CivicTechTO / CivicTechTO/toronto-bids

MERX adapter — one capture for TTC, Police, Parking Authority and CreateTO/Build Toronto/TPLC

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#133 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
enhancement
Dominant language
Python
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7
Forks
2
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Description

The platform half of #103's "platforms, not bespoke sites": five bodies sit on MERX, and one adapter serves them all. This issue is where the MERX-specific questions get settled once; the per-body issues stay scoped to "what this body exposes".

## Bodies on this adapter

| body | issue | buyer profile | exposes |
|---|---|---|---|
| TTC | #104 | `merx.com/ttc` | open + closed solicitations, **bid results**, awarded — the largest single buyer the archive does not cover |
| Toronto Police Service | #105 | `merx.com/torontopolice` | open + closed |
| Toronto Parking Authority | #106 | `merx.com/torontoparkingauthority` | open + closed |
| CreateTO (incl. Build Toronto + TPLC) | #131 | `merx.com/buildtorontotplc` | open RFP/RFSQ; the profile title is literally "CreateTO (Build Toronto, TPLC)" |
| Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre | — (low materiality, no issue) | `merx.com/torontopanamsportscentre` | rides along at zero marginal cost |

All profile URLs are snippet- or body-site-confirmed only — **MERX has never been fetched, per #103.**

## Gates, in order

1. **Terms of use — the per-platform question #103 assigns here.** MERX is a commercial platform hosting public-sector notices; whether an archive may fetch it is not answered by the data being public. Settle before writing any fetch. (The City's own record cuts both ways: PMMD published doc 0000283274 with "Issued by CreateTO on MERX. Interested parties to submit bid on MERX" — the venue is official, the platform is still private.)
2. **Keyspace / spine contract — decided in #103, not here.** MERX bodies key their own solicitation numbers (TTC-internal numbering; CreateTO `RFP#YYYY-NNN`); nothing joins the 10-digit `document_number` spine, `workspace_number`, or `call_number`. Storage blocks on #103's buyer-column decision; capture design does not.
3. **Capture shape.** Buyer-profile-scoped, not keyword search — #131 records why: keyword matching misses TPLC-named postings that never say "CreateTO". Five profiles, one fetcher.

## What the triage already ruled out

Toronto Hydro is **not** on MERX — or any public venue (verified negative, #111/#103: private SAP Ariba sourcing, invitational bidding). Do not extend this adapter hunting for it.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start with issue #103, which owns the MERX terms-of-use and keyspace decisions, then read #131 for the buyer-profile-scoped capture rationale. No implementation file or test is named. This work is done when the terms, keyspace dependency, and single-fetcher shape for the five profiles are explicitly settled before fetching begins.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
backend, data-engineering
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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