https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded
Legal codes, for humans.
https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded
laws legal
Last synced: 2 months ago
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Legal codes, for humans.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded
- Owner: statedecoded
- License: other
- Created: 2011-06-12T03:28:21.000Z (over 14 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2021-05-12T00:14:49.000Z (over 4 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-08-13T03:05:29.977Z (about 1 year ago)
- Topics: laws, legal
- Language: PHP
- Homepage: https://www.statedecoded.com/
- Size: 87.5 MB
- Stars: 248
- Watchers: 31
- Forks: 52
- Open Issues: 89
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# The State Decoded
## What is The State Decoded?
The State Decoded is a free, open source, web-based application to display laws online. Although it's meant for laws, it'll basically work for any structured legal text. It makes legal text searchable, interconnected, and machine-readable, adding an API, bulk downloads, and powerful semantic analysis tools. With The State Decoded, legal codes become vastly easier to read, more useful, and more open. Here's an actual before-and-after from the Code of Virginia:
## Can I try it out?
Sure! This project can be seen in action on sites for [Virginia](http://vacode.org/), [Chicago](http://chicagocode.org/), [San Francisco](http://sanfranciscocode.org/), and [a growing list of others](http://americadecoded.org/). If you want to install it, you can also [download a Vagrant image from GitMachines](https://github.com/GitMachines/statedecoded-gm-centos6), or just [download and install it from scratch](https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded/releases).
## Is this ready for prime time?
Quite nearly! The current release is being used in production on a half-dozen different sites, with [no serious bugs](https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded/issues?direction=desc&labels=Bug&milestone=2&state=open), and is certainly in good enough shape to be used on websites that aren't official, government-run repositories of the law.
This is a v1.0 release, which is to say that it's functionally complete but may have minor issues. A capable developer who is comfortable with legal terminology should be able to wrangle her laws into this release with a couple of hours of work. There is, however, no built-in upgrade path to new releases. That said, it's easy enough to install a new version and just re-import your site's legal code.
## How do get my legal code into The State Decoded?
There are two ways.
1. Natively, The State Decoded imports XML in [The State Decoded XML format](http://docs.statedecoded.com/xml-format.html). If you have your legal code as XML, you can adapt [the provided XSLT](https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded/blob/master/sample.xsl) to transform it into the proper format. Or if you don't have your legal code as XML, you can convert it into XML.
1. Skip XML entirely and [modify the included parser](http://docs.statedecoded.com/parser.html) to import it in the format in which you have it.
## Project documentation
Project documentation can be found at [docs.statedecoded.com](http://docs.statedecoded.com/), which explains how to install the software, configure it, customize it, use the API, and more. The documentation is stored [as a GitHub project](http://github.com/statedecoded/documentation/), with its content automatically published via [Jekyll](http://jekyllrb.com/), so in addition to reading the documentation, you are welcome to make improvements to it!
## How to help
* Use State Decoded sites and share your feedback in the form of [filing issues](https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded/issues/new)—suggestions for new features, notifications of bugs, etc.
* Write or edit documentation on [the wiki](https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded/wiki).
* Read through [unresolved issues](https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded/issues) and comment on those on which you have something to add, to help resolve them.
* Contribute code to [fix bugs or add features](https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded/issues).
* Comb through [existing code](https://github.com/statedecoded/statedecoded) to clean it up—standardizing code formatting, adding docblocks, or editing/adding comments.
## Keep up to date
Follow along on Twitter [@StateDecoded](http://twitter.com/statedecoded), or on the project website at [StateDecoded.com](http://www.statedecoded.com/).
## Supported by
Development of The State Decoded was funded by [the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s News Challenge](http://www.knightfoundation.org/grants/20110158/).