[ckan-dev] CKAN on top of Existing DBs

Thu Jul 17 17:13:30 UTC 2014

Hi Steve,
despite this is clearly a useful feature I believe it could be exposing
to SQL injection.
My suggestion is to build apart a sort of db table/query dump services
using traditional ORM tools and then
point to the services you have created with the proper type when
creating the dataset resource.
You can create the resource as URL with CSV/JSON/XML. etc. depending how
the service is returning the data from your database.

Exists already several tools that can be used to build quickly similar
services.
There's also the advantage that you can build suck dump/services with
your preferred language/framework

Alessio

On 07/17/2014 06:56 PM, Rimar, Steve wrote:
> Ross -- the way I would envision it is when adding a dataset there
> would be a 3rd option which would be Existing Database. You would then
> enter the database connection info depending on the type of DB similar
> to how database query tools work. Once the connection is entered you
> would have the option to browse and select tables or schemas or enter SQL.
>
> For the user who is looking at the dataset in CKAN they would be able
> to preview a snapshot of the data similar to how the preview works for
> CSV files.
>
> The data would not be imported into CKAN as this would defeat the
> purpose. CKAN would just store the connection info and the
> tables/schemas or custom SQL. 
>
> Do you know if this would be possible to develop? Has anyone been
> creating plug-in for this?
>
> -Steve
>
> From: Ross Jones <ross at servercode.co.uk <mailto:ross at servercode.co.uk>>
> Reply-To: CKAN Development Discussions <ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org
> <mailto:ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org>>
> Date: Thursday, July 17, 2014 at 2:58 AM
> To: CKAN Development Discussions <ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org
> <mailto:ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org>>
> Subject: Re: [ckan-dev] CKAN on top of Existing DBs
>
> It'd be really useful to have some user stories for this I think. For
> instance, what does the user provide instead of a file or URL? Is it
> an ODBC connection string and a query? How would it safely handle
> authentication with the DB?
>
> Perhaps it would be better for the user to provide an OData endpoint
> url when creating a resource?  Or a separate simple flask app that
> does the DB->CSV conversion for display (and perhaps allows you to
> specify a query in the preview?).
>
> At the moment, although I understand the high level request, I'm not
> really sure how you envision it working.  I can't see why it can't be
> built though (other than not being very clear) particularly if you can
> provide the data via a URL.
>
> Ross
>
>
> On 16 Jul 2014, at 19:54, Rimar, Steve <srimar at qualcomm.com
> <mailto:srimar at qualcomm.com>> wrote:
>
>> Hi - we're trying to use CKAN for our organization's data registry
>> and were wondering how we would use this on top of existing datasets
>> that are in databases such as Oracle or SQL Server? When you add a
>> dataset in CKAN you have 3 options: File, Link or API. Looks like
>> there's an option missing for Database or JDBC/ODBC? Is this
>> available as an add-on or plug-in? Can we build this out ourselves if
>> not?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Steve
>> _______________________________________________
>> ckan-dev mailing list
>> ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org <mailto:ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org>
>> https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/ckan-dev
>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/ckan-dev
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> ckan-dev mailing list
> ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org
> https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/ckan-dev
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/ckan-dev

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/ckan-dev/attachments/20140717/17b4614d/attachment-0003.html>