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TED_reusers_QA_20231214

Questions and Answers from TED reusers Workshop

14 December 2023

These are the consolidated Questions and Answers (Q&A) addressed during the TED reusers workshop of 14 December 2023. Replies to questions posted live during the workshop were reviewed and regrouped or modified for a more cohesive and complete response.

Questions related to filling in and submitting eForms notices are not included as they were out of the scope of the workshop.

However, we have already conducted a number of workshops for eSenders and eNotices2 users and the resources of these can be found in https://op.europa.eu/en/web/ted-reusers-workshops and in https://simap.ted.europa.eu/web/simap/eforms .

Documentation

What is the link to the TED developer's Portal?
Answer: The link to the TED Developer Portal is the https://developer.ted.europa.eu

Does anybody have a solution for dynamically parsing the tender data into JSON format?
Answer: (Answer from a reuser) I used this lib to convert the notices to json:https://github.com/nashwaan/xml-js

What will be the URL of the new production environment?
Answer: https://ted.europa.eu

How can we determine the OJ S number? Is it the number of the day of the year? Or can there be more than one publication per day?
Answer: The OJS number is available on the page “Release calendar”:
- Link: https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/release-calendar
- Format to get the direct link to download the release calendar:
o https://{ted-url}/{lang}/release-calendar/-/download/file/{format}/{year}
- Example
o https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/release-calendar/-/download/file/CSV/2023

Why is the URL to daily packages not defined by year, month, and day (e.g. yyyymmdd)?
Answer: The Publications Office decided to use the OJ S issue number instead of the publication date of the OJ S.

Regarding the two formats of XML in the daily and monthly packages: after January 31 ^st 2024, will there be any old form TED schema XMLs anymore, or not?
Answer: There will be a small number of old TED-XML notices after 31 January, limited to contract award notices and corrigenda from EU institutions only. Also notices sent until 31 January in the old TED XML format will still be published within the first days of February.

What will be the production equivalent of this link:
https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/release-calendar/-/download/file/CSV/%d ?
Answer: https://ted.europa.eu/en/release-calendar/-/download/file/XLS/2024

How can the download URL for each daily package be determined? Do we need to look it up on a website (using login/password)?
Answer: The format of the URL to download daily packages is as follows:
- https://{ted-url}/packages/notice/daily/{yyyynnnnn}
where {yyyynnnnn} is the OJ S number.
- Example - Download the daily package of the OJ S 1 / 2023
o https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/packages/daily/202300001
There is no need to sign in.

Can we specify the type of document (tender or contract notice awards) in the URL?
Answer: Yes, you can specify the notice type in the URL.
For example, if you want to search a ‘Contract or concession notice – standard regime’, the url will be as follows:
https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/search/result?notice-type=cn-standard&search-scope=ACTIVE

Is all the information available in the xml in English?
Answer: The XML contains code values where the labels of these codes are translated in 24 languages and free text in the official language(s).
For more information, please consult the online documentation https://docs.ted.europa.eu/home/index.html

FTP vs HTTPS
When will the FTP be shut down? Can you confirm that the daily archive uploaded to the FTP already contains procurement notices in the old and new formats? Do I understand it correctly that as we get closer to the end of January, we will see fewer notices in the old format?
Answer: The FTP will be shut down during the weekend 27 - 28/01/2024, before the new TED website will go live.
The daily archive uploaded to the FTP already contains procurement notices in the old and the new formats.
As we get closer to the end of January 2024, there will be less notices in the old format.

In the new site we can render a notice in HTML using a direct link. However, if we want to render an old-format TED notice, say one from 2014, after 29th January 2024, can this be rendered via a link too or does it have to be rendered in the “old” way of sending the xml notice to a rendering service?
Answer: Yes, you can render a TED schema notice using the direct link.
Example: https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/notice/184178-2014/html

Will the HTTPS download work with curl and a single URL?
Answer: The HTTPS download of an OJ S can be retrieved by using a single URL e.g. for the OJ S 232 / 2023 the URL to be used in the gamma environment is: https://prod.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/packages/daily/202300232 .
It is up to the users to check which and how a client-side URL transfer library (e.g. curl) can be used.

