We’re delighted to announce CKAN v1.2, a new major release of the CKAN software. This is the largest iteration so far with 146 tickets closed and includes some really significant improvements most importantly a new extension/plugin system, SOLR search integration, caching and INSPIRE support (more details below). The extension work is especially significant as it now means you can extend CKAN without having to delve into any core code.
In addition there are now over 20 CKAN instances running around the world and CKAN is being used in official government catalogues in the UK, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands. Furthermore, http://ckan.net/ — our main community catalogue — now has over 1500 data ‘packages’ and has become the official home for the LOD Cloud (see the lod group on ckan.net).
We’re also aiming to provide a much more integrated ‘datahub’ experience with CKAN. Key to this is the provision of a ‘storage’ component to complement the registry/catalogue component we already have. Integrated storage will support all kinds of important functionality from automated archival of datasets to dataset cleaning with google refine.
We’ve already been making progress on this front with the launch of a basic storage service at http://storage.ckan.net/ (back in September) and the development of the OFS bucket storage library. The functionality is still at an alpha stage and integration with CKAN is still limited so improving this area will be a big aim for the next release (v1.3).
Even in its alpha stage, we are already making use of the storage system, most significantly, in the latest release of datapkg, our tool for distributing, discovering and installing data (and content) ‘packages’. In particular, the v0.7 release (more detail below) includes upload support allowing you store (as well as register) your data ‘packages’.
Highlights of CKAN v1.2 release
- Package edit form: attach package to groups (#652) & revealable help
- Form API – Package/Harvester Create/New (#545)
- Authorization extended: authorization groups (#647) and creation of packages (#648)
- Extension / Plug-in interface classes (#741)
- WordPress twentyten compatible theming (#797)
- Caching support (ETag) (#693)
- Harvesting GEMINI2 metadata records from OGC CSW servers (#566)
Minor:
- New API key header (#466)
- Group metadata now revisioned (#231)
Datapkg Release Notes
A major new release (v0.7) of datapkg is out!
There’s a quick getting started section below (also see the docs).
About the release
This release brings major new functionality to datapkg especially in regard to its integration with CKAN. datapkg now supports uploading as well as downloading and can now be easily extended via plugins. See the full changelog below for more details.
Get started fast
# 1. Install: (requires python and easy_install)
$ easy_install datapkg
# Or, if you don't like easy_install
$ pip install datapkg or even the raw source!
# 2. [optional] Take a look at the manual
$ datapkg man
# 3. Search for something
$ datapkg search ckan:// gold
gold-prices -- Gold Prices in London 1950-2008 (Monthly)
# 4. Get some data
# This will result in a csv file at /tmp/gold-prices/data
$ datapkg download ckan://gold-prices /tmp
# 5. Store some data
# Edit the gold prices csv making some corrections
$ cp gold-prices/data mynew.csv
$ edit mynew.csv
# Now upload back to storage
$ datapkg upload mynew.csv ckan://mybucket/ckan-gold-prices/mynew.csv
Find out more » — including how to create, register and distribute your own ‘data packages’.
Changelog
- MAJOR: Support for uploading datapkgs (upload.py)
- MAJOR: Much improved and extended documenation
- MAJOR: New sqlite-based DB index giving support for a simple, central,
‘local’ index (ticket:360) - MAJOR: Make datapkg easily extendable
- Support for adding new Index types with plugins
- Support for adding new Commands with command plugins
- Support for adding new Distributions with distribution plugins
- Improved package download support (also now pluggable)
- Reimplement url download using only python std lib (removing urlgrabber
requirment and simplifying installation) - Improved spec: support for db type index + better documentation
- Better configuration management (especially internally)
- Reduce dependencies by removing usage of PasteScript and PasteDeploy
- Various minor bugfixes and code improvements
Credits
A big hat-tip to Mike Chelen and Matthew Brett for beta-testing this release and to Will Waites for code contributions.
Rufus Pollock is Founder and President of Open Knowledge.
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