Other Resources in OpenRefine

Last updated on 2026-08-21 | Edit this page

Overview

Questions

  • What other resources are available for working with OpenRefine?
  • How can we add functionality to OpenRefine?

Objectives

  • Understand that there are many online resources available for more information on OpenRefine.
  • Understand that extensions are available to provide additional functionality.
  • Locate helpful resources to learn more about OpenRefine.

Getting help for OpenRefine

You can find out a lot more about OpenRefine at openrefine.org and check out some great introductory videos.

These videos and others on OpenRefine can also be found on YouTube by searching under ‘OpenRefine’. There is an official forum that can answer a lot of beginner questions and problems. Information can also be found on StackOverflow where you can find a lot of help. As with other programs of this type, OpenRefine libraries are available too, where you can find a script you need and copy it into your OpenRefine instance to run it on your dataset.

Using online resources to get help with OpenRefine

OpenRefine is more than a simple data cleaning tool. People are using it for all sorts of activities. Here are some other resources that might prove useful.

OpenRefine has its own web site with documentation and a book:

In addition, see these other useful resources:

  • Grateful Data is a fun site with many resources devoted to OpenRefine, including a nice tutorial.

There are more advanced uses of OpenRefine, such as bringing in column or cell data using web locators (URLs or APIs). The links above can give you a start on your journey.

Challenge

Discuss a resource

Visit one of these sites and share what you find with another person.

Add functionality to OpenRefine using extensions

OpenRefine contains many functionalities for cleaning and enriching data by default, as we have seen in this lesson. Using GREL expressions (or other expression languages) we can transform data in many ways too.

In certain aspects OpenRefine’s functionality can be extended by installing extensions. There are extensions that allow importing and exporting other file types, as well as extensions that provide new GREL functions. The OpenRefine website provides a list of extensions, their functionality, and what version(s) of OpenRefine each extension is compatible with. Since extensions are maintained by community members, sometimes they are not compatible with the newest versions of OpenRefine.

Key Points
  • Other examples and resources online are good for learning more about OpenRefine.
  • Extensions can be installed to add functions or support for other file types