Could you please inform us about the https address for bulk download after 29-1-2024?
Answer: The format of the URL to download daily packages is as follows:
- https://{ted-url}/packages/notice/daily/{yyyynnnnn}
where {yyyynnnnn} is the OJ S number
- Example - Download the daily package of the OJ S 1 / 2024
o https://ted.europa.eu/packages/daily/202400001

We were promised a transition period for switching from FTP to HTTPs bulk download in the last workshops. So, is the plan currently to just shut down the FTP on a Sunday and go live with the HTTPs bulk download on 29/01/2024?
Answer: In the previous workshops it has been clearly stated that the transition to the new TED (TED 2.0) will be a “big bang” as the two sites (old and new) cannot co-exist. The same applies for all their supporting services e.g. the FTP.
That is the reason that the gamma environment has been provided since October 2023 for any interested party to get prepared in advance in the best possible conditions.
Furthermore, it was stated in the previous workshops that the go live date would be announced well in advance and wouldn’t be a last minute announcement.
Therefore, on 26 January, the OJ S will still be published in the “old” TED website. As from 29 January, the daily OJ S will be published in the “new” TED website. The transition from the old to the new website will be done during that period.

There is an overlapping period between the two versions. Most of us - I guess - have an old version FTP & API and a new Version HTTPS & DIRECT LINKS for automated bulk downloads in place by now. But as old non eForms TED Schema Noticers will still be there for at least 5 days after shutting down the old TED Schema import on your side, we will have - for around one week - the situation that we need to have a "HTTPS download and old TED SCHEMA XML" workflow in place for some tenders, and I guess this would be a lot of extra work for many of us. Wouldn’t it be easier to have FTP download available as long as there a considerable amount of old TED SCHEMA XMLS to be downloaded?
Answer: Currently, the daily packages also contains both TED schema notices and eForms notices.
The phase out of the FTP is not related to the transition from the old TED schemas to the eForms. The daily packages are the same in terms of content no matter if they are retrieved through the FTP or through the HTTPS.

Previously we could list the FTP folder to see if today's bulk package was available. How am I supposed to do that now?
Answer: - Retrieve the release calendar to know what package can be downloaded.
Format to get the direct link:
https://{ted-url}/{lang}/release-calendar/-/download/file/{format}/{year}
Example:
https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/release-calendar/-/download/file/CSV/2023
- Build the link to download the package to be retrieved.
Format to get the direct link:
https://{ted-url}/packages/notice/daily/{yyyynnnnn}
Example:
https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/packages/daily/202300241

API
There are 2 APIs to render notices:
o REST (for eForms notices): https://viewer.ted.europa.eu/api/v2/notices/render
o SOAP (old) https://ted.europa.eu/TEDWS/noticeviewer/convert
Which one stays after 29th January 2024?
Answer: >After 29/01/2024, there will be only one API that can be used to render the eForms notices in PDF or HTML.
- Swagger UI link: https://viewer.ted.europa.eu/swagger-ui/index.html
For more information read on https://docs.ted.europa.eu/api/index.html

Why is the following link not working? https://viewer.ted.europa.eu/api/v2/notices/render
Answer: For that API, an API key is needed.
For more information, read https://docs.ted.europa.eu/api/index.html

Can you show a simple API request using CURL instead of swagger?
Answer: Please find below an example:
CURL -X POST \
'https://api.gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/v3/notices/search' \
-H 'Accept: */*' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"query": "place-of-performance IN (LUX)",
"fields": ["publication-number"],
"limit": "10",
"scope": "ACTIVE",
"checkQuerySyntax": false,
"paginationMode": "ITERATION"
}'

We are using the current expert search query:
NC=services AND TD=(0 OR 3 OR 7 OR I OR M OR P OR A) but the API (gamma) does not return any notices. Is this expected? How can we return results from the testing endpoint?
Answer: Please find below the CURL command:
CURL -X POST \
'https://api.gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/v3/notices/search' \
-H 'Accept: */*' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"query": "NC=services AND TD=(0 OR 3 OR 7 OR I OR M OR P OR A)",
"fields": ["publication-number"],
"limit": "10",
"scope": "ACTIVE",
"checkQuerySyntax": false,
"paginationMode": "ITERATION"
}'

