[ckan-dev] Offering the same resource in multiple file formats

Fri Mar 24 14:59:54 UTC 2017

I've been thinking a bit about how to present the same resource in 
multiple formats to the user from a UI perspective.

The obvious way is to create a separate copy of the resource for each 
secondary format (say, an XLSX-copy of each CSV-resource). This has the 
benefit that the secondary resource is, from a UI perspective, just 
another resource, and all of CKAN's features (search, facets, API access, 
...) work as expected. A disadvantage, however, is that we now have two 
(or even more) copies of the same resource that only differ in their 
format. Not only need all of those copies to be kept in sync (can be 
automated, but still), but it might confuse users who now wonder if there 
are any differences between these resources.

A second possibility would therefore be to somehow "augment" the original 
resource with the other formats. There are multiple ways of doing this 
(e.g. injecting conversion links via the templates), but all of these will 
break many CKAN features.

Finally, one could use a hybrid approach by creating full-blown resources 
as in the first approach but combining them into a single pseudo-resource 
for display purposes in the templates.

Honestly I'm not happy with either of these approaches, so I'd love to 
hear some other ideas on how to tackle this.

Regards,
Florian

"ckan-dev" <ckan-dev-bounces at lists.okfn.org> schrieb am 07.03.2017 
14:19:24:

> Von: Florian.Brucker at it.karlsruhe.de
> An: ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org, 
> Datum: 07.03.2017 14:19
> Betreff: [ckan-dev] Offering the same resource in multiple file formats
> Gesendet von: "ckan-dev" <ckan-dev-bounces at lists.okfn.org>
> 
> Hi everybody, 
> 
> I often would like to offer the same resource in multiple file 
> formats. For example, Excel's auto-import for CSV is rather broken, 
> so instead of mangling all our CSV-files to suit Excel's needs I'd 
> rather just offer XSLX-files of the same data in addition to 
> "standard"-compliant CSV-files for everybody else. 
> 
> However, I definitely don't want to manually maintain the separate 
> versions. Has anybody set up automated ways of doing this? Off the 
> top of my head, I could image 
> 
> 1. Generating converted copies when the original resource is 
created/modified
> 2. Generating converted copies when they are requested 
> 
> Both have their pros and cons, so I'd love the hear some real-world 
> experiences. 
> 
> In addition I'm wondering about the best way to present this choice 
> to the user. 
> 
> 
> Regards, 
> Florian_______________________________________________
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