Accessing CSV data directly from website

Question

I want to do what this person has asked here. I am using QGIS 3.16

I have copied what was suggested and what seemed to work for the OP, however I am not getting any information displayed. The data is a CSV file with Ontario COVID data as well as lat and long info. Excel reads no problem and putting that URL into a web browser will download the CSV file. Ideally I would like to read it directly as it changes daily.

Also, is there a way to debug this in QGIS? I would expect to get some kind of error but it just loads the feature name based on filename with no data. It does append the layer name from the VRT so it must be reading something.

Here is my VRT file:

<OGRVRTDataSource>
<OGRVRTLayer name="COVID Cases">
 <SrcDataSource relativeToVRT="0">"/vsicurl/https://data.ontario.ca/dataset/f4112442-bdc8-45d2-be3c-12efae72fb27/resource/455fd63b-603d-4608-8216-7d8647f43350/download/conposcovidloc.csv"</SrcDataSource>
 <GeometryType>wkbPoint</GeometryType>
 <LayerSRS>WGS84</LayerSRS>
 <GeometryField encoding="PointFromColumns" x="Reporting_PHU_Longitude" y="Reporting_PHU_Latitude"/>
</OGRVRTLayer></OGRVRTDataSource>

Answer 1

The documentation says "SrcLayer is optional". But without it I couldn't add the CSV file as vector layer to QGIS.

I've added <SrcLayer>conposcovidloc</SrcLayer> and changed vsicurl to vsicurl_streaming, then it worked.

<OGRVRTDataSource>
 <OGRVRTLayer name="COVID Cases">
 <SrcDataSource relativeToVRT="0">/vsicurl_streaming/https://data.ontario.ca/dataset/f4112442-bdc8-45d2-be3c-12efae72fb27/resource/455fd63b-603d-4608-8216-7d8647f43350/download/conposcovidloc.csv</SrcDataSource>
 <SrcLayer>conposcovidloc</SrcLayer>
 <GeometryType>wkbPoint</GeometryType>
 <LayerSRS>WGS84</LayerSRS>
 <GeometryField encoding="PointFromColumns" x="Reporting_PHU_Longitude" y="Reporting_PHU_Latitude"/>
 </OGRVRTLayer>
</OGRVRTDataSource>

enter image description here

Answer 2

At least I managed to read data with ogrinfo with a little modified VRT file.

<OGRVRTDataSource>
<OGRVRTLayer name="conposcovidloc">
 <SrcDataSource relativeToVRT="0">/vsicurl_streaming/https://data.ontario.ca/dataset/f4112442-bdc8-45d2-be3c-12efae72fb27/resource/455fd63b-603d-4608-8216-7d8647f43350/download/conposcovidloc.csv</SrcDataSource>
 <GeometryType>wkbPoint</GeometryType>
 <LayerSRS>WGS84</LayerSRS>
 <GeometryField encoding="PointFromColumns" x="Reporting_PHU_Longitude" y="Reporting_PHU_Latitude"/>
</OGRVRTLayer></OGRVRTDataSource>

Test with

ogrinfo test.vrt -al
...
OGRFeature(conposcovidloc):1
 Row_ID (String) = 1
 Accurate_Episode_Date (String) = 2020年01月22日
 Case_Reported_Date (String) = 2020年01月23日
 Test_Reported_Date (String) =
 Specimen_Date (String) = 2020年01月25日
 Age_Group (String) = 50s
 Client_Gender (String) = FEMALE
 Case_AcquisitionInfo (String) = TRAVEL
 Outcome1 (String) = Resolved
 Outbreak_Related (String) =
 Reporting_PHU_ID (String) = 3895
 Reporting_PHU (String) = Toronto Public Health
 Reporting_PHU_Address (String) = 277 Victoria Street, 5th Floor
 Reporting_PHU_City (String) = Toronto
 Reporting_PHU_Postal_Code (String) = M5B 1W2
 Reporting_PHU_Website (String) = www.toronto.ca/community-people/health-wellness-care/
 Reporting_PHU_Latitude (String) = 43.65659125
 Reporting_PHU_Longitude (String) = -79.37935801
 POINT (-79.37935801 43.65659125)

• Keith Raymond: Ha! This works, thanks much. So it seems the Layer name needs to be the same as the filename, no quotes around data source (which was true in original answer so I guess I screwed up) and the addition of the vsicurl_streaming. Thanks again!
• Keith Raymond: Done. I'm only a brain surgeon with a minor in rocket science so I'm not qualified to operate this page correctly.