Will /api/v3.0/notices/search continue to work?
Answer: No, after 29/01/2024, there will be only one search API
- Swagger UI - https://ted.europa.eu/api/documentation/index.html
- Endpoint URL - https://api.ted.europa.eu/v3/notices/search

What are the official API-URLs, documentation and API limits?
Answer: Official API-URLs:
- Documentation - Swagger UI - https://ted.europa.eu/api/documentation/index.html

- API limits: see it in the Swagger page.
- Endpoint URL - https://api.ted.europa.eu/v3/notices/search

DATA RETRIEVAL
Some tenders from Germany use +00:00 as time zone for the end date but compared to their linked website they really meant their local time zone +01:00. We built a workaround for those time zones. Is there a better way, to get correct time zones?
Answer: The time zone in the XML is whatever the buyer entered in the form, we cannot guess what they intended, even if it’s likely that it’s a mistake.

Do the packages contain tenders and contract notice awards or tenders only?
Answer: The packages contain all notices published on a specific OJ S published in the TED website.

Is it possible to download the content of an exact single announcement? E.g.: I am looking for Slovak and Czech announcements only and I need specific data from the announcements, is there any other possibility than copy paste from the website?
Answer: Execute this query to get the result page:
- https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/search/result?notice-type=pin-cfc-standard%2Cpin-cfc-social%2Cqu-sy%2Ccn-standard%2Ccn-social%2Csubco%2Ccn-desg&buyer-country=CZE%2CSVK&search-scope=ACTIVE

Are there any limits for accessing the direct links to rendered HTML, PDF, etc. versions?
Answer: There is a “fair use policy” of 600 visualizations or downloads in less than 6 minutes.

Are we limited to one request per second? If we are preparing a list of current tenders of interest, it will take at least <nr_of_documents> seconds to render.
Answer: Please see the answer to question 27.

How can a translated version be obtained, even if there was no machine translation existing?
Answer: To request an eTranslation of a specific notice, please do the following steps:
- Select the notice to visualize the notice you want to eTranslate;
- Click the link ‘Request a Translation’;
- Select the ‘Target language’ and the ‘attachment format’;
- Click ‘Submit’ button.

Could you perform a demonstration: i.e. into the platform to see current opportunities and then from there step by step?
Answer: To execute a query to see the current opportunities, please do the following steps:
- Go to the ‘Advanced search’ page;
>- In ‘Search scope’ section, tick the box ‘Active notices’;
- In ‘Business section’, tick the box ‘Competition’;
- Click ‘Search’ button.
The URL of the query is as follows:
https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/search/result?notice-type=pin-cfc-standard%2Cpin-cfc-social%2Cqu-sy%2Ccn-standard%2Ccn-social%2Csubco%2Ccn-desg&search-scope=ACTIVE

Where can we find the PIN or CN of current opportunities?
Answer: To execute a query to see the PIN, please do the following steps:
- Go to the ‘Advanced search’ page;
- In ‘Search scope’ section, tick the box ‘Active notices’;
- In ‘Business section’, Click ‘+’ (More options) to open the pop-up window; Expand ‘Planning’, tick the box ‘Prior information notice or a periodic indicative notice used only for information’ and click ‘OK’ button;
- Click ‘Search’ button.
The URL of the query is as follows: https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/search/result?notice-type=pin-only&search-scope=ACTIVE
To execute a query to see the SCN, please see the answer to question 33.

Now, I am receiving xml data for "ContractNotice" (eForms notices) and also for "TED_EXPORT" (old TED schema notices) which use different formatting. Going forward will this still be the case, or will there be a unified format?
Answer: The two “formats” (schemas) are by design different. However, the old TED schema notices will become less and less; there will only be a small number of old TED-XML notices after 31 January, limited to contract award notices and corrigenda from EU institutions only. Also notices sent until 31 January in the old TED XML format will still be published within the first days of February. It is expected that at some point in 2024 there will be only eForms notices published on TED.

