[ckan-dev] ckan drupal integration meetup. 8th September.

[Kimpe Marc]

Hi all,


I would like to participate,  but I have already another meeting on sep 8 between 18 and 20 hours.

I can try to summarize my input below based on working on a proof of concept for the European Commission
where we started from the UK gov implementation to integrate Drupal with CKAN

There are multiple facets to the problem :

1.   Ideally the integration would be rather loosely coupled.
I would suggest integrating based on the standard CKAN REST api.

In this view the integration used by the UK where Drupal defines screens on a specific api of ckan is too tightly coupled.
It will raise problems with
- upgrading Drupal and CKAN versions - you will always need compatible versions;
- supporting multiple languages at the same time which is possible in Drupal but not (yet) in CKAN;

2.   There it is - supporting multiple languages at the same time...at least a Belgian and European problem, but other countries like Switzerland might join.
Here we could do two things :
CKAN implements multiple languages in its repo and this will be synchronized with Drupal.
CKAN sticks to one language as it does now - this is synchronized with Drupal
and
in Drupal templates,  content descriptions,   taxonomies,  searches (SOLR) etc ... are made language aware.
Drupal could also implement a kind of translation workflow as an add-on module.

3.  Also users and publishers need to be synchronized between Drupal and CKAN,  maybe from a third party identity provider.
This can become a topic on its own.

As you can see a complex issue.

So currently we stick to a pragmatic solution :
1.   Publishers can use the CKAN api to search or enter dataset references.
2.   Users can alternatively enter dataset references in CKAN
3.   Users apply for a CKAN account and API key through a Drupal workflow.
3.   Content is synchronized in background ( drush ) from CKAN to Drupal
4.   Content can be synchronized from CKAN to Drupal on a one of basis.
5.   The larger public uses Drupal to search for datasets etc ..
6.   Drupal can enhance the content.
7.   Drupal is not synchronised back to CKAN.


I hope i used the right medium to communicate my experiences and opinions.

Please take them with you in your meeting and keep me (us) posted.


Many thanks,


Marc Kimpe


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On 31 Aug 2011, at 13:49, David Raznick wrote:

Hello Eveyone.

We are trying to get people together to discuss the ways in which we are using, or want to use, drupal with ckan.

At the moment there is lots of different implementations integrating these systems.  Lots are done in their own unique way, each with their own upsides and downsides.  We hope to gain from this discussion a place for everybody who is doing/done this can share their help and experiences.  The CKAN team will also take direction from the meeting, deciding what ways we can help out make any integration easier for everyone.

We have set an etherpad at http://ckan.okfnpad.org/ckan-drupal, please put your skype details down if you want be a part of it.

Thank You

David

Meeting
Date 8/09/2011
6pm UK
time (7pm CEST, 1pm EST).

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