03. Renamed installation package to reflect release version but no changes were made to the data feed.

July 2023

6.13

Updated documentation

Overview of GovTrack Content Data Feed integration

Benefits

With the GovTrack Content Data Feed Integration, you will be able to:

  • Consolidate Regulatory Intelligence Data.

  • Get updates on recent events, current news and information.

  • Automatically pulls the data into Archer on a scheduled basis.

Prerequisites (ODA and system requirements)

Components

Prerequisites

Archer Solution Area(s)

Archer Regulatory & Corporate Compliance Management

Archer Use Case(s)

Archer Corporate Obligations Management

Archer Applications

Regulatory Intelligence Items

Uses Custom Application

No

Requires On-Demand License

No

Additional resources

The following additional resources are available for this offering:

GovTrack Content Data Feed Integration components

Architecture diagram

The following diagram provides an overview of the integration.

 

Business process

The business process follows the following flow:

  1. GovTrack posts the most recent news, alerts, or updates on regulatory compliance on theirwebsite in several formats, including XML. This includes:

    • GovTrack - Latest News

    • GovTrack - Economics and Public Finance

    • GovTrack - Energy Tracked Event

    • GovTrack - Law Tracked Events

    • GovTrack - Foreign Trade and International Finance Tracked Events

    • GovTrack - Healthcare Tracked Events

  2. The integration pulls the below mentioned data from the source: GovTrack website and imports the data into Target: Archer’s Regulatory Intelligence Items application within the following fields:

    • title -> Title

    • Source -> Source

    • link -> Link

    • pubDate -> Date Published

    • guid -> GUID

    • description -> Abstract

  1. The screenshot below provides example data populated in Archer:

Installing GovTrack Content Data Feed Integration

Installation overview

This section provides instructions for configuring the integration. This document is not intended to suggest optimum installations or configurations.

It is assumed that the reader has both working knowledge of all products involved, and the ability to perform the tasks outlined in this section. Administrators should have access to the product documentation for all products to install the required components.

The prerequisite use cases must be installed and working prior to the integration. Perform the necessary tests to confirm that this is true before proceeding.

Prerequisites (System Requirements)

The Regulatory Intelligence Items application is required for installation and operation of the GovTrack Content Data Feed Integration. It serves as a target application for the data feed.

Setting up data feed

The following data feed issued as a part of the integration process:

For data feed configuration, perform the following steps:

  1. Log into the Archer platform and click the Administration workspace tab.

  1. Click Data Feeds in the Navigation Menu under Integration.

  1. Click the Import link and browse to the [File_Name].dfx5.

  1. Verify settings on the General Information tab. Be sure to change the status to Active before using the feed.

  1. Verify the settings on the Transport tab.

    Note: Default Retrieval Count is set to 1 Day. Update this as per your requirement.

  1. Verify the settings on the Source Definition tab. This will be pre-configured to identify the necessary fields to generate a score snapshot.

    Note: The Source Field on the Source Definition tab will be automatically populated when you import the data feed. Repopulating the fields by clicking on “Load Fields” will lead to removal of one pre-populated field from the list (i.e. Source). Hence, add a new field by clicking on “Add New” and rename as “Source” and select field type “Static Text” with appropriate value in the Text editor (see screenshots below). Also, be sure that the data mappings are configured correctly after the load fields.

  1. Verify the settings and mappings on the Data Map tab.

Note: If an article with same GUID is provided by multiple feeds, then Source is replaced in the record. If you want to append the source information, update the field configuration to allow multiple values in selection and then update the data mapping configuration to append for the Source field.

  1. The Key Definition fields should be pre-populated based on the information from the DFX import file. Ensure that the Key Definition field (GUID) is set.

  1. The final configuration step is to schedule the data feed. Click the Run Configuration tab and configure the frequency and start time of the Data Feed.

  1. Click Save to apply your configuration to the data feed. Click on Run Now to run the data feed immediately. Click the data feed status (Completed/Faulted/Warning etc) link for additional information on the status of the feed or to troubleshoot any feed errors.

Certification environment

Date tested: July 2024

Product Name

Version Information

Operating System

Archer

2024.03

Windows