How can we filter our search for services/ supply/ work current tenders?
Answer: To execute a query to get only services of current tenders, please do the following steps:
- Go to the ‘Advanced search’ page;
- In ‘Search scope’ section, tick the box ‘Active notices’;
- In ‘Business section’, tick the box ‘Competition’;
- In ‘Subject matter of the contract’ section, click ‘+’ (Nature of contract) to open the pop-up window; Tick the box ‘Services’ and click ‘OK’ button;
- Click ‘Search’ button.
The URL of the query is as follows:
https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/search/result?contract-nature=services&search-scope=ACTIVE

Is there a field mapping between the old xml format and the new?
Answer: Field mapping between the old xml format and the new - please see page https://simap.ted.europa.eu/eforms , heading "Initial mapping of current TED-XML schema to eForms (13/04/2022)"

Is it possible that something that is not published / cannot be found in a list, but is found when searching with the map in the specific country (service contract) (For external aid, not all countries)
Answer: No, this should not be the case.
To execute a query to get contract notices of ‘External aid programmes’ of the country e.g. Mexico, please do the following steps:
- Go to the ‘Advanced search’ page;
- In ‘Search scope’ section, tick the box ‘All notices’;
- In ‘Business section’, tick the box ‘Competition’;
- In ‘Buyer’ section, click ‘+’ (Country) to open the pop-up window; find ‘Mexico’ and click ‘OK’ button;
- In ‘Funding’ section, tick the box ‘External aid programmes’;
- Click ‘Search’ button.
The URL of the query is as follows:
https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/search/result?notice-type=pin-cfc-standard%2Cpin-cfc-social%2Cqu-sy%2Ccn-standard%2Ccn-social%2Csubco%2Ccn-desg&buyer-country=MEX&search-scope=ALL

Is there a way to sign up to a bulletin to send a daily email on the new published opportunities within external aid opportunities? (both PIN, SCN, contract award, etc)
Answer: - Once you executed the query (e.g., see in question 35), click ‘Create Search Alert’ link;
- In the pop-up window ‘Create search alert’ define a ‘Name’ for this alert and select the ‘alert frequency’ (Daily, Weekly,etc.) , then click ‘OK’ button.
- The saved ‘Search alert’ will be available in your ‘My dashboard’ page.

Is there an overview of all search fields and their content / selection lists?
Answer: The ‘Expert search’ page provides the list of all search fields.

Why are there currently less tenders on Thursday?
Answer: The reason is that the TED schema notices are published five days after they are submitted, but eForms notices are published as soon as possible. This implies that on Thursday the TED schema notices sent on the previous Saturday are published.

Is it correct that I only get the format and name of the future link to download bulk xml-files AND the format for links to a specific tender when the new TED website goes live?
Answer: The links of the new TED website will be like the ones presented in the workshops and recorded in the provided answers. When the new TED website goes live, the main difference from what is currently seen in the gamma environment is that the domain part of the URL will become ted.europa.eu instead of gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud.

I need guidance on extracting data from the journal for automated processing. What is the most efficient or official method to enable my scripts to interact with the published notices?
Answer: Please consult the presentation ‘Retrieving notices form TED portal’.

Why don’t the search fields work in queries? It seems like not all notices use the new XML—Schema.
Answer: Several search fields have been introduced for eForms notices but not for TED schema notices.

Where are the DPS (dynamic purchase system) published?
Answer: In the new TED website you can make a query to list notices where Dynamic purchasing system is involved. Please find below the query:
https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/search/result?query=dps-usage-lot+in+%28dps-list+dps-nlist+%29&scope=ACTIVE

How do I subscribe to a published CFT in order to receive notifications of changes, updates, Q&A, etc.?
Answer: The user can create a notice alert via the search result page (option - Create notice alert) or via the visualization a specific notice (option - Create an alert).
Whenever a related notice is published the user will receive an email notification.
The list of notices selected will be available in My Dashboard.

Is the below described way of obtaining the daily Packages and notices correct?
1.) read in Calendars of OJ S Issue Numbers (will be done once a year)
2.) download the daily packages of XMLs via https://[TEDSERVER]/packages/notice/daily/[YYYYNNNNN]
3.) get HTML and/or PDF Version(s) via https link(s) https://[TEDSERVER]/[LANGUAGE]/notice/[NUMBER]-[YEAR]/[TYPE]
Answer: The approach described is correct.

Do we have a limit for https downloads now?
Answer: The limit is 700 requests in the last minute.

