[ckan-dev] Dataset ownership (Aaron McGlinchy)

Tue Dec 22 23:50:58 UTC 2015

So, back to my original question.  Has there been any development since* to either enable an admin to post on behalf on another user, or reassign dataset ownership without having to edit the database manually?   (*Following on from previously raised question, at which time seemed only way was to edit the database https://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/ckan-dev/2014-May/007408.html)

Thanks
Aaron
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Message: 5
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 02:14:28 +0000
From: Aaron McGlinchy <McGlinchyA at landcareresearch.co.nz>
To: "ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org" <ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org>
Subject: Re: [ckan-dev] Dataset ownership
Message-ID:
        <A924326C14714F409FB3703B815FF9FD13D24BB8 at HERMES.landcare.ad.landcareresearch.co.nz>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

We are a research organisation, and we want to encourage our scientists to document and deposit/share their data, and Excel is a commonly used tool.  A few of them are not great on computers, and might not be granted personal rights to deposit data, others are keen and capable and have (or will) be granted Editor level rights (and a few organisational Admin rights), and can deposit in their own right.

The excel addin serves a few purposes:
- it helps the scientist get their data in good order (records metadata, does some basic QA) in the place they are working (ie within excel).
- It automates the process of separating out each worksheet into a tsv file, plus creating tsv of the field metadata to go alongside the data, and then creates the dataset in ckan using some top level descriptive metadata, and posts the worksheets and data field metadata as resources.  This happens much more quickly than doing manually, especially if there are many worksheets. Thus, it is a carrot which makes it very easy to deposit the data there is no excuse for the not to (and not to do it well). [note it can deposit the xlsx file and/or tsv - we encourage tsv as minimum as a more robust file format in terms of potential format changes in future, and because it loads each sheet to the datastore.]
- it enables a user that is not comfortable manually getting their data in order and depositing to CKAN via the web interface, to quickly and easily do it in the software they are used to working in.

We have established a 'Holding tank' Organisation, where the addin deposits the data, set to Private Status - this is to enable me to QA the data, make sure people aren't putting in junk, and then when I am satisfied I make the dataset public, and move it to the actual Organisation the dataset belongs in (from which point, if they have rights, the true owner of the data can then maintain it).  The only user with rights to the 'Holding tank' group is me as Sysadmin, and a user created especially for use by the addin.  The only organisation that the addin user has is to the 'Holding tank', so we have ring fenced what that apikey allows that account to do, and I am regularly watching that organisation so would spot any fishy activity pretty quickly.

Users of the addin may or may not have upload rights to any organisation, and none of them have rights to the 'Holding tank' so the addin uses its 'own' account to deposit.

So, in answer to your question, we do want users to be able to upload data via the web interface where that is appropriate (e.g. no excel files), but the addin makes the process of documenting metadata, and working with multiple sheets much faster and more standardised in quality than doing manually, and allows users who wouldn't be comfortable (aka can't be bothered) working in the web interface to deposit their excel/tabular data.

Aside from the above, there will also be cases where a staff member leaves and wishes to pass over (for least some of them) their datasets  ownership to other below to 'look after'.

Cheers
Aaron

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Message: 6
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2015 20:48:54 -0500
From: Ian Ward <ian at excess.org>
To: CKAN Development Discussions <ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org>
Subject: Re: [ckan-dev] Dataset ownership
Message-ID:
        <CAA3rUNcfj79zFQLEERSvmBfbFXc9gmCNRcbEhc0UKgCziY4veA at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

I don't quite understand. You want users to be able to create datasets
and upload from your Excel add-in, but not from the API or web
interface?

Having an admin account with an api key embedded in an Excel add-in is
also worrying.

Would you explain a bit more about your particular use case?

On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 3:33 PM, Aaron McGlinchy
<McGlinchyA at landcareresearch.co.nz> wrote:
> Hi,
>         we have developed an addin for excel that posts datasets to our CKAN repository.  Because not all individual users who use the addin have been given rights to upload data to CKAN, the addin uses a CKAN Admin account setup specifically for the purpose of uploading the data.  The down side of that is that the dataset is then owned by that Admin user, and the dataset doesn't appear on the actual individuals 'My Datasets' view.
>
> Another user has previously posted a similar problem to the CKAN listerver (https://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/ckan-dev/2014-May/007408.html) and it seemed then at least there was no simple solution other than manually editing the database?.
>
> Has there been any development since to either enable an admin to post on behalf on another user, or reassign dataset ownership without having to edit the database manually?
>
> We are considering a possible workaround, by temporarily granting the user editor rights to an organization, uploading the data using their credentials, then revoking their upload rights.  However that obviously adds a layer of complexity which we'd prefer to avoid if there is a simpler way (and presumably the underlying issue of dataset/user management is of broader interest).
>
> Thanks
> Aaron
>

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