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

Fri Mar 24 16:03:47 UTC 2017

For a different use case (resources derived from other resources) I
extended CKAN to indent resources (i.e. "tree" structure) if their "parent"
was another resource. All resources remain fully fledged resources but
there is one more column in the DB allowing a parent to be set. This might
translate well to this use case as usually there is a master format and
others are exported from it.

-Matt

On 24 March 2017 at 15:59, <Florian.Brucker at it.karlsruhe.de> wrote:

> 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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