Can we get a link to automatically download the OJ S calendar once every year?
Answer: Format to get the direct link of the release calendar:
https://{ted-url}/{lang}/release-calendar/-/download/file/{format}/{year}
Example:
https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/release-calendar/-/download/file/CSV/2023

How many search profiles can I store in my account?
Answer: User can store 25 saved searches.

Will it be possible in the future to search for a main CPV-code without including all subcodes?
Answer: Please read Q&A of the previous workshop, question 47
Link: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/ted-reusers-workshops/questions_and_answers_2023_10_18

How can I execute a search profile with more than 7000 characters?
Answer: The limit of the search query are as follows:
1. The size of the query by itself is around 100 000.
2. The size of a phrase match, i.e. what is inside double quote is 1000 characters.
3. A query can have in maximum 2000 clauses. A clause is what is between the Boolean operators (e.g. A OR B is counted as two clauses).

Which search fields do I have to use in my search to get all the title and description information of the tender? (announcement-title, contract-title, notice-title, title-glo, description-proc, description-lot...?)
Answer: The new TED website provides the functionality to export the search result list and to select several fields. Please find below an example to export the announcement-title of the notices:
- Execute this query to list the notices of the latest OJ S https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/search/result?search-scope=LATEST ;
- Click the ‘Export list’ link and select ‘Export entire list’;
- In the pop-up window ‘Export entire list’, find announcement-title and click the ‘Export’ button;
- A worksheet with the data selected is downloaded.

How can I exclude all tenders with information about contract or concession award notices or corrections / modifications?
Answer: Execute this query https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/search/result?notice-type=pin-cfc-standard%2Cpin-cfc-social%2Cqu-sy%2Ccn-standard%2Ccn-social%2Csubco%2Ccn-desg%2Ccan-modif&search-scope=ACTIVE

How can we recognize whether a tender has been awarded or not ? Sometimes the corresponding winners are entered under the organizations section and sometimes a winner is listed further up in the announcement, but it's not listed under the organizations section.
Answer: To recognise whether a tender has been awarded or not, the section ‘6.1 Result lot ldentifier’ contains the sentence ‘At least one winner was chosen’ or ‘No winner was chosen and the competition is closed’.
The section ‘6.1.2. Winner’ lists the name of the winner.
The section ‘8. Organisations’ lists all organisations, including the winners.
See here an example https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud/en/notice/-/detail/793106-2023

TEST ENVIRONMENT
Can you please provide the link to the test environment address?
Answer: https://gamma.tedv2.spikeseed.cloud

MISCELANEOUS
What does “rendering” mean?
Answer: Rendering means visualizing the notice.

Is it compulsory for all public authorities to publish contract award notices, and how long after the contract signature must it be done?
Among the business opportunities, to what do "light regime" and "standard regime" correspond to?
Are there rules about the obligation of publishing prior-information notices?
As it is compulsory to publish tenders on the TED when their foreseen budget is above 140.000 €, does it mean that all the public tenders amounting less than 140.000 are only to be found on national platforms and all these ones are then negotiated procedure then?
Answer: Please consult the Regulation (EU) 2019/1780 and the Directives related to the public procurement (e.g. Directive 2014/24/EU)

Who is the main buyer when there are Multiple authorities? How can Multiple entities and organizations be in a single tender?
Example: 8.1 ORG-0001 , 8.1 ORG-0002
https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:672144-2023:TEXT:EN:HTML&tabId=0
Answer: In this specific case, the buyer is ORG-0001 - Elektrizitätswerk der Stadt Zürich (ewz) Finanzen und Controlling Projekteinkauf, FEP and ORG-0002- Bundesverwaltungsgericht is the review organisation.

- PAGINATION
{
"query": "(ojs-number=180/2023) AND (place-of-performance IN (LUX))",
"fields": ["publication-number", "notice-title","buyer-name","notice-type"],
"page": 1,
"limit": 10,
"scope": "ACTIVE",
"checkQuerySyntax": false,
"paginationMode": "PAGE_NUMBER"
}

- - ITERATION
{
"query": "place-of-performance IN (LUX)",
"fields": ["publication-number"],
"limit": 10,
"scope": "ACTIVE",
"checkQuerySyntax": false,
"paginationMode": "ITERATION",
"iterationNextToken": ""
}

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