[ckan-dev] Notes from CKAN+Beer meetup

[Ross Jones]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd post my notes (those that I remember and in no particular order) from our CKAN+Beer meetup this week, just in case anybody has feedback on them, or feels there are other issues we could add.

It was great to finally meet more CKAN devs in person, put faces to names and learn what they feel about CKAN (tldr; for the most part, positive).

I'd love to do more of these, it turns out that as a community we're a friendly bunch, and I would encourage anyone who has current or potential devs in their vicinity to do the same thing (alcohol is not a requirement, CKAN+Tea would work just as well). 

I'm fairly sure we discussed more than the points below, but for some unknown reason my recall is a little cloudy after a certain point.

- The extensions registry could do with improvement, it is good and works, but it isn’t a _fantastic_ tool for finding things or for knowing whether it’ll work, or whether it is abandoned, how often it is used etc, etc. This would be an extremely useful contribution for someone uncomfortable with CKAN core.

- We should explain more about Ian's work in solving the extension version problem. Blog post?

- We need better ways of avoiding duplication of effort around extension development.

- Roadmap is vague.  Not everyone knows about the ideas repo, there’s no clear indication in ideas which have been claimed, or funded, or wanted. Perhaps github isn't the perfect tool for managing this. How can we make contributing easier.

- We're still not clear enough that toolkit is your friend. Direct imports of CKAN modules are not your friend (they're just pretending) and make it difficult to make needed changes.

- Assumption that CKAN core dev is all ‘in-hand’ still seems to exist.  Got more offers of direct help on CKAN core. We should be clearer on what our expectations are for someone wanting to work towards getting commit rights.

- No central registry of companies that will provide support. Some users badly want commercial support. Currently community support is 'best effort' and sometimes misses.

- Community perceived as a little bit chaotic. Comes up during 'sales pitches' occasionally.

- Code being deleted is scary for those that don’t know why, where possible we should be clearer with why when we delete large amounts of code and the implications.

- Related point, how much notice is enough notice for potentially breaking changes?

- There is a strong demand for CKAN devs, no easy way of finding them (see support orgs above).  

- Training for devs, or tools to help bring colleagues up to speed would be a good thing.


One thing that the above has raised is that there are countless ways to help out with CKAN, not all of them involve working on CKAN core - all help is gratefully received.

If anyone has any other things they think I should add (or that I forgot), please do shout!


Ross.