CKAN Private Datasets

This CKAN extension allows a user to create private datasets that only certain users will be able to see. When a dataset is being created, it's possible to specify the list of users that can see this dataset. In addition, the extension provides an HTTP API that allows to add users programatically.

Installation

Install this extension in your CKAN is instance is as easy as intall any other CKAN extension.

• Download the source from this GitHub repo.
• Activate your virtual environment (generally by running . /usr/lib/ckan/default/bin/activate)
• Install the extension by running python setup.py develop
• Modify your configuration file (generally in /etc/ckan/default/production.ini) and add privatedatasets in the ckan.plugins setting.
• In the same config file, specify the location of your parser by adding the ckan.privatedatasets.parser setting. For example, to set the FiWareNotificationParser as notification parser, add the following line: ckan.privatedatasets.parser = ckanext.privatedatasets.parsers.fiware:FiWareNotificationParser.
• If you want you can also add some preferences to set if the Acquire URL should be shown when the user is creating and/or editing a dataset:
  • To show the Acquire URL when the user is creating a dataset, you should set the following preference: ckan.privatedatasets.show_acquire_url_on_create = True. By default, the value of this preference is set to False.
  • To show the Acquire URL when the user is editing a dataset, you should set the following preference: ckan.privatedatasets.show_acquire_url_on_edit = True. By default, the value of this preference is set to False.
• Restart your apache2 reserver (sudo service apache2 restart)
• That's All!

Creating a notification parser

Since each service can send notifications in a different way, the extension allows developers to create their own notifications parser. As default, we provide you a basic parser based on the notifications sent by the FiWare Store.

If you want to create your own parser, you have to:

1. Create a class with a method called parse_notification. This method will recieve one argument that will include the notification body.
2. Parse the notification as you like. You can raise a CKAN's default exception (ValidationError, ObjectNotFound, NotAuthorized, ValidationError, SearchError, SearchQueryError or SearchIndexError) if you find an error parsing the notification.
3. Return a dictionary with the structure attached below. The users_datasets is the lists of datasets available for each user (each element of this list is a dictionary with two fields: user and datasets).

{'users_datasets': [{'user': 'user_name', 'datasets': ['ds1', 'ds2', ...]},
                    {'user': 'user_name2', 'datasets': ['ds1', 'ds4', ...] }]}

Finally, you have to modify your config file and specify in the ckan.privatedatasets.parser the location of your own parser.

At this point, you will be able to add users via API by accessing the following URL:

http://<CKAN_SERVER>:<CKAN_PORT>/api/action/dataset_acquired

Tests

This sofware contains a set of test to detect errors and failures. You can run this tests by running the following command:

nosetests --ckan --with-pylons=test.ini ckanext/privatedatasets/tests/

Note: The test.ini file contains a link to the CKAN test-core.ini file. You will need to change that link to the real path of the file in your system (generally /usr/lib/ckan/default/src/ckan/test-core.ini).

You can also generate coverage reports by running:

nosetests --ckan --with-xunit --with-pylons=test.ini ckanext/privatedatasets/tests/ --with-coverage --cover-package=ckanext.privatedatasets --cover-inclusive --cover-erase . --cover-xml