Script-driven automation of Google refine with rub

Question

BACKGROUND:

Co-worker Adam has been using Google refine to process database downloads with much success over the last year or so, but Adam got a new job offer and consequently all of his work and expertise he has done in Google refine is going away.

Ben would like to have Adam package all of his work that she has done with Google refine so that the users in the office can still benefit from his work, without having to know how to use Google refine itself. (i.e., run it as part of a batch process where you specify the input file as an argument, and you get the "refined" output as a result).

QUESTION:

Does anyone have experience using hands-free batch-processing of Google refine, where the user need only specify: 1) input file; and 2) the transformation settings file (or transform rules of Google refine)?

QUESTION:

If this is not available, what same or similar tool is out there that can accomplish something close to what is possible with Google refine.

Answer 1

There's a Python client library for driving the Refine server which may be useful for what you're trying to do.

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/refine-client https://github.com/maxogden/